The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Berry; edited by Mary Evelyn Tucker. Columbia University Press, NY, 2009; 181 pages, ISBN 987-0-231-14952-5, hardback, $22.95.
Eco-religious activist and philosopher, Catholic priest, and comparative religious scholar Thomas Berry died this June at the age of 94. These thirteen essays, written from 1972 to 2001, capture his view of the universe as one sacred community and humanity's need to see itself ethically and spiritually in the broader context of earth and cosmos. Here he addresses the role of religion in the modern global community, the implications for religion of the spirituality and interdependence of the earth and its beings, the religious implications of scientific cosmology and evolution, and the universe as a sacred community. He explains why he believes that a new sacred story for humanity centering on cosmology and the human place in the evolution of our planet is crucial, and how extending our view of the sacred to the universe and all in it is necessary to stop human destruction of our planet. Brief excerpts from this book may be found here. This short introduction to Berry's thought is well worth reading. – Sally Dougherty (November 2009)