Big History and the New Story William Katerberg Calvin University

Citation | Katerberg, William. “Big History and the New Story.” Journal of Big History IV (1): 73-75. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4150. DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i1.4150

Father Thomas Berry was born in “geologian,” and “Earth scholar.” In the Readers will learn much about Berry, North Carolina in 1914, the third of context of Big History, he might best but the biography also is written to thirteen children. He joined the Pas- be described as an “ecotheologian” in encourage readers to learn from Ber- sionist Order in 1933, after his first the spirit of Teilhard de Chardin. Berry ry’s life and work. It is not a hagiog- year of college, and he earned a PhD promoted ecumenical and interfaith raphy. Neither is it a work of neutral from Catholic University in 1948, fo- dialogue over his long life and career, or critical scholarship. Rather, it is an cusing on Giambattista Vico. Berry notably with a deep interest in indige- engaging appreciation of Berry by studied in China in 1948-1949. He de- nous spirituality. More famously still, scholars who were his students and veloped a lifelong interest in Asian he promoted the “New Story,” a spirit- colleagues. This point should not be religions, later writing Buddhism ually inflected creation account, epic read as negative. It is to honor the (1967) and Religions of India: Hindu- of evolution, or Big History. spirit of the book—that readers not ism, Yoga, Buddhism (1971).1 In the “The story of the universe is the just learn about Berry but learn from United States, Berry taught at a variety story of the emergence of a galactic him about how to understand and live of Roman Catholic universities. At system in which each new level of ex- well in the modern world. Fordham (1966-1981), he helped to pression emerges through the urgency Berry defined his calling as closer create a distinctive religious studies of self-transcendence,” Berry argued in to that of a shaman than a scholar or a program, teaching courses in world “The New Story” in 1978. His “gospel” priest—“one who entered deeply into religion and cosmic Christianity. message was that the “human emerges the powers of the universe and Earth In 1970, Berry founded the Riverdale not only as an earthling, but also as a and brought back an integrative vision Center of Religious Research on the worlding. We bear the universe in our for the community,” in Tucker, Grim, Hudson River just north of Manhat- beings as the universe bears us in its and Angyal’s words. “It was the sha- tan.2 The center promoted human being. The two have a total presence manic dimension of my own psychic spiritual transformation and reflection to each other and to that deeper mys- structure that required that I go into on the mysteries of reality. Berry di- tery out of which both the universe some manner of inner experience with rected the center from 1970 to 1995. and ourselves have emerged.”5 the natural world,” Berry explained From 1975 to 1987, he was president of Berry retold this “New Story” in near the end of his life. “This was not the American Teilhard Association many forms, notably in Dream of the simply to enter into some form of the and editor of Teilhard Studies.3 Berry Earth (1988), The Great Work: Our spiritual life but to take on a social retired to Greensboro, North Carolina Way into the Future (1999), and with role.”7 That role came in promoting in 1995, living in an apartment above a cosmologist Brian Thomas Swimme in the New Story and the activism it former stable owned by his brother Joe The Universe Story (1992). Swimme called forth. and sister-in-law Jean. He suffered and Mary Evelyn Tucker, in turn, re- Tucker, Grim, and Angyal tell several strokes and moved to a care told it in a book and documentary film Berry’s life as an arc from an old story facility in 2008, dying in 2009. entitled Journey of the Universe (2011).6 to the New Story. “From his begin- More than a scholar and a priest, Berry’s goal was for people not just to nings as a cultural and intellectual Berry was a “shaman.”4 As a priest and learn about indigenous cultures, reli- historian”—and his upbringing as a a scholar, he was trained in theology gious traditions, and modern science, traditional Roman Catholic—“Berry and in history, culture, ideas, and reli- but to learn from them how to live. became a historian of the Earth.” He gion. He described himself variously, This same goal animates Tucker, “witnessed in his own lifetime the using terms like “cosmologist,” Grim, and Angyal’s biography of Berry. emergence of a multicultural planetary

