Thomas Berry
| Thomas Berry | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
November 9, 1914 Greensboro, North Carolina, United States |
| Died | June 1, 2009 (aged 94) Greensboro |
| Occupation | Priest, Eco-theologian, Earth scholar, Author and Teacher |
Thomas Berry, C.P., PhD (November 9, 1914 – June 1, 2009) was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian (although cosmologist and geologian – or “Earth scholar” – were his preferred descriptors). Among advocates of "ecospirituality" and the "New Story," he is famous for proposing the idea that a deep understanding of the history and functioning of the evolving universe is a necessary inspiration and guide for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species. He is considered a leader in the tradition of Teilhard de Chardin.
Berry believed that humanity, after generations spent in self-glorification and despoiling the world, is poised to embrace a new role as a vital part of a larger, interdependent “communion of subjects” on earth and in the universe.
Berry said the transformation of humanity’s priorities will not come easily. It requires what he called “the great work” — the title of his last major book — in four institutional realms: the political and legal order; the economic and industrial world; education; and religion.
Born to William and Betty Berry in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1914, Berry was the third of 13 children. He was named for his father, William Nathan Berry, who founded Berico Fuels in 1924. At age 11 he had an epiphany in a meadow, which became a primary reference point for the rest of his life. He later elaborated this experience into a set of Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe and the Role of the Human in the Universe Process. The first of these principles states:
The universe, the solar system, and planet earth in themselves and in their evolutionary emergence constitute for the human community the primary revelation of that ultimate mystery whence all things emerge into being.
Berry entered a monastery of the Passionist order in 1933, where he adopted the name "Thomas," after Thomas Aquinas. He was ordained in 1942. He began studying cultural history, especially the world's religions.
He received his doctorate in history from The Catholic University of America, with a thesis on Giambattista Vico's philosophy of history. He then studied Chinese language and Chinese culture in China and learned Sanskrit for the study of India and the traditions of religion in India. He published a book on the religions of India and one on Buddhism. Later he assisted in an educational program for the T'boli tribal peoples of South Cotabato, a province of the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, and he taught the cultural history of India and China at universities in New Jersey and New York (1956–1965). Later he was director of the graduate program in the History of Religions at Fordham University (1966–1979). He founded and directed the Riverdale Center of Religious Research in Riverdale, New York (1970–1995). Berry studied and was influenced by the work of Teilhard de Chardin and was president of the American Teilhard Association (1975–1987). He also studied Native American cultures and shamanism. From his academic beginnings as a historian of world cultures and religions, Berry developed into a historian of the Earth and its evolutionary processes. He described himself as a "geologian".
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