PREFACE:

Religion without science is lame.

-- Albert Einstein

This is a book on science for Christians. Its for already religious people who are acquainted with the basic doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, and especially for contemplatives. However, you dont have to be a contemplative trinitarian Christian to find its basic metaphysical argument understandable. Everyone has to face the questions of the One and the Many, the infinite and the finite. My hope is to show religious readers that scientific knowledge of the natural world (which includes people and peoples cultures) is important, is part of our religious life, our practice, the way we live the divine life.

It is about how the Trinity is showing itself as world, especially with the characteristic trinitarian trait of living-together, symbiosis , mutual indwelling, interacting, sharing. From elementary particles in the atom, through atoms in molecules, molecules in cells, cells in organisms, organisms in societies, to social actions and even ideas -- all of them begin organized as systems -- the trinitarian image, as a Many-One, as a Community, has been present and growing. Growing(from the inside out) is the right word; the Creativity that makes the world is built into the world as its own essence. God is creating a self-creating world.

Randomness, the pool of all possibilities, is part of how it is done. So is spontaneous order, and adaptation by natural selection. What we now call complexity , and recognize as doing its creative work on the very edge of chaos, is at the heart of this miraculous picture. There may not be an external Designer and a micro-managing Providence from the outside, but neither is the world devoid of divinity. The divinity is so intimately present in the world that the world can be regarded as an incarnate expression of the Trinity, as creative, as expansive, as conscious, as self-realizing and self-sharing.

I have called this creative act Gods ecstasy. Ecstasy means standing outside oneself. It is kin to the kenosis of Philippians 2:6 -- being God is not a thing to be clung to, so God empties Godself, taking the form of limitation in finitude, and is born as a universe. It is the defining divine act: self-giving, being-bestowing. Ecstasy has the connotations of extreme love and supreme joy. That is right for the creation of the universe.

Therefore, we are not to feel the universe as cold, indifferent, or alien. Nor are we ourselves strangers here, meaningless accidental products of mindless cosmic shufflings. We belong to the universe, a living universe; we are its own natural children -- as the Desiderata says, "as much as the trees and the stars, we have a right to be here."

The cosmic complexity has supported the development of consciousness, and now we can know and understand and contemplate this beautiful and marvelous universe. We can appreciate it as the externalization -- the ecstasy -- of Creativity itself, of the trinitarian God: manyness so symbiotic as to be one whole living being.

The conclusion for the religious person should be that the world is Gods most personal work, therefore something for us to know and admire and revere, to take part in, to contribute to creating -- since it is made as a self-creating universe. This is participating in the divine life, precisely what the religious person wants to do.

So I have tried to set forth a general view of this cosmos that shows it in this light. My hope is that others will get a sense of how the universe is radiant and exciting and how we are poised right on the creative edge, right where the new action is happening. Gods action, our action. A self-creating universe that is Gods ecstasy, God standing -- indeed, God dancing! -- outside Godself, still doing the Godly things: being One, being Community, sharing being, indwelling, rejoicing, always being more.

From the big bang to the present and into the next millennium, The Universe Story celebrates the total community of existence as it unites science and the humanities through a profound and poetic modern myth.

Grounded in contemporary scientific understanding and inspired by the worlds 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 humanitys place in the evolving cosmos and our ecological imperative. Crippling the Earths 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.

Jacob Needleman, author of The Heart of Philosophy

Ever since 1975, when Fritjof Capra wrote The Tao of Physics , an international bestseller on science and Eastern religion, readers have discovered, or rediscovered, a remarkable rich tradition of Christian spirituality closer to home. Belonging to the Universe links science with Western spirituality as surprisingly as the The Tao of Physics linked science with Eastern religion.

In this work, Capra and David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk compared by many to Thomas Merton, investigate the parallels between Ônew paradigm thinking in science and religion that together offer a remarkably compatible view of the universe -- a profound, holistic model based on an awareness of the complex nature of truth and the myth of objectivity.

