Customer Reviews

The universe story: From the primordial flaring forth to the ecozoic era--a celebration of the unfolding of the cosmos

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"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

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.

The Universe Story begins to fills a vast void in Western experience. The telling of our evolutionary story has been marked by the reductionism of science. This is how our scientists are trained -- not to attempt to interpret data within their narrow disciplines in a way which might be meaningful. The idea of relating the remarkable oddessy we have been on as a story is precisely the antidote we need to turn things back from our destructive ways. Telling it as a story embeds us in the evolutionary process, giving the human a role, rather than relegating our species to some (non-existent) meaningless exterior process. Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have made a remarkable first attempt and should be applauded for their courage. Almost all scientists and most theologians have not had the fortitude to take us down this path. Tell it is a story! How preposterous! It's not preposterous. It's finally acknowledging that we humans are an integral part of the incredible creative event that is still unfolding all around us! And it may be the only thing which will get through to the human mind the necessity for an active compassion toward ourselves and our fellow travelers on this Earth. Swimme and Berry celebrate this and give us a new faith at a time when many despair that the human will survive the despoiling of our beautiful planet home. The science in The Universe Story is impeccable. Swimme's background as a physicist and mathematical cosmologist provides the much-needed grounding in scientific data that makes this book stand a shoulder above many other books which have attempted to place the human within the larger story. But rather than downplay the great turning points in evolutionary history through analytical reductionism, the authors give us an opportunity to feel awe and wonder at the astounding array of events that had to take place to bring us into existence. Not the least of these is to impart how important it is that the human is the way in which the Universe reflects upon its own beauty through conscious self-awareness. We are not just simply somehow "outside" looking in. We are the Universe "tasting itself." Thomas Berry, who calls himself a "geologian," is renowned the world over as a cultural historian. In his deep concern for the Earth community and his call to "put the Bible on the shelf for 20 years in order to read the primary scripture of the Natural World" in order to regain some of our lost widom, he is one the great prophets of our age. If the evolutionary past could be taught like this -- as a wondrous story -- in all our schools, our attitudes might turn around and we might learn treat the Earth with respect, coming out of a deep awareness of our interconnectedness to all life. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in thinking in a new way about our role in the universe and for staying on the leading edge of eco-theological thought.

The book is great in its aim. The story of the universe and our planet can inspire and inform. I simply wish the authors had kept to mainstream science a bit more in places. They also have a tendency to tell rather than show. I get a little uncomfortable when they preach. If they had done a better job of showing, they wouldn't have had to preach.

Some reviewers were offended by the phrase, "The well-being of the Earth is primary. Human well-being is derivative." They seem to think that this means that human well-being should be sacrificed for the good of the Earth.
However, when you consider our intimate interconnectedness with the planet, you will see that human well-being is impossible without the Earth doing well also. Until we can get along without eating, drinking, and breathing, we are going to need to take care of this planet also. The sentence means what it says. We are part of the Earth; the Earth is part of us. We're constantly exchanging atoms with Earth and its systems. Our interconnectedness isn't poetry of or pious wish, it's a simple fact. The tears you cry today were rain in the mountains last year; the breath in your lungs was breathed by the dinosaurs.
Peace!
steve

This book is about the interrelatedness of the whole universe. Most of what humans know concerns the history of humans, especially in regards to power, dominion, and economic terms for that is what we currently define as important. However, the authors, Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, feel it necessary to describe the universe in its entirety and complexity as best they can. They show that the human aspect of life, which most of us focus on, is actually the process of 14 billion years of creative evolution. The majority of that time has been without humans, and yet still contains so much history that should not be neglected for it is how we came into being. The authors describe that science without meaning is worthless, and attempt to imbue purpose in the unfolding of the universe. Humans are the eyes in which the universe can reflect and celebrate itself. They suggest that our ability to tell stories and be consciously self-aware is not an accident, in hopes to direct humanity towards its true potential of an Ecozoic era. This era would be a time when humans would wake up to the truth that they are the result of such a long, mysterious, and magnificent story and can be stewards of the Earth and all of its wonder. This book is fundamental in our modern world because we have become extremely disconnected with where we came from and why we are here. Our endless wars, self destructive behavior, and careless degradation of the planet can be attributed towards confusion of a separation from meaning. We are not insignificant as so many believe and our existence is for that realization. The rivers, trees, oceans, mountains, animals, and stars are all telling us this wonderful story, but we do not listen for they speak in a language we have forgotten. This book yearns to show that all things are connected and the beauty of the universe is shown in the same light. It's probably not what the fundamentalist minded or cynics want to read, but I recommend it to all, especially those who intuitively know that spirit orders what we interpret as chaotic. The existence of such a beautiful universe is proof in itself.

I first read The Universe Story years ago. I had read that it is one of the most important books for our continued development. I concur wholeheartedly. A cosmology leads to worldviews and values. The entire book deals with the unfolding of the universe as know through our modern science and technology but paying special attention to psyhic development equal to that of matter. The two are there from the beginning and evolve together in cosmogenesis. The book goes through the emergence of the stars, galaxies and planets. Then we see the emergence of life on our planet earth and its sequence of events. Fascinating book. Essential. Do not miss it.

"The Universe Story" co-authored by Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme is a must-read book for anyone interested in trying to figure out a new story or mythology for our time.

So much of human thinking is molded by pre-modern concepts and paradigms which bear little relationship to the emerging universe story which the authors describe.

Swimme and Berry present a story of beauty and awe which blows away all previous "creation stories". The "new" story, if we can embrace and nurture it into our consciousness, could solve a lot of the planet's current challenges!

Highly recommended.

This book is incredible. The story it tells is one we're all familiar with, the story of the universe from the Big Bang to the present, moving through the formation of the galaxy, the formation of the Sun and Earth, the evolution of life on Earth through Human history to the present. But the way the story is told is a twist on how we usually hear it, giving the universe a poetic agency and proving logically that the Universe in which we live is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects. The writing occasionally moved me to tears, and this book has changed my outlook on life. A must read!

Everyone should read this book or "universe is a green dragon" or "hidden heart of the cosmos". These powerful cosmological ideas are beautifully captured in these books.

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.