Learn the Story of the Universe
Free Online Courses
Enroll in our Journey of the Universe free courses from Yale University and Coursera to understand who we are, where we come from, and where we are heading.
Enroll now in our three six-week courses:
New discoveries from science show that you are connected to everything.
What does this mean for how you view the world, live your life, or shape our collective future?
THE CHALLENGE OF OUR TIMES
Our present evolutionary story of a separate, mechanistic, and competitive universe is insufficient. This limited understanding of how the universe and Earth function is leading us to destroy the natural life systems on which we rely. This is culminating in climate change and the 6th mass extinction event in Earth’s history. The loss of biodiversity and the climate emergency has initiated a wave of ecological despair and disempowerment in the human community.
OUR OPPORTUNITY TO EVOLVE
Come to understand the dynamic, connected, and cooperative universe. And when you do, so much will change. Learn a New Story that is grounded in the sciences, animated by the humanities, and imbued with wisdom from Indigenous traditions and world spiritualities. Realize our connection to the universe and Earth that helps us not only know, but also shape the course of evolution for a thriving future. Find new ways as individuals and communities to create a vibrant and healthy Earth community.
Our Offering:
Journey of the Universe is a scientific, philosophical, spiritual, and poetic offering for those seeking to understand the dynamic unfolding story in which we find ourselves. This project is several decades in the making, arising out of a rich lineage of Thomas Berry, Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and many others.The Journey of the Universe online courses offered by Yale and Coursera were made for anyone who has a desire to connect more deeply with the story of our universe and enhance the wellbeing of both people and the planet.
Highlights include:
- Courses can be taken independently
- Start anytime and work at your own pace
- Free to audit
- Over 35,000 enrollments and average 4.7/5 star rating
- Online community to support and deepen your learning
Journey Of The Universe course reviews
What people are saying
Move to get involved
"I've shared this with students, friends and colleagues who have been deeply moved by it! Instead of feeling overwhelmed by our current ecological crisis, they often feel moved to get involved."
Wonder, awe... hope
"If you have any interest in modern science, including astronomy, and maybe felt some despair about our future, this is for you. It brought me back to wonder, awe, lots of questions, and some hope. That is a big order and this fills it."
This course is entertaining, compelling, and educational.
"I now have a dynamic way of envisioning our universe and beyond. This course is entertaining, compelling, and educational. I've gained unexpected personal discoveries which include finding connective concepts in the evolution of the world, humanity, language..."
Fantastic content and well structured
"Fantastic content and well structured for the busy working person to fit into their schedules!"
This course has gifted me with answers
"What initially drew me to the class was the title itself; this idea of a cosmic, all-encompassing journey truly captivated me, a young person who has always nursed a strong sense of wonder in regards to the world around me, but also the many worlds that live within me. I believe that this course has gifted me with answers, but perhaps more importantly, it has given me the ability to dream and to ask more questions. After all, is that not the true beauty of humanity?"
JOTU
Endorsements
“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
“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
“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
(national magazine of the Sierra club)
RESULTS
What you get out of the course
Broaden
your understanding of existence and life
Connect
with meaning and purpose
Renew
your hope for our
future
Ignight
your wonder and creativity
MEET OUR EXPERTS
About the professors
Mary Evelyn Tucker
John Grim
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim teach at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Yale Divinity School. They direct the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale, which arose from ten conferences they organized at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. They are series editors of the Harvard volumes from the conferences on Religion and Ecology.
Tucker specializes in East Asian religions, particularly Confucianism. Grim specializes in Indigenous traditions, particularly Native American religions.
Grim and Tucker have written a number of books including Ecology and Religion (Island Press, 2014) and edited the Routledge Handbook of Religion and Ecology (2017, along with Willis Jenkins). They are editors for the series on Ecology and Justice from Orbis Books.
They were students of Thomas Berry and collaborated over several decades to edit his books. They also wrote Thomas Berry: A Biography with Andrew Angyal (Columbia, 2019).
With his article “The New Story,” Berry was a major inspiration for Journey of the Universe. With Brian Thomas Swimme, Tucker and Grim created this multi-media project that includes a book (Yale, 2011), an Emmy award winning film, a series of conversations, and online courses from Yale/Coursera.
For more information: https://fore.yale.edu/About-Us/Press-Kit
Brian Thomas Swimme
Brian Thomas Swimme is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon in 1978 for work in gravitational dynamics.
He brings the context of story to our understanding of the 13.7 billion year trajectory of cosmogenesis. Such a story, he feels, will assist in the emergence of a flourishing Earth community.
Swimme is the author of The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (revised 2019) and The Universe is a Green Dragon (1984). He is co-author of The Universe Story (1992), which is the result of a 10 year collaboration with the cultural historian, Thomas Berry.
Swimme is also the creator of three educational video series: Canticle to the Cosmos (1990), Earth’s Imagination (1998), and The Powers of the Universe (2006).
He lectures widely and has presented at conferences sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The World Bank, UNESCO, The United Nations Millennium Peace Summit, and the American Museum of Natural History.
For further information: https://storyoftheuniverse.org/