This animated dialogue sheds light on new and surprising connections between science and the experience of God. As recognized experts in their fields -- Capra in theoretical physics and systems theory, Steindl-Rast in contemporary spirituality and ecumenism -- both have moved beyond their specializations into a creative interdisciplinary and cross-cultural search for meaning. The result is this remarkable book in which they find a deep compatibility on the frontiers of scientific thinking and religious experience, where the discoveries of science and the wisdom of spirituality yield parallel insights into the untimate nature of reality. What The Tao of Physics book did for the seventies, Belonging to the Universe promises to do for the nineties.

What does it mean to be human, to live on planet Earth, in the universe as it is now understood? in The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos best-selling author and mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme takes us on a journey through the cosmos in search of the new story that is developing in answer to this age-old question. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos opens up not only the exhilarating truths that science reveals of the birth of the universe, but how these truths can transform our lives.

Following the most recent scientific discoveries about the origins and nature of the universe, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos shows how these new insights replace out-moded ways of seeing the world, bridging the chasm between science and spirituality, the physical realm and the soul. As Swimme contends, It is simply not human to live a life sealed off from all conscious contact with those powers at work throughout the Earth and universe and within every one of our cells.

In such a view the cosmos appears as awesome and meaningful, its dynamics revelatory, and in this revelation can be found the wisdom humanity needs to face and overcome its present crises, particularly the soul-numbing consumerism that threatens to overwhelm not only individuals, families or societies, but the Earth itself. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos helps us to grasp the larger significance of the human enterprise in this evolving universe. Upon meeting that challenge rests much of the vitality of Earth community, and the future quality of life, for ourselves and our children.

The first volume in the Sierra Club Nature and Natural Philosophy Library is concerned with nothing less than the fundamental question of how life can continue to evolve on this planet. Stressing that humanity now stands at a crucial juncture in our deteriorating relationship with the earth, Thomas Berry outlines a new cultural context for the integral functioning of all our basic professions and institutions. Only within the ever-renewing processes of the natural world can there be any satisfying future for ourselves or for our children.

Drawing upon the timeless wisdom of nature and the insights of thinkers ranging from Buddha and Plato to Teilhard de Chardin and E. F. Schumacher, and from ancient Chinese philosophers to Native American elders, and even to more recent scientists such as Ilya Prigogine, Thomas Berry defines a restorative, creative relationship with the natural world. With The Dream of the Earth he also recasts our understanding of science, technology, economics, governance, religion, education -- progress itself -- and establishes the philosophical ground for a bioregional mode of reinhabiting the earth.

Bringing a rich fund of ideas together, Berry suggests that we listen to what the earth has to tell us about itself as an emergent, self-organizing process governed by what he calls the primordial dream whence all things come into being. By partaking of that dream the human community can avoid a catastrophic future and experience the universe as a single, gorgeous, celebratory event.

One of the most eminent cultural historians of our time presents the culmination of his ideas and calls for us to experience creation as a source of wonder and delight rather than acommodity for our personal use.

Thomas Berry has written and lectured extensively on technological civilization and the need for us to move from being a disrupting force on this earth to a benign presence. This transition is the Great Work of which he speaks. It is at the same time the most necessary and most ennobling work we will ever undertake. Berrys message is not one of doom but of hope. He calls upon all aspects of society to remember their function, particularly the universities and other eduational institutions whose role is to guide students into an appreciation rather than an exploitation of the world around them. Berry is the leading spokesperson for the Earth, and his profound ecological insight at this determining moment in history illuminates the path we need to take in the realms of ethics, politics, economics, and education if both we and the planet are to survive.

Thomas Berry and Thomas Clarke discuss the role of religion in the ecological movement today. They agree that religion, to now, has completely failed to address the despoliation of the earth, which they believe to be the greatest crisis in the history of the planet. Yet they offer hope and viable ways for church leaders and individual Christians to forge a bond between theology and ecology that will move us forward in our quest to heal the world.

Befriending the Earth provides a rich feast of spiritual, intellectual, and emotional thought for individuals hungering to discern how we can both nourish the earth and be recipients of its bountiful goodness.

