The Universe Story : From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era--A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos (Paperback)

~ (Author) "ORIGINATING POWER BROUGHT forth a universe..." (more)
Key Phrases: emergent universe, meiotic sex, niche creation, Milky Way, Cosmogenetic Principle, Flaring Forth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Physicist Swimme ( The Universe is a Green Dragon ) and historian/theologian Berry ( The Dream of Earth ) fashion a cosmology with alternating chapters of popular astrophysics and a kind of sociology of science that seems, at the start, like a secular Book of Genesis. The admixture of physics and anthropology soon decays into an artificial comprehension akin to the most irresponsible New Age reasoning. In the "Primordial Flaring Forth" section, the authors discuss their perceived need for a new language to express a current cosmology: "Thus to articulate anew the story of our relationships in the world means to use the words of one of the modern languages that implicitly, and to varying degrees, obscures or even denies the reality of these emerging relationships." Offering evidence that, among other things, first cousins should not marry, this soft union of theology and physics reveals less about the universe than either field can by itself. The writers' tortured prose will likely offend the scientific sensibilities of most general readers.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Physicist Swimme and cultural historian Berry here examine and synthesize a vast body of knowledge and hypothesis from the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, anthropology, and history. They seek to provide a concise but comprehensive story of the development and evolution of the universe, the earth, and humanity. The authors incorporate what they consider to be the most convincing hypothesis and take an inclusive perspective that views the entire universe as a continually developing, interconnected community. Their book presents a fascinating exploration of the earth's history and, in richly evocative language, paints a picture of the evolution of the universe as a tremendous, ongoing creative activity. The final chapter explores the growing human influence on the condition of the planet and pleads for ecological responsibility. This is an engaging presentation written in nontechnical language. Recommended for popular science collections.
- Elizabeth Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (March 11, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062508350
• ISBN-13: 978-0062508355
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #133,361 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cosmogenetic Scripture, December 5, 1999

By	Robin Bose - See all my reviews

The enthusiasm of this book is almost tangible. Describing the history of the universe in a wildly dynamic, even celebratory style, authors Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry evoke emotions of awe at the story of cosmogenesis, an awe that high school students don't always feel when reading science texts. It captures a beauty that microbiologists behold when focusing an electron microscope on a chromosome, that poets experience when describing a rose, and that astrophysicists feel when listening a distant pulsar. This novel is the scripture of science.

Religion sometimes exaggerates Man's place in the Universe, while science frequently diminishes it. To my delight, The Universe Story finds a balance, reconciling the natural world and the special role humans play in it. A revelation of hope for the future, the Story calls upon humans to fulfill their special destiny: to become the first creatures conscious of themselves and their universe. This consciousness is what the stars intended when they so generously erupted tens of millions of years ago, relinquishing their matter to the human form - for indeed, we are star stuff. Now, as we turn to our futures, may our own cosmogenetic stories reach such a climax as the explosion of a supernova! May our own stories never cease, but simply continue to differentiate and to commune with the original stupendous energy which exploded so many billions of years ago with a big bang! These are the stories which will captivate us all ... the stories integral to the one story, the story of the universe.

32 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The universe in a wildflower., May 2, 2001

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"There is eventually only one story," collaborators Swimme and Berry write, "the story of the universe. Every form of being is integral with this comprehensive story. Nothing is itself without everything else. Each member of the Earth community has its own proper role within the entire sequence of transformations that have given shape and identity to everything that exists" (p. 288). Beginning 15 million years ago (p. 7), THE UNIVERSE STORY follows the universe "from its original Flaring Forth through the shaping of the galaxies, the elements, the Earth, its living forms, the human mode of being, then on through the course of human affairs during the past century" (p. 241). The product of its writers' "imaginative power as well as intellectual understanding" (p. 237), this book "is not the story of a mechanistic, essentially meaningless universe, but the story of a universe that has from the beginning has [sic] its mysterious self-organizing power that, if experienced in any serious manner, must evoke an even greater sense of awe than that evoked in earlier times at the experience of the dawn breaking over the horizon, the lightning storms crashing over the hills, or the night sounds of the tropical rainforests, for it is out of this story that all of these phenomena have emerged" (p. 238).

This superb book shows that the universe acts "in an integral manner" (p. 26), everything in the universe existing for everything else (p. 263). For plants and animals, "the universe is a chorus of voices" (p. 42). We are told, for instance, "the winds speak to the butterfly, the taste of the water speaks to the butterfly, the shape of the leaf speaks to the butterfly and offers guidance that resonates with the wisdom coded into the butterfly's being" (p. 42). Similarly, we can "climb a mountain and get hit by something so profound, at so deep a level," that we will never be quite the same (p. 41). For humans, "the adventure of the universe depends upon our ability to listen" (p. 44) to "the mountain language, river language, tree language, the language of the birds and all animals and insects, as well as the languages of the stars in the heavens" (p. 258). We also learn Walt Whitman's sentience was "an intricate creation of the Milky Way, and his feelings are an evocation of being, an evocation involving thunderstorms, sunlight, grass, and death. Walt Whitman is a space the Milky Way fashioned to feel its own grandeur" (p. 40).

The moral of this STORY is that the Earth is "a one-time endowment" (p. 246). Through the destruction of the rainforests at the rate of an acre a day, by disturbing the chemical balance of the planet through petrochemicals, through genetic engineering, and through the "radioactive wasting of the planet," we are "eliminating the very conditions for renewal of life in some of its more elaborate forms" (pp. 246-7). "As the natural world recedes in its diversity and abundance, so the human finds itself impoverished in its economic resources, its imaginative powers, in its human sensibilities, and in significant aspects of its intellectual intuitions" (p. 242). This celebration of the unfolding universe will change the way you look at life.

G. Merritt

25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Universe is the Hero., July 29, 1999

By A Customer

It's been a while since I've read this book, but I can say that it's one of the most important books I've read. It's not a book to be read for entertainment, or for a "wow" experience. And yet I certainly didn't find it dull. I don't think the book is for "overly intellectual" people. But I would say it's a book for thought and reflection, as well as for knowledge.

This book was written because, "In the modern period, we are without a comprehensive story of the universe. The historians ... deal not with the whole world but just with the human, as if the human were something separate from or an addendum to the story of the Earth and the universe. The scientists have arrived at detailed accounts of the cosmos, but have focused exclusively on the physical dimensions and have ignored the human dimension of the universe."

In their account, the authors take a mythological approach to the story of the universe, "humanizing" the various stages of its development, but also basing all that they write on the best knowledge yet uncovered by science. The deliberate, and successful, result is the growing feeling that the universe is at last telling its own story, though us. We ourselves are part of the universe. The universe evolves! It hasn't always been as it is now. This fact may appear boring to some of us, but in a broader perspective, this idea is a radically new and exciting idea -- unthinkable in times past.

Told in this way, the story is one of familiar (i.e., mythological) forces and processes interacting at each stage, but with each stage being yet more complex and intelligent than the last. The universe doesn't just change, it evolves. And as we discover its story we see how much a part of the universe we are, and that our own awareness is also a part of it.

I believe that these ideas are essential for our own human evolution, and our ability to invent our own next leap, together, into the future.