the allegheny front

Eco-Theologian, Cultural Historian, Prophet: Thomas Berry

Jennifer Szweda Jordan

Air date: 02/21/2007

JORDAN: I read that someone compared spending time with Thomas Berry to having coffee with Confucius. Now I know what that means. It's delightfully odd to casually meet a man who's given so much thought to where society's been and where it might go.

Berry's suffered health problems in recent years. Like a stroke that's made reading nearly impossible and remembering and speaking tough. But with humility and wit, he still entertains visitors trying to soak up some of his wisdom. The essence of his teaching is that we often neglect our responsibility and our connection to creation.

BERRY: We have a distorted consciousness of who we are and what our rights are. For humans to assume we're the only ones with rights and we can do anything we want with the natural world is the most absurd thing ever invented, I guess.

JORDAN: The natural world was close to Berry's heart early on. He was born in 1914 in Greensboro, North Carolina. About 17 thousand people lived there then. But the world was quickly changing. Cars were becoming widely available. And Berry's village was urbanizing. He found the growth disappointing.

BERRY: I reacted against development from the beginning.

JORDAN: Berry amassed clippings from Boys Life magazine as part of a plan to live in the wilderness. His youthful intentions foreshadowed a lifetime of reading and self-discipline. At age 20, Berry chose spiritual wilderness instead. He entered the severe contemplative monastery of Passionist Catholic priests. Berry's appreciation for nature's pulse was strengthened. Monastic prayers are closely tied to dawn, dusk, and the changing seasons.

Over the years, Berry studied and wrote about Buddhism and Religions of India. He taught Asian religions at several universities.

Environmentalists found a resource in Berry's books including The Dream of the Earth. It was published in 1988 and again last year. In it, Berry says the planet's well-being should be the measure of all human activity. Berry now says that with the rapid industrialization of the Third World, the state of nature appears to be getting worse instead of better. He's written about how we can change.

BERRY: We need a much better preparation for the 21st century than we had for the 20th century. In the 20th century we educated for use relationships of the natural world. In the 21st century, we have to educate from the standpoint of mutual support.
JORDAN: Berry recommends reform in education, business, law, and religion.

He's seen fulfillment in the area of law. Last fall, St. Thomas and Barry universities' law schools in Florida jointly opened the nation's first Center for Earth Jurisprudence. Center Director Sister Pat Siemen says earth jurisprudence is an emerging field related to but distinct from environmental law. Students are now taking the first seminar. They're looking at works about the earth from the United Nations, indigenous writers, and Thomas Berry.

SIEMEN: In his recent years, he has focused more and more on earth jurisprudence. And so I feel very humbled to be able to put my hand to the development and growth of those concepts.

JORDAN: Berry said this is one of his greatest accomplishments.

BERRY: I've educated a large number of people. So it's quite true, people say, well, what did you do? I didn't do very much but I helped an awful lot of people do a lot of things.

JORDAN: It's a typically humble response from a man who history may judge as having helped save us from ourselves.

For The Allegheny Front, this is Jennifer Szweda Jordan.