Around the Web

The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century + The Christian Future and the Fate of the Earth

The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century
Thomas Berry / Mary Evelyn Tucker, ed.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2009, 200 pages.

The Christian Future and the Fate of the Earth Thomas Berry / Mary Evelyn Tucker & John Grim, eds.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009, 144 pages.

In June 2009, Thomas Berry, the historian, priest, author and self-described “geologian,” passed away at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was 94.
Uniting recent scientific discoveries concerning the provenance and progression­ of the universe with religious insights into the nature of creation, Berry’s writing blended empirical and spiritual elements into a unique cosmological narrative. His challenge­ in later life was to place ecology and cosmology at the centre of our personal and institutional lives… [Click here to read more!] Continue reading The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-First Century + The Christian Future and the Fate of the Earth

Community Stewardship and Living

Me? An Environmentalist?

Sometimes people ask me how I became
the way that I did with regards to the environment. It is a good
question because I have been this way for a very long time. I was
“into” the environment long before it became the hip thing to do. Long
before Al Gore documentaries, Earth Hour and green blogs. Back when
cloth diapering was cool (before it became uncool then cool again) and
we didn’t know the dangers of plastics and GMO’s.
What I mean is that I have
always been an environmentalist. As a child it was just part of my
upbringing. As an adult I chose to make it a bigger part of my
life…my career…my passion.

Continue reading “Me? An Environmentalist?”

Around the Web

Generation A and The Year of the Flood

Generation A
Douglas Coupland
Toronto: Random House, 2009, 320 pages.

The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood
Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2009, 448 pages.

Information is important, but stories­ are essential. While scientists can tell us about the extinction of species­ and the loss of Arctic sea ice, we need stories to help us make sense of these events.

But we are buried in unfinished stories. After decades of expert analysis, we remain unable to sketch a narrative of how to get from here to a sustainable future. From climate­ change to the fate of bees, we just don’t know how it will turn out.

Perhaps that’s why there is so much appetite for films and books that know how to finish a story. The big movie this year is Avatar – a tale of conquest and defence of nature and homeland. As with much speculative fiction – recall Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four or the fable at the start of Silent Spring – stories are often not just about the future, but about their own time. They confront the fear that we are walking into disaster, and the hope that we may yet get it right.

In 2009, Canadian authors told two of the more interesting such stories. In Douglas Coupland’s Generation A, bees sting into motion bizarre events involving five characters from around the planet, and Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood takes genetic manipulation and corporate control into grim territory.

Generation A presents… [Click here to read more!] Continue reading Generation A and The Year of the Flood