“For those of us enmeshed in symbolic consciousness, this is just the story we need to hear, loud and clear. It helps us understand how we happened to be here, and, more important, why.”
- Bill McKibben
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet and The End of Nature
"Journey of the Universe is a fantastic book—by turns mind-blowing, awe-inspiring, and emotional. As a writer, I especially admired the writers' prose style that was at once lucid and impassioned. Journey of the Universe reminds us what a wonder the miracle of life is."
- Jason Mark
Editor in Chief, SIERRA (the national magazine of the Sierra Club)
"This is a wonderful, highly readable account of the history of the universe from the Big Bang through the present moment. ...There is blockbuster potential in Journey of the Universe, and I recommend it with great enthusiasm."
- Thomas E. Lovejoy, Ph.D.
Founder of the PBS series Nature
Professor in Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University
"Journey of the Universe is a spiritual manifesto that becomes a Genesis for the 21st Century. Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker have given us not only an expanded creation story of the Cosmos but an expanded look into the evolution of our own consciousness. I cannot imagine a more urgent book to read as we enter this revolutionary moment on the planet. Its message is beyond hope or even faith, it is an illuminated manuscript, a book of wonder and awe for our time."
- Terry Tempest Williams
Finding Beauty in a Broken World
"Journey of the Universe is eloquent, accessible, and powerful, and conveys a sense of wonder ranging from the cosmos to the microcosm--in itself a considerable achievement. This is one of the most compelling and inspiring works I've read in a long time."
- David W. Orr, Ph.D.
Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College
"Journey of the Universe is beautifully written and makes its point superbly. In the history of our School the sweep of its vision ranks with that of Aldo Leopold – think like a mountain meets think like an atom!"
- Sir Peter Crane, Ph.D.
Former Dean of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
"I rarely (very, very rarely) become jealous while reading someone else's book, but that's precisely the way I feel at this moment, having just read all the way through your extraordinary Journey of the Universe. My reason for reading the entire manuscript in one sitting was simply that I was enthralled, and couldn't stop; my reasons for jealousy were the beauty of the literary style, the clarity of the lessons taught, and THE ultimate lesson toward which the book is so brilliantly and effectively directed. You have accomplished something as truly beautiful as it is true, a work that should be read by all the world.
Your book will teach so many of us, as it has me, to wonder at the universe in ways of which we had not previously conceived."
- Sherwin Nuland
How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter
“… a compelling approach to the scientific, aesthetic, and religious dimensions of our cosmic setting, inviting us to live lives that reflect the amazing creativity that has produced us.”
- George W. Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
"I have read the manuscript for Journey of the Universe with genuine admiration. What impresses me is that the story science has given to us about our place in the universe and on Earth has been told here in such precise and poetic language. The complexity, the uncertainty, the challenge of being human, all are rendered with such stellar clarity that I feel more convinced than ever that science is leading us into an epoch of deeper spirituality. The book dissolves science (the urge to know) and religion (the urge to belong to something greater than) into one beautiful solution for the future. It honors the cell's discernment and matter's propensities for expansion and attraction. The universe, the cell, human culture and desire--all one and in sympathy, arousing in us the great gift of compassion. A stirring and important work full of wisdom."
- Alison Hawthorne Deming
University of Arizona
“I think this book will be a classic…It is a ‘cosmic page-turner,’ a story I couldn’t put down. And it will come at a perfect time, when we stand in such need of a new worldview that is not only consistent with science, but energized and empowered by the unfolding story. I want to say thank you for a story that unfolds as beautifully as a rose, layer after layer of unfolding. There are astonishments at every turn, and there is special astonishment in the science that blooms into new meaning again and again.”
- Kathleen Dean Moore, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy, Oregon State University
“This is a stunning book. It is both prose and poetry. Reading it slowly, savoring it, I have the sense that every sentence has been crafted from the heart. There is not a word that is unnecessary. It is a labor of love, a truly sacred text. I offer my profound thanks to the authors.”
- Chris Uhl, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology, Penn State University
"The story of stories telling itself in us can hardly be told: but with page-turning suspense and trusty lucidity, Swimme and Tucker do tell it. Nothing now matters more than that we come to terms, we earthlings, with our materiality, our place, our power. In this Journey we experience step by step how the universe is not outside of us, not unintelligent matter, but an eery magnificence unfolding through our very choices."
- Catherine Keller, Ph.D.
Professor of Theology, Drew University
Face of the Deep and On the Mystery
"Science has recently pointed us toward a surprising and enlivening new setting for human existence and action. This lovely and inspiring portrayal of the new cosmic story and of our own place within it deserves not only careful study but also ongoing meditation. Based on the very latest scientific findings, this powerful and penetrating account of cosmic history is an indispensable guide to human beings as they seek to define where they have come from and what they should be doing with their lives as the story of cosmic creativity moves into what could possibly be a most surprising future of creativity up ahead. Highly recommended."
- John F. Haught, Ph.D
Senior Fellow, Science & Religion, Woodstock Theological Center
“Ours is a universe pulsing with innumerable centers, worlds without end, all related to one another in deep unfolding time. It almost exceeds our capacity even for wonder. We need teachers who can make us wonder again, so I am grateful to Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. To work so long on such a complex subject and come away with such a lovely, uncluttered prose account of the almost-unaccountable -- this is an accomplishment of high culture.”
- Willis Jenkins, Ph.D.
Yale Divinity School
“...this project will be ground-breaking.”
—Christopher Key Chapple, Ph.D.
Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions
“This cosmic saga offers a compelling vision of the grand adventure in which we humans are taking part.”
—Scott Russell Sanders
A Conservationist Manifesto
“…a classic text that will address, educate, and delight a vast readership at all educational levels.”
—Brian Edward Brown, Ph.D.
Religion, Law, and the Land
"Perhaps this is what makes the book so valuable as much as anything. There is no sense of the struggle or conflict that many see in the linking of religion and science. Instead, the book draws us toward the majesty of the whole. This makes this book a wonderful possibility for introducing students to the more detailed work of dialogue. One can hardly resist the idea that it all fits so well together and marvelously. Like the child staring at the glory of the night sky, this book has us staring at the images set in our minds. It truly takes us on a journey."
—James F. Moore, PhD
Valparaiso University
(quote taken from Zygon review)
"In addition to giving new life and focus to my Language of Poetry course, Journey of the Universe kick-started my stalled spirituality. In the spirit of their visionary mentor Thomas Berry, Swimme and Tucker show the interrelatedness of everything and everyone. They remind us that science and the arts are leading us toward the same end: harmony, wholeness, and the wisdom to alter human behavior in order to save life on earth. Greed and selfishness have left us out of touch with the world, and planet earth is suffering the consequences. This is one of those important books that change the way we perceive ourselves."
—Lucy Wilson, PhD
Professor of English, Loyola Marymount University
"I will treasure this book forever, and read it over and over."
—Mark Dowie
Conservation Refugees
Click here to read reviews on Amazon.com.
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.
