The Great Work: Our Way into the
Future by Thomas Berry
Spelling Out A Dire Need For Change
The future can exist only if humans understand how to commune with the
natural world rather than exploit it, explains author and renowned ecologist
Thomas Berry (The Dream of the Earth, The Universe Story). Already the
planet is so damaged and the future is so challenged by its rising human
population that the terms of survival will be severe beyond anything we
have known in the past. This may make him sound like a scolding,
doomsday prophet, but Berry is an optimistic soul, hopeful that humans will
rise to the challenge of cherishing the natural world in the third millennium.
Our future destiny rests even more decisively on our capacity for intimacy
in our human-Earth relations. Berry predicts. From this premise, Berry
reveals why we need to adore our blessed planet, while also examining
why we are culturally driven toward exploiting nature. Because Berry has a
science background as well as a spiritual orientation (he is the founder of
the History of Religions Program at Fordham University), he brings a
balanced and fresh voice to social ecology. Even though he writes for the
masses, Berry is by no means a lightweight--chapters include Ecological

Geography, The Extractive Economy, The Corporation Story, and
Reinventing the Human. --Gail Hudson
Personal Review: The Great Work: Our Way into the Future by
Thomas Berry
This review is long, and my apologies, but this book is potent and spells-
out what is one of the most important subjects of the 21st century- our
drifting from physical reality and responsibilities and the need to wake-up
and realize this dilemma and how we can accomplish that possible , but
daunting task. Thomas Berry does this with eloquence and wisdom here
and this is truly, a "Great Work"! Thank you, Mr. Berry!
In his earlier book, "The Dream of the Earth", Thomas Berry so eloquently
stated the need for humanity to realize what a beautiful foundational life-
support gift we have in planet Earth and the need to treat it with the
profound sense of respect and good stewardship it deserves and needs in
to order to provide a healthy life-sustaining platform.
An understanding of the dynamics of Earth's resource cycles and
regulatory systems can teach us how to live sustainably and
regeneratively- most importantly, carrying that understanding into the
formation and dissemination of religion, politics and economy.
We see God's handy-work, i.e., the blue prints and operating system for
Earth through the dynamics of Nature's regenerative, life providing bounty
and we then see what is required to maintain this perfect system. Indeed,
we are entering the "Eco-zoic" faze of our existence- the realization and
implementation of an ecologically sustainable reality.
So how could Berry top that beautiful piece of work? Almost ten years after
"The Dream", he comes out with "The Great Work", a powerful and
compelling continuation of the earlier theme of a beautiful Earth with
attentive humans at the helm and with proper stewardship, only now with
an exacting historical dialogue of how the Earth formed, settled and
eventually became a biological life-support system and where we, as
humans have lost our original awe and respect of God's creation through
the many distractions of living in a human only, "civilized" and complex
material world, forgetting our interconnectedness to all life.
This separation has culminated in an insane, parasitic and cancerous
existence not only for us humans, but for all life on this planet. Isn't it
curious that cancer of our bodies is one of our biggest worries and
nemesis? Mass over-population, pollution, unsustainable resource use and
habitat destruction have left us in a burn-out, dire mess. Our sense of
economy is no "economy" at all, rather a predatory take all shark frenzy
fully supported by governments through corporate purchase and
manipulation and misguided `human only' pseudo-religious zealotry.

An un-Godly, reckless "Manifest Destiny" attitude of anthropocentric
endeavors has been prevailing since the industrialization of our societies
exploded on the human scene, blinding us with delusions of superiority, yet
to the detriment of our shared and threatened environment.
Exactly in the middle of this fine book, is a chapter called
"Ethics and Ecology". Here, Berry relates our combined human sense of
making like nothing is wrong on spaceship Earth (a closed-loop eco-
system) with a parallel to the tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
A course was set and could not be deviated from, regardless of the
warnings of known dangerous icebergs ahead. An attitude that the Titanic
was a perfect, fool-proof and unsinkable human manifestation prevailed.
The Titanic parallel underscores our misguided human notions that we can
control Nature and that we are on a safe course in our activities on Earth.
We see our creation of the Titanic (the micro), but not the big picture (the
macro), i.e., Nature along with it's icebergs, etc., but especially, the need
for our attention to it's requirements for a safe, healthy existence.
As Berry states, our "extractive" (exploitive, parasitic) economies have
become "terminal" economies (dead-end) and need to be reformulated to
sustainable/regenerative economies for the continuation and enjoyment of
life- only in a more sane and quality existence.
For those that don't think it can be done, it would be educational to look at
the turn-around of attitudes and subsequent successes of corporations that
have been able to wake-up to what sustainable/regenerative/eco-friendly
formats offer in terms of long lasting, profitable returns, let alone peace of
mind. A good outline of that can be seen in the book, "Natural Capitalism"
by Hawken and Lovins.
Further, religions need to continue with their return to the inclusion of all
Creation and away from the current deviation of anthropomorphism.
Understanding the dynamics and importance of interconnectedness with
all of God's Creation is a matter of survival now and should not be
interpreted as "Nature Love" vs. "Biblical Dogma". It's all one reality. Berry
gently opens our eyes to this!
The consideration of an all-inclusive creation- man and nature in harmony
instead of man vs. nature- both created by God to coexist, is also touched
upon in the 'great work' of Chet Raymo's books "Skeptics and True
Believers", sequealed by his "Climbing Brandon"- in a sermon by Saint
Columbanus, there is in part: [Those who wish to know God, he says,
"must first review the natural world."]. Indeed, a good place to start!
There is a good bibliography in "The Great Work" that provides a multitude
of resources for further research and education on sustainable awareness
and consciousness.

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