Journey of the Universe/Universe Story

Tom Collins is a longtime teacher of world history, philosophy, and religious studies. He taught some of the first courses on the universe story at independent schools across the United States. Ten years ago, Tom spoke with Journey co-author Mary Evelyn Tucker about the transformative power of teaching the universe story to young people. In this episode, Sam and Tom continue the conversation on how integral story can shape the future of education.

Mary Evelyn Tucker preaches to Immanuel Congregational on Earth Day 2021 (April 25) on “The Sacred Continuity of Cosmos, Earth, and Humans: An Invitation into Deep Time.” In her sermon, she raises a question of human response to the present moment of disintegration. She invites the congregation into deep time of the universe that provides a sense of wholeness and belonging. She concludes with a prayer poem by Catherine De Vinck, which she thinks of as Psalm 104 for the 21st century. 

This webinar, which took place on April 10, 2021, described the 10-year odyssey of creating the Journey of the Universe and the 10 years of bringing it out into ever widening circles. Featuring: Brian Thomas Swimme, co-author, Journey of the Universe; Mary Evelyn Tucker, co-author, Journey of the Universe; John Grim, co-producer, Journey of the Universe; Jennifer Morgan, Deeptime Network; Devin O’Dea, Journey of the Universe Project; Sam King, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology

This event took place on November 11, 2020. 

In this video, Mary Evelyn Tucker discusses the Thomas Berry Biography and Berry's presence as a global, cross-cultural thinking and conversationalist. Mary Evelyn reflects on the her first correspondence with Thomas while she was living in Japan and how her relationship working with him shaped her life.

This video, which is interpreted in both English and Korean, features a 30 minute talk by Mary Evelyn Tucker, followed by an hour long question and answer session with the attendees of her lecture. Tucker's presentation focuses on how humans living out the universe story might affect the future of the planet. She gives an overview of her work around Thomas Berry and the Journey of the Universe as well as the influence of Tu Weiming within this field. Tucker calls for the need to put things into a deep time perspective and to move towards holism and interdependence, thus broadening the role of humans and widening our circles of compassion.

Mary Evelyn Tucker gives a talk at Albertus Magnus College entitled “Living Within a Universe Story.” After an overview of her work around Journey of the Universe, Tucker moves into a definition of deep time and framing ourselves within geological ages and evolution. She emphasizes the need for interconnectedness and calls on examples from the environmental justice movement and the Earth Charter. Tucker concludes with an invitation to act on this sense of belonging within the greater cosmos. A time of questions and answers follows her presentation. This talk took place on January 24, 2018. 

The multimedia Journey of the Universe project explores some of mankind's most persistent existential questions:  What is our purpose?  How have the universe, our planet and humanity evolved?  Mary Evelyn Tucker proposes that cosmology is the necessary basis for an in-depth examination of the human condition and that useful tools may be found at the intersection of science, art, and humanities, where recent scientific discoveries are leavened and informed with wisdom gleaned through the ages. Recorded on 10/20/2016. Series: “Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society”

During the last 300 years, scientific knowledge has been used to sideline and dismiss religious traditions. With the paradigm-shattering discoveries of quantum physics, relativity, and complexity science, a new and much deeper understanding is at hand, one that can carry us beyond the disconnect between science and religion.  A number of scholars are now convinced that the central intuitions of Earth's spiritual traditions can be expressed in the very dynamics of the evolution of the universe itself. This talk occcured on March 11, 2016. 

In this recording of a talk given on June 18, 2014, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim explore their acclaimed film and book Journey of the Universe. Giving an insight into the creative energy that is responsible for the great diversity of all life on Earth, they discuss cosmology, science and evoke the New Story of which eco-philosopher Thomas Berry wrote.

Rabbi Lawrence Troster, Dr. Heather Eaton, and Dr. Safei Eldin Hamed offer responses from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions to Journey of the Universe. Rabbi Troster, a late Jewish environmental activist, draws from the Books of Genesis and Isaiah to suggest that the science of the universe story is offering people a vision of a new heaven and a new Earth. Dr. Heather Eaton, a theologian at Saint Paul University, highlights the need for Christians to retrieve its focus on creation, to reinterpret justice as ecojustice, and to reconstruct theologies of incarnation to encompass the entire Earth community. Dr. Safei Eldin Hamed, a scholar of environmental planning at Chatham University, interprets the Quran to suggest that there is equality between all creatures and that Islam can offer a holistic and functional cosmology for our contemporary world. This event took place at the Journey of the Universe and Our Elegant Universe Symposium on 06/26/2013.

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim talk on “Religion, Ecology, and Cosmology: Integrating Story,” emphasizing the engaged scholarship of religion and ecology in the reimaging and reconstructing environmental ethics in times of ecological crisis. Examining the view of nature from various religious traditions, Tucker and Grim introduce a new term, “religious ecologies,” where they find ecological components in the world religions. Religions have been orienting people throughout human history, and they further discuss the possibilities of how religion and ecology should be shaped in the Anthropocene from the examples of the indigenous tradition of the Salish people and the Confucian tradition. This talk took place on March 8, 2013. 

Mary Evelyn Tucker of Yale University introduced “Journey of the Universe,” a new multi-media collaboration inspired by Thomas Berry's “The New Story.”  “Journey of the Universe” weaves together scientific discoveries and humanistic insights to create a new narrative of the evolution of the universe–from the Big Bang to the impact of human life on our planet.

Professor (Yale/Harvard) Mary Evelyn Tucker talks of her dream film “Journey of the Universe” which was created “one day on a Greek island of Samos”, where the whole perception of the Universe changes forever… She speaks of the host, co-writer, and fellow traveler, Brian Swimme and shares his infectious curiosity about life's biggest questions in the epic film, “JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE” - a one hour documentary feature film, companied by the book … It was indeed a collaboration of cosmologist Swimme and historian of religions Mary Evelyn Tucker. Together, they weave a tapestry that draws together scientific discoveries in astronomy, geology, biology, ecology, and biodiversity with humanistic insights concerning the nature of the universe.

Brian Swimme, Professor of Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at the California Institute of Integral Studies, presents on the intersection of science and spirituality in this talk at Seattle University. He challenges the listener to ponder the universe, drawing on images of space and the Earth to place us within an evolutionary context, historical context. Swimme defines terms such as “cosmic generosity” as he seeks to engage with the sacred that is incarnate in the universe. This talk took place on July 10, 2009.