ics of evolution try to weave together such weavings are intellectually coher- scientific fact and explanation with a ent, they are appealing to people be- mythic arc. Like other epics of evolu- cause they offer scientific reference tion, Big History blends elements of points, cultural rituals, and spiritual modern science with philosophical and emotional experiences. and religious assumptions that are Berry’s New Story has been influ- rooted in premodern religious and ential among some advocates of Big cultural traditions. Sometimes the History and his ideas have been fea- blending is implicit and intellectual.10 tured at conferences—notably when Sometimes it is overtly spiritual or reli- the documentary film Journey of the gious in character. In this fashion, Ber- Universe was screened at the Big His- ry’s New Story uses modern science tory conference at Dominican Univer- but is defined by its spirituality, draw- sity in California in 2014. The confer- ing on Judaism and Christianity, other ence at Villanova in 2018 included New world religions, and indigenous tradi- Story-style “liturgy” in its opening and tions. The New Story was not material- closing sessions—all to some contro- Thomas Berry. Source: Wikipedia ist, but appealed to primordial experi- versy. A conflict between “spiritual ence, mystery, and mysticism. It re- agendas” and “science” has been part civilization as cultures came in contact flected Berry’s eco-theological interests of discussions at Big History confer- around the globe,” and he wanted to and his inter-faith sensibility. ences in 2014, 2016, and 2018 and in the put this story in “the larger arc of Like many Americans, Berry pages of Origins and the Journal of Big Earth history and the evolution of the viewed Native Americans as the History. 13 universe.” Berry “recognized the power world’s “first ecologists.”11 One of his Perhaps the greatest value of of an evolutionary story to engage hu- influences was Nicholas Black Elk, a Thomas Berry: A Biography, then, is mans in the great questions: where Lakota healer-shaman and Roman that it can help the International Big have we come from, how do we be- Catholic catechist. Black Elk lived History Association to work through long, why are we here?” Humanity closely to the land, especially as a boy how to engage both Big History schol- needed the New Story to meet the before the American conquest of the arship and New Story-style impulses in needs of a globalizing humanity trans- Lakota in the 1870s. He never gave up the Big History movement; for Big His- forming not just themselves but the his Lakota culture and rituals, but he tory is more than an academic disci- planet too. Berry believed that such a converted to Roman Catholicism and pline. From the start it has aspired to, transformation was “not only possible baptized more than four hundred Na- in Berry’s words, “the ‘Great Work,’ but already emerging.” Tucker, Grim, tive Americans. The Church has begun namely, what each person and com- and Angyal argue that the possibility the process of canonizing Black Elk.12 munity can contribute to a flourishing of transformation is “the promise of Black Elk’s life journey was very differ- future.” The conclusion of David Berry’s perspective.” The New Story ent than Berry’s, of course, but they Christian’s TED talk (2011) and its pop- “adds fresh energy to what Berry called shared an inclination to treat tradi- ularity, attest to the appeal of this the ‘Great Work,’ namely, what each tions not as mutually exclusive but “great work.” person and community can contribute cross-pollinating. My own view is that Big History’s to a flourishing future.”8 value is precisely that it is not just What Big Historians will make of Thomas Berry is not structured as meant to teach people about history, Berry’s New Story depends on whether a straightforward biography or a life- but to provide them intellectual tools they are put off by or value engaging and-times story. The first two-thirds of to live better as individuals and citi- with mysticism and religious tradi- the book cover Berry’s formative expe- zens. It exemplifies the holism of a tions. Berry described himself among riences, the development of his liberal arts approach to learning. Aca- other things as a “cosmologist.” The thought, and the major components of demia does not need yet another new term can refer to both scientific and his career as a teacher, guru, and activ- trans-disciplinary movement aspiring philosophical or theological accounts, ist. The last third of the book, in to be a new discipline; it needs public or a mix of all three. Mythopoetic ac- greater depth, explores both their scholars who bring together science, counts probably belong in a different, sources and their evolution. It includes politics, historiography, philosophy, if overlapping, category (e.g., the ac- chapters on “narratives of time,” Teil- and, yes, religion in compelling ways. count in Genesis 1-3 is a quite different hard de Chardin, Confucian thought, If so, then it is appropriate to explore genre from a systematically developed and indigenous traditions. the cosmological and eco-spiritual im- cosmology written by a twentieth cen- Nasser Zakariya’s assessment of pulses of figures like Berry, both as tury theologian). But mythopoetic ele- “epics of evolution” helps to assess something to study and critique and as ments often are woven into epics of where Berry’s “New Story” fits with Big something from which to learn. evolution, especially popular ones. History.9 Zakariya explores the ten- This biography, the writings of Ber- Even if it is not always clear whether sions, even contradictions, in how ep- ry, Swimme, and Tucker, and similar