For too long, says, Elizabeth Dreyer, the kind of spirituality taught to Christian lay people has been clerical and monastic. It has not been grounded in the ways of living actually experienced by lay people -- incorporating sexuality, childraising, work, the marketplace and the earth. A major effort is being made in our day to reformulate spirituality in a way that makes sense to ordinary Christians. More than anything else, this new attitude proclaims that God is best discovered not in the withdrawal from everyday life but in the act of living it.

Earth Crammed with Heaven is a pioneering attempt to articulate the paradign shift in attitudes toward lay spirituality. It is written for persons who are on an intentional spiritual journey that has everyday existence and the entire world as its focal points. It maintains that baptized Christians do not have to change their daily activities in order to become saints. The potential for sainthood is located in the depth and intentionality of ordinary living.

The alarming impact of civilization upon the environment has made many keenly aware of the need for a deeper relationship with our precious, fragile planet. As the millennium approaches, a remarkable group of scientists and activists representing such disciplines as comparative religion, psychology, natural history, politics, economics, and animal rights are seeking to reaffirm the sanctity of the earth and the creatures who live here. Their thoughtful perspectives have been brought together here for the first time, in a volume that is by turns challenging and lyrical, reflective and committed.

This rich chorus of more than thirty eloquent, impassioned voices and viewpoints explores a number of related themes. A Place Where Spirits Dwell by David Petersen and Island by Gretel Ehrlich depict the earth as a sacred home, urging us to live lightly on the land. Apologia by Barry Lopez and Undressing the Bear by Terry Tempest Williams explore our connection with the animals who share our world. Bestselling author Thomas Moore outlines the possibility of spirit in action, while Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis considers the challenges we must face to sustain life on earth. Other contributors to this groundbreaking anthology include Wendell Berry, Matthew Fox, Rick Bass, Annie Dillard, Peter Matthiessen, and Thich Nhat Hanh. This extraordinary collection movitates and inspires us to face the mounting challenges of global survival. It is a plea on behalf of the biosphere and a blueprint for an ecological spirituality for the new millennium.

Speaking of spirituality, a Sufi master once said, A river passes through many countries, and each claims it for its own. But there is only one river.

We dont know exactly when the first human being knelt beside that river and drank of its spiritual waters. All we know is that the river stretches back into the primordial ancestry of the human race and its headwaters have never been found. For thousands of years and in every culture, human beings have sat on the banks of that river and felt the stir of sacred impulses as the river spoke to them of mystical worlds and unseen things.

My own spiritual life began along one small stretch of that river which ran throught the backwoods of the rural South. As a young boy I loved the mystery of its spiritual waters and the calming silence it brought to my soul. My small church claimed the river for its own, and it was many years before I understood the wisdom of the Sufi masters statement, before I realized that the river which nourishes my own soul also flows to every tribe and nation.

This book is about that river. It describes spirituality as a universal phenomenon available to every person, whether religious or not. The first half of the book defines spirituality, the soul, and the sacred in nonreligious terms. The second half of the book describes eight alternative paths* to the sacred and shows readers how to develop a life of spiritual passion and depth.

If your soul is thirsty and life is hard, I hope you will find an oasis in these pages, a place to drink and be refreshed. But more than this, I hope you will come to see that the river is always there, and that all you have to do is cup your hand, reach down, and drink its life-giving waters -- any time, any place, even now.

* Eight Alternative Paths to the Sacred:

1. The Feminine5. Mythology

2. The Arts6. Nature

3. The Body7. Relationships

4. Psychology8. Dark Nights of the Soul

For many of us, the great scientific discoveries of the modern age-- the Big Bang, evolution, quantum physics, relativity-- point to an existence that is bleak, devoid of meaning, pointless. But in The Sacred Depths of Nature, eminent biologist Ursula Goodenough shows us that the scientific world view need not be a source of despair. Indeed, it can be a wellspring of solace and hope.

