Zygon Review of Journey of the Universe Book

Reviewed by James F. Moore
Zygon
November 24, 2011
http://www.zygonjournal.org/issue2011_4.html

The new book written by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker is a thin volume that aims to narrate the story of the universe. This narration is primarily the story of the universe that contemporary science has told for us since the basic structure of the book is to follow the components of scientific research that put together create for us a whole, a full narrative. Thus, the story is a journey since the scientific story paints a picture of the universe that is constantly in motion. It is, therefore, a story that cannot have an end in the standard way since not only do we have much still to learn but we also know that all things are in motion through a whole set of intersecting processes. We have a sense that the universe has set out on an adventure as if the universe were itself a personality. Of course, we do not think of the universe in this way ordinarily, but perhaps this telling of the narrative is fashioned in this way since the story is integrated with bits and pieces of other universe narratives, mostly drawn from the religious, cultural stories of past and present.

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California college helps place humans in universe story

By Sharon Abercrombie
National Catholic Reporter
November 11, 2011
http://ncronline.org/news/people/california-college-helps-place-humans-universe-story

After two brief months of studying "big history," Andy Gramajo, 18, has a new perception of the human species.

"When compared to the universe, we are a pixel on a computer screen," he said. "I feel privileged to learn about the big bang and evolution."

Gramajo is among 250 freshmen who are participating in a unique educational venture at Dominican University in San Rafael, Calif.

Big history has become the school's First Year Experience for freshmen. It has brought together the social sciences, the arts, humanities and sciences to look at the place of human beings within the context of the universe story, explained Mojgan Behmand, English professor and program director.

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Interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker on CKUT 90.3 FM Montreal

October 18, 2011
Interview with Ryan Young
Listen to the interview (beginning around 9:20 min):
http://archives.ckut.ca/64/20111018.11.00-12.00.mp3  

Finding Our Place in the Universe on the Page and Screen

Yale Press Log
October 17, 2011
http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/finding-our-place-in-the-universe-on-the-page-and-screen/

In our age of calculators, computers, and the fifteenth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, most questions are pretty easy to answer. Why is the sky blue? What is the cube root of 1331? Who was Fredrick the Great of Prussia?

Still, in some areas, uncertainty lingers—even though we have more information at our disposal than ever before. Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker pose several of these lingering questions at the beginning of their book Journey of the Universe. “Where did we come from? Why are we here? How should we live together?” they ask, going on to offer an elegant response in the form of a history of the universe that draws on science and a broad religious and humanist tradition.

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Documentary film, retreat in Langley encourages new view of universe

By Patricia Duff
South Whidbey Record Arts & Entertainment, Island Life
September 28, 2011
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/entertainment/130734123.html

Ancient matters of the universe matter even more today.

Although the universe is almost 14 billion years old, a forward-thinking evolutionary philosopher and a historian are telling a new story of its mysteries.

The documentary film, “Journey of the Universe, An Epic Story of Cosmic, Earth and Human Transformation,” will be shown at the Clyde Theatre in Langley at 9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 1. A workshop with the film’s creators, Dr. Brian Swimme and his collaborator, Yale University historian of religion Mary Evelyn Tucker, will follow from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Whidbey Institute in Clinton. An additional weekend retreat is the following weekend in Freeland.

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Environmentalism for the unscientific mind

By Janice Kennedy
Ottawa Citizen
September 20, 2011
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Environmentalism+unscientific+mind/5416863/story.html

It's like money. I'm quite happy with it, and I might be happier with more of it. Just don't discuss it with me. Talk of "portfolio," "net worth," "leverage," or any item in that alphabet soup of money management (RRIF, RRSP, TFSA, GIC ...) makes my eyes glaze over.

For me, that's what environmentalism is like.

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Who Are We? Where Are We? Where Are We Going?

By Winslow Myers
Huntington News
September 19, 2011
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/9699

One way to say where we are is that the human population has become so pervasive on the Earth that it is rapidly shutting down the viability of the living systems that support us. Species are going extinct at ever more rapid rates. Because of the effects of our human presence, the Earth is coming to the end of a 65 million year explosion of life and diversity, the era geologists call the Cenozoic, an era that began with the demise of the dinosaurs. That is very hard for us to get our minds around, distracted as we are by other issues in the foreground of our attention — terrorism, presidential politics, the growing divide between rich and poor.

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Lecture by Brian Thomas Swimme at Dominican University

September 7, 2011
San Rafael, CA

Dominican University of California’s Institute for Leadership Studies in partnership with Book Passage presents Dr. Brian Swimme.

Watch the lecture here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w9Ai48zxnk

Interview with Brian Thomas Swimme & Mary Evelyn Tucker on Wisconsin Public Radio

August 19, 2011
Interview with Veronica Rueckert
Listen to the interview here:
http://wpr.org/rueckert/index.cfm?strDirection=Prev&dteShowDate=08%2F24%2F2011%2008%3A47%3A35

Interview with Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker on To the Best of our Knowledge

August 12, 2011
Interview with Steve Paulson
Listen to the interview here:
http://ttbook.org/book/creative-universe

Interview with Mary Evelyn Tucker on Wildoak Living

August 1, 2011
9am PST on www.kzyx.org
Radio Stations: 88.1, 90.7, 91.5 FM
Mendocino County, Northern Sonoma, Western Lake, & Southern Humboldt in CA
Listen to the archived interview here:
http://wildoak.org/Wildoak/Connection/Entries/2011/8/1_Mary_Evelyn_Tucker_-_Journey_of_the_Universe.html

Film tackles biggest questions about life

By Amanda H