writings are a way to explore what in- 2017). Note Ken Baskin’s thought- of cross-cultural and cross- tellectually engaged writing looks like ful review of the book in “A Cos- religious influences, see Louis that crosses the borders among schol- mological Crisis?: A Review of Warren, God's Red Son: The Ghost arship, advocacy, spirituality, and pop- Nasser Zakariya, The Final Story: Dance Religion and the Making of ular writing.14 Whether one agrees Science, Myth, and Beginnings,” Modern America (New York: Basic with Berry’s ideas, or with Tucker, Journal of Big History, III:4 (2019): Books, 2017). Grim, and Angyal’s belief that we have 171-176. 13. See my account in Katerberg, “Is much to learn from Berry, there is in- 10. For more on this issue, see my Big History a Movement Culture?” tellectual, moral, spiritual, and politi- essay, Katerberg, “Myth, Meaning Journal of Big History 2:1 (2018): 63 cal profit in engaging a book like this. and Scientific Method in Big His- -72 (https:// tory,” Origins V:12 (December jbh.journals.villanova.edu/article/ Notes 2015): 3-12 (https://bighistory.org/ view/2255/2121). Origins/Origins_V_12.pdf). See 14. For other examples from Christian 1. Thomas Berry, Buddhism (New also Allan Megill, “‘Big History’ traditions, see John Haught, New York: Hawthorne Books, 1966); Old and New: Presuppositions, Cosmic Story: Inside Our Awaken- Religions of India: Hinduism, Yoga, Limits, Alternatives,” Journal of ing Universe (New Haven: Yale, Buddhism (New York: Bruce- the Philosophy of History 9:2 2017); and David P. Warners and Macmillan, 1971). (2015): 306-326. Matthew Kuperus Heun, eds., Be- 2. http://thomasberry.org/life-and- 11. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- yond Stewardship: New Approach- thought/about-thomas-berry/the- as Berry, 241. Shepard Krech III es to Creation Care (Grand Rapids, riverdale-center-for-religious- has criticized what he calls the MI: Calvin Press, 2019). Note also research mythology of the “ecological Indi- the illustrated companion to Be- 3. http://teilharddechardin.org/ an,” arguing that historic indige- yond Stewardship at https:// index.php/teilhard-studies nous practices, before and after spark.adobe.com/ 4. This is the term that Tucker, Europeans arrived in the Ameri- page/4ddndTy8JoFcT/ (accessed Grim, and Angyal use; see Mary cas, included dramatic alterations 28 September 2019). Haught is a Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and to the land in their agriculture and Catholic’s exploration of the Andrew Angyal, Thomas Berry: A hunting, including damage to en- boundaries between science and Biography (New York: Columbia vironments. He also describes how theology; Beyond Stewardship is a University Press, 2019), 38. Native Americans in the 1960s- Protestant effort to develop a 5. Thomas Berry, “The New Story: 1980s came to weave their tradi- “New Story.” For more examples Comments on the Origin, Identifi- tions together with modern eco- of “green Christianity, see Christo- cation, and Transmission of Val- logical ideas and goals; see The pher Hrynkow, “Greening God? ues,” Teilhard Studies 1 (1978). It Ecological Indian: Myth and Histo- Christian Ecotheology, Environ- was also published in CrossCur- ry (New York: Norton, 1999). mental Justice, and Socio- rents 37:23 (Summer/Fall 1987): 12. Kirk Petersen, “Vatican considers Ecological Flourishing,” Environ- 187-199. sainthood for Black Elk,” National mental Justice, 10:3, June 2017 6. Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Catholic Reporter, August 25, 2018, (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/ Earth (San Francisco: Sierra Club, https://www.ncronline.org/news/ full/10.1089/env.2017.0009). See 1988); Brian Thomas Swimme and people/vatican-considers- the “Faith and Environment” page Thomas Berry, The Universe Story: sainthood-lakota-sioux-medicine- on the Earth Day Network site From the Primordial Flaring Forth man (accessed 22 September (https://www.earthday.org/ to the Ecozoic Era—A Celebration 2019). Black Elk’s canonization is campaigns/campaign-for- of the Unfolding of the Cosmos controversial as is the authenticity communities/communities-of- (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancis- of his conversion. The weight of faith/; accessed 28 September co, 1992); Brian Thomas Swimme evidence in Black Elk’s case and in 2019) for examples of and “earth and Mary Evelyn Tucker told Ber- relationships between Christian keeping” and “new stories” from a ry’s New Story in a book and doc- and Native spirituality and revital- wider array of religious traditions. umentary film, Journey of the Uni- ization movements suggests sig- verse (New Haven: Yale Universi- nificant cross-fertilization. For Reference ty, 2011). conflicting views of Black Elk, see 7. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- Joe Jackson, Black Elk: The Life of Tucker, Mary Evelyn, John Grim, and as Berry, 38. an American Visionary (New York: Andrew Angyal, Thomas Berry: A 8. Tucker, Grim, and Angyal, Thom- Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016); Biography. New York: Columbia as Berry, xviii. and Michael Steltenkamp, Black University Press, 2019. 9. Nasser Zakariya, The Final Story: Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala

Science, Myth, and Beginnings (Norman: University of Oklahoma (University of Chicago Press, Press, 1997). For an excellent study