Thomas
Berry, the third of thirteen children, was born William Nathan Berry in Greensboro,
North Carolina in 1914. At the age of 20, he joined a Roman Catholic monastery,
and was ordained as a priest eight years later, when he took the name "Thomas"
(after Thomas Aquinas). According to a 1989 Newsweek article, Berry was "the most
provocative figure among the new breed of eco-theologians." But Thomas Berry was
among the very first "earth scholars" of the 1960s, and his life work has been
dedicated to asking and trying to answer three main questions: Who are we? Why
are we here? - and - What do we do about it?
One
day, at the age of eleven Berry had a revelation. The singing of the crickets,
the blanket of white lilies, the cloudless sky above, and the woodlands beyond
the meadows surrounding his childhood home gave him an enthralling glimpse into
the magical wonder of the natural world. "This early experience has remained with
me ever since as the basic determinant of my sense of reality and values. Whatever
fosters this meadow is good. What does harm to this meadow is not good."
Thomas
Berry has been a college professor, a respected lecturer and author of books,
from Dream of the Earth (1988) to The Universe Story: From Primordial Flaring
Forth to the Ecozoic Era, A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Universe which
he co-authored with physicist Brian Swimme in 1992. His latest book, The Great
Work (1999), led to a celebration of Thomas Berry's life-long contributions at
the Earth Spirit Rising conference ("A Conference on Ecology, Spirituality, and
the Great Work") in 2001. Characteristically, Berry could not bring himself to
attend the conference because he felt too self-conscious about "the "fuss" being
made over him. He currently lives in the hills of North Carolina.
Bio
© Larry Auld
