The Dream of the Earth

by Berry, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781578051359
• ISBN10: 1578051355
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: Counterpoint

Summary

This landmark work, first published by Sierra Club Books in 1988, has established itself as a foundational volume in the ecological canon. In it, noted cultural historian Thomas Berry provides nothing less than a new intellectual-ethical framework for the human community by positing planetary well-being as the measure of all human activity. Drawing on the wisdom of Western philosophy, Asian thought, and Native American traditions, as well as contemporary physics and evolutionary biology, Berry offers a new perspective that recasts our understanding of science, technology, politics, religion, ecology, and education. He shows us why it is important for us to respond to the Earth's need for planetary renewal, and what we must do to break free of the "technological trance" that drives a misguided dream of progress. Only then, he suggests, can we foster mutually enhancing human-Earth relationships that can heal our traumatized global biosystem.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Brian Swimme	vii
Introduction	xi
1. Returning to Our Native Place	1	(5)
2. The Earth Community	6	(7)
3. Human Presence	13	(11)
4. Creative Energy	24	(12)
5. The Ecological Age	36	(14)
6. Technology and the Healing of the Earth	50	(20)
7. Economics as a Religious Issue	70	(19)
8. The American College in the Ecological Age	89	(20)
9. Christian Spirituality and the American Experience	109	(14)
10. The New Story	123	(15)
11. Patriachy: A New Interpretation of History	138	(25)
12. Bioregions: The Context for Reinhabiting the Earth	163	(8)
13. The Hudson River Valley: A Bioregional Story	171	(9)
14. The Historical Role of the American Indian	180	(14)
15. The Dream of the Earth: Our Way into the Future	194	(22)
16. The Cosmology of Peace	216	(8)
Bibliography	224	(17)
Index	241