This eloquent volume reconciles the modern scientific understanding of reality with our timeless spritual yearnings for reverence and continuity. Looking at topics such as evolution, emotions, sexuality, and death, Goodenough writes with rich, uncluttered detail about the working of nature in general and of living creatures in particular. Her luminous clarity makes it possible for even non-scientists to appreciate that the origins of life and the universe are no less meaningful because of our increasingly scientific understanding of them. At the end of each chapter, Goodenoughs spiritual reflections respond to the complexity of nature with vibrant emotional intensity and a sense of reverent wonder.

A beautifully written celebration of molecular biology with meditations on the spiritual and religious meaning that can be found at the heart of science, this volume makes an important contribution to the ongoing dialogue between science and religion. This book will engage anyone who has ever been mesmerized -- or terrified -- by the mysteries of existence.

The spiritual story of humanity is at least 70,000 years old. By comparison, the formal religions have existed for a mere 4,500 years. Spirituality is, and perhaps always has been, more central to human experience than religion.

Diarmuid O Murchus purpose in writing this book has been to retrieve the long-lost subverted tradition of spirituality and re-establish its primary significance in the human search for meaning and purpose in life. While the modern world continues to struggle with religious fanaticism on the one hand and religious indifference on the other, spirituality explodes with new vision and with fresh possibilities for a more integrated world view.

Drawing on the modern findings of many disciplines, the author sets out to explore this new spiritual eruption, one that leaves religious allegiance waning while millions throughout the world seek meaning and nourishment in a range of new contexts, many of which transcend, circumvent and even abandon the religious certainty of bygone days.

This is a challenging and provocative but, above all, reassuring book for those who are seeking spiritual meaning today.

From black holes to holograms, from relativity theory to the discovery of quarks, an original exposition of quantum theory that unravels profound theological questions.

This book is not another dialogue between science and religion. It is instead a bold exploration of the divine co-creativity emanating from one of the most ingenious scientific discoveries of the twentieth century: quantum theory.

For the quantum theorist, the fact that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts underpins all reality. This is not merely a scientific principle of immense significance for our times, writes Diarmuid OMurchu, it is also a theological norm, known to mystics for centuries and now maturing into a supreme wisdom for our age.

The quantum theory in physics pushes both the scientific imagination and the religious fascination to new frontiers unknown by previous generations. Theology has no choice but to submit to it, writes OMurchu, but in the very process it becomes one of the most exciting fields of exploration today, meriting the title of QuantumTheology.

We may be the most privileged generation ever to have lived. At this unprecedented moment in human history, when escalating crises threaten all life on earth, internationally renowned physicist-futurist Peter Russell weaves together the physical and social sciences, modern technology and ancient mysticism to demonstrate that the possibility of global illumination is now as real -- and imminent -- as the threat of mass annihilation.

In The Global Brain Awakens , Russell details an extraordinary new vision of humanitys potential -- as a fully conscious superorganism in an awakening universe. Presenting evidence that the earth, itself, is a living being and every person upon it a cell in the planetary nervous system, Russell describes how breakthroughs in telecommunications and computer networks are rapidly linking the human species into an embryonic global brain.

At the same time, the human potential movement is growing faster than any other segment of society, and influencing every aspect of the culture -- including business, politics, and medicine. Russell shows how the convergence of these powerful trends is creating the required conditions for an evolutionary shift in consciousness from ego -centrism to geo -centirism.

First published in 1983 as The Global Brain , and translated into ten languages, Russells seminal work won acclaim from forward thinkers all over the world. Regarded by many as years ahead of its time, its original predictions about the impact of computer networks and changing social values were quickly fulfilled.

In this updated edition, with solid scientific evidence, clear reason, intuitive insights, and compelling examples, The Global Brain Awakens offers inspiration and direction for those seeking to understand the role they are meant to play in preserving and uplifting life on earth in the coming millennium. More incredible and inspiring than any work of science fiction, it places the Heros Journey in an evolutionary context, demonstrating that inner exploration is the key to world-wide transformation and to the viability of our species.

When Saint Patrick first came to Ireland in the fifth century A.D., he encountered the Celtic people and a flourishing spiritual tradition that had already existed for thousands of years. The Celts had a refined and passionate sense of the divine. The Celtic imagination articulates an inner friendship that embraces nature, divinity, the underworld, and the human world as one. The Celts never separated the visible from the invisible, time from eternity, or the human from the divine. Surviving to this day, the Celtic reverence for the soul in all things is a vibrant spiritual heritage unique in the Western world, one that is capturing the imagination of thousands of Americans as they rediscover the wisdom of the past and their own Celtic roots.

In Anam Cara (Gaelic for soul friend), John ODonohue invites you into the magical and unobtrusive world of your own divinity, to that place in the soul where there is no distance between you and the eternal. The ancient wisdom, poetry, and blessings of Celtic spirituality will awaken and grace the beauty of your hearts landscape. Exploring such themes as the mystery of friendship, the spirituality of the senses, the brightness within solitude, work as the poetics of growth, aging as the art of inner harvesting, and death as eternal homecoming, this book will encircle your heart with Cetic benediciton.

There is a divine restlessness in the human heart, our eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are. Now, in this exquisitely crafted, inspirational book, John ODonohue explores that most basic of human desires -- the desire to belong. Its a desire that constantly draws us toward new possibilities of self-discovery, friendship, and creativity.

In Eternal Echoes John ODonohue embarks upon a journey of discovery in the heart of our postmodern world -- a hungry, lonesome world that suffers from a deep sense of isolation and fragmentation. With the thousand-year-old shelter of Divine Belonging now shattered, we seem to have lost our way in this magical, wondrous universe.

Here, as we explore perennial themes and gain insight from a range of ancient beliefs, we draw inspiration from Irelands rich spiritual heritage of Celtic thought and imagination. It is a heritage of profound, mystical wisdom that will open pathways to peace and contentment, and lead us to live with creativity, honor, and compassion the one life that has been given to us.

Ecopsychology marks the coming together of leading-edge psychologists and ecologists to redefine sanity on a personal and planetary scale. Here is the first in-depth exploration of an exciting new field, presenting revolutionary concepts of mental health along with a vision of renewal for the enviornmental movement.

Not since Martin Luther has a leader risen from within the church to call for a more powerful reformation than that found in the pages of this book. Here John Shelby Spong integrates his compelling stands on the Bible, Jesus, sin, and morality into an intelligible creed that todays thinking Christians can embrace.

Championing Christians he calls believers in exile, and counting himself in that number, he says, We are that silent majority of people who find it increasingly difficult to remain members of the church and still be thinking people. In Why Christianity Must Change or Die , he seeks to be a resource for the religious seekers of our world who yearn to believe in God but who are also repelled by the pre-modern literalizations that so frequently masquerade as Christianity.

While Bishop Spong has for many years called upon Christians to confront issues ranging from the role of women in the church and the unfair treatment of homosexuals to the perils of fundamentalism, this important book marks the first time he has offered a unified vision of authentic Christian belief than can live in the third millennium. Among his assertions are:

* traditional theism is no longer credible; we need a new contemporary understanding of God as the source of life and love, not as a superperson running the universe ;

* if theism is no longer a viable way to think about God, then the way we approach the Christ figure has got to be radically revised. Jesus can no longer be the incarnation of a theistic deity ;

* the church as a hierarchical institution was not founded by God or Jesus; what Jesus initiated was a community of faith and service and thats what the church should be ; and

* heaven and hell are not places, but what they powerfully symbolize is that our dees have eternal consequences -- a sobering reality for so-called Chrisitians who persecute gays, marginalize women, and use doctrine to justify their acts of violence .

Katie Johnson leads many groups at St. Joan's exploring ecospirituality and faith issues.

Building on his bestselling books Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism and Living in Sin? , Bishop Spong proposes a Christianity based on a whole new way of thinking, premised upon justice and love rather than judgment and literal-minded readings of the Bible. Arguing that fundamentalism is incompatible with true Christian faith -- and exploring the future of ethics, prayer, and Christianity itself -- Spongs manifesto is both the summation of his lifes work and a guide for every reader searching for a reasoned, just, and loving faith.