The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era

Grounded in contemporary scientific understanding and inspired by the world\u27s great wisdom traditions, cosmologist Brian Swimme and cultural historian Thomas Berry meld the findings of contemporary science - cosmology, geology, biology, and sociology - with the human search for meaning. The resulting account articulates fifteen billion years of existence with awe, delight, and vision. Swimme and Berry remind us of the importance of story - story is the only way of providing, in our times, what the mythic stories of the universe provided for tribal peoples and for the earlier classical civilizations in their times. In a richly detailed narrative of epic sweep, they recount the unfolding of the universe, from the primordial flaring forth and the formation of galaxies and supernovas to the human emergence, classical civilizations, and imminent Ecozoic era. The Universe Story compellingly explores humanity\u27s place in the evolving cosmos and our ecological imperative. Crippling the Earth\u27s biodiversity, we are deciding what species will live or perish, we are determining the chemical structure of the soil and the air and the water, we are mapping out the areas of wilderness that will be allowed to function in their own natural modalities. This, Swimme and Berry remind us, is filled with risk and presumption, for the story of the Earth is also the story of the human. Honoring the special capacity of the human to enable the universe and the planet Earth to reflect on and to celebrate ... in our music and our art, our dance and our poetry, and in our religious rituals, Swimme and Berry urge that we honor the knowledge gained by centuries of scientific inquiry with reverence, entrancement, and a commitment to renewal. Such joyous commitment is essential, for there is eventually only one story, the story of the universe. Every form of being is integral with this comprehensive story. Nothing is itself without everything else. --Jacket.https://scholar.dominican.edu/cynthia-stokes-brown-books-big-history/1034/thumbnail.jp

Borges and the Quantum Field: A Novelist and a Philosopher Confront the 21st Century

Two CIIS faculty discuss and connect Jorge Luis Borges’s short story “The Library of Babel” to their own work as thinkers and writers in the 21st Century. The talk is adapted from their new cross-departmental course MFA 8888: Philosophy and the Novel. Following the half-hour presentation, Cooke and Swimme invite conversation and share strategies for collaborations across programs that invigorate our teaching and especially our learning

Journey of the Universe

In Journey of the Universe Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker tell the epic story of the universe from an inspired new perspective, weaving the findings of modern science together with enduring wisdom found in the humanistic traditions of the West, China, India, and indigenous peoples. The authors explore cosmic evolution as a profoundly wondrous process based on creativity, connection, and interdependence, and they envision an unprecedented opportunity for the world\u27s people to address the daunting ecological and social challenges of our times. Journey of the Universe transforms how we understand our origins and envision our future. Though a little book, it tells a big story—one that inspires hope for a way in which Earth and its human civilizations could flourish together.https://scholar.dominican.edu/cynthia-stokes-brown-books-big-history/1022/thumbnail.jp

Journey of the Universe

https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/commonbook-archive/1013/thumbnail.jp