Journey of the Universe tells the epic story of the universe from an inspired new perspective, weaving the findings of modern science together with enduring wisdom found in the humanistic and religious traditions of the West, China, India, and Indigenous peoples. The authors envision this book may help readers to discover a sense of belonging to the larger Earth community. From this perspective of interconnection and interdependence, we can better address the growing ecological and social challenges of our times.
Journey of the Universe transforms how we understand our origins and envision our future. Though a little book, it tells a big story — one that inspires hope for a way in which Earth and its human civilizations could flourish together.
The Inspiration Behind Journey of the Universe
"We have a new story of the universe. Science has given us a new revelatory experience. It is now giving us a new intimacy with the earth."
Thomas Berry, Dream of the Earth
Journey of the Universe is deeply inspired by Thomas Berry’s article titled “The New Story,” which observes how humans are in between stories — creation stories of the world’s religions and the scientific story of the evolution of the universe. Brian and Mary Evelyn collaborated to write this epic narrative that translates our wondrous connection to the cosmos and Earth to a broader audience. Their concern is to evoke mutually enhancing human-Earth relations for a flourishing planetary community.
We live in a universe of remarkable creativity that has evolved over some 14 billion years. The goal of Journey of the Universe is to tell the story of cosmic and Earth evolution drawing on the latest scientific knowledge, in a way that makes it profoundly relevant and deeply moving to the viewer. What emerges is an intensely poetic story, which evokes emotions of awe, excitement, fear, joy, and belonging.
This story told in Journey of the Universe is a dramatic one. Throughout billions of years of evolution, triumph and disaster, have been only a hair's breadth apart. Violence and creativity are pervasive. The ability of matter to organize and re-organize itself is remarkable — from the formation of the first atoms to the emergence of life.
The message of Journey of the Universe shows how we are not just a part of this astonishing process, we are at the very edge of evolution, a primate species that has found in its language and symbols the power to take over the very evolutionary process itself. But this control that we now exercise comes with a responsibility. Viewers of Journey of the Universe will not only be imbued with a sense of astonishment at all that has taken place, they will also come to feel the excitement in learning that now we live in a time when the human species is being asked to play a central role in activating the flourishing powers of Earth’s living systems.
One of the aims of this project is to use the art of storytelling to capture the grandeur and drama of this epic of the universe — from the Great Flaring Forth, to where we are today in a moment of Great Transition. Carl Sagan was the first to remind us that "We are all stardust," in the Cosmos series. The Journey of the Universe shows us how the lineage of stardust can shape the way we relate to the Earth, so that we might better cherish and protect what gave us life and nourishes us still.
