The Universe Story Pioneers

   
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
"Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity,
we shall harness for God the energies of love,
and then, for a second time in the history of the world,
man will have discovered fire."

It was Pierre Teilard de Chardin who first understood the implications of the recently discovered evolutionary history of the Earth. It was he who realized and wrote so eloquently that the human can be understood only when set in the context of the evolutionary development of Earth and, similarly, Earth can be understoond only within the context of the evolutionary development of the Universe as a whole.

Thomas Berry
“The story of the Universe has been told in many ways by the peoples of Earth,
from the earliest periods of Paleolithic development and the Neolithic village communities to the classical civilizations that have emerged in the past five thousand years. In all these various circumstances the story of the Universe has given meaning to life and to existence itself. The story has been celebrated in elaborate rituals. It has provided guidance and sustaining energy in shaping the course of human affairs. It has been our fundamental referent as regards modes of personal and community conduct. It has established the basis of social authority.
In the modern period, we are without a comprehensive story of the Universe.”

 
Thomas Berry took up the enormity of these implications in his writings and talks integrating Teilhard de Chardin's spiritual and religious insights into the broader context of our cultural/ecological crisis today.

 

Miriam MacGillis
"In spite of the terrifying specter of our unprecedented and untempered power,
our human species has achieved an extraordinary capacity to look back into time
and gain a vision and perspective never before available. Our small, myopic, and fiercely defended identities have imploded into a vast, unimaginable realization of our unity, not only with all humanity, but with Earth, with the stars, and with the whole mystery of the Universe."

 
Based on her personal studies with Berry, Miriam MacGillis founded a retreat center in New Jersey that embodies as well as teaches the Universe Story. She speaks and writes on the major ecological and spiritual issues of today as one who lives the implications of the Universe Story.
Brian Swimme
"It's really simple. Here's the whole story in one line.
This is the greatest discovery of the scientific enterprise:
You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone,
and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes, and humans."
Brian Swimme extended Teilhard de Chardin's evolutionary basis of the Story back to the very beginning of the Universe itself. He has also integrated Berry's sweeping insights with modern evolutionary biology and physics thereby setting the Universe Story on a sound intellectual foundation.