Tom Fox talks with Fr. Thomas Berry

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Tom Fox talks with Fr. Thomas Berry

Editor's Note: This interview first aired in December 2006.

Passionist Fr. Thomas Berry's classic work, Dream of the Earth, published in 1988, helped awaken people both to the magnitude of our ecological crisis and to its essential spiritual component. Berry stands out as one of the most important prophets of the 20th century. His teachings have inspired a generation's thinking about humankind's place in the Earth community and the universe.

Now 92, Berry lives not far from where he was born, in a retirement community, in Greensboro, N.C., and he has just released a new book, Evening Thoughts.

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Episode 1: After decades of devastation, hope returns (22 min.)
Berry tells Tom Fox that he calls the 20th century, the century of destruction and the 21st century, the century of restoration. “There is evidence that people are beginning to listen [to environmental warnings] and a new world is beginning to take shape,” he says.

Episode 2: Science and spirit (23 min.)
"Science has brought supreme blessings and profound insights," Berry tells Fox. "But at the same time it seems to have weakened traditional understandings of the universe through experiences -- the experiences that give us our literature, our language." He says, "I don’t know if science has produced much poetry ... Some other insight of human intelligence must guide the use of science."

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About the Book
Evening Thoughts is a collection of 12 essays, each reiterating and, at times, expanding on ideas he has articulated for decades. The book has three sections: the first describes the magnitude of our current ecological crisis and its causes; the second highlights some of our specific challenges; the third, returns to the epic of evolution as a context for situating the proper role of the human.