The Great Work: Our Way Into the Future
by Thomas Berry
New York: Bell Tower, 1999
reviewed by René Wadlow
As we enter the 21st century we observe a widespread awakening to the wonder of
the Earth. This we can observe in the writing of naturalists and environmental
organizations dedicated to preserving the integrity of the planet.. The human
venture depends absolutely on this quality of awe and reverence and joy in the
Earth. As soon as we isolate ourselves from these currents of life and from the
profound mood that these engender within us, then our basic life-satisfactions
are diminished."
The restoration of reverence and
joy for life within Nature is what Thomas Berry, a cultural historian and past
president of the American Teilhard de Chardin Association calls "the Great
Work". "History is governed by
those overarching movements that give shape and meaning to life by relating the
human venture to the larger destinies of the universe. Creating such a movement
might be called the Great Work of a people... The Great Work now, as we move
into a new millennium, is to carry out the transition from a period of human
devastation of the Earth to a period when humans would be present to the planet
in a mutually beneficial manner... The deepest cause of the present devastation
is found in a mode of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity
between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of all rights on the
humans. The other-than-human modes of being are seen as having no rights. They
have reality and value only through their use by the human. In this context, the
other-than-human becomes totally vulnerable to exploitation by the human, an
attitude that is shared by all four of the fundamental establishments that
control the human realm: governments, corporations, universities, and religions—the
political, economic, intellectual, and religious establishments. All four are
committed consciously or unconsciously to a radical discontinuity between the
human and the non-human.
"In reality there is a
single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members
whether human or other-than-human. In this community each being has its own role
to fulfil, its own dignity, its inner spontaneity. Every being has its own
voice. Every being declares itself to the entire universe. Every being enters
into communion with other beings. This capacity for relatedness, for presence to
other beings, for spontaneity in action, is a capacity possessed by every mode
of being throughout the entire universe."
Today, humanity is challenged to
discover—or rediscover—this single integrated community of life on Earth in
terms of ideas, images, myths, rituals, and practices that are meaningful to
people today. Berry, who has written on the religions of India and on Buddhism
and Chinese culture, is well aware that in earlier times, there have been
teachings which stressed the kinship of all life. In The Great Work with
an American audience in mind, he quotes many examples from the Native Americans
who had a strong sense of living within Nature, a sense of place and the need
for sympathy toward animal and plant life. However, he knows that the move from
a human-centered to an earth-centered norm of reality and value cannot be done
just by a return to past teachings and insights. As he writes "One of
the most essential roles of the ecologist is to create the language in which a
true sense of reality, of value, and of progress can be communicated to our
society." One of the useful aspects of Berry’s book is a
well-annotated bibliography which gives a good overview of different writers and
approaches on the subject—even those authors with whom Berry disagrees.
Berry highlights greed and loss
of sensitivity as reasons for ecological destruction. "The profoundly
degraded ecological situation of the present reveals a deadening or paralysis of
some parts of human intelligence and also a suppression of human
sensitivities." However Berry is hopeful that concern for the
environment must become the central organizing principle of civilization. "There
is now developing a profound mystique of the natural world; we now experience
the deep mysteries of existence through the wonders of the world about us."
Many of Berry’s views will echo those of
readers. He writes well and has a broad vision. The Great Work is the
type of book that one shares with others to widen the circle of those active to
develop an ecologically-based world view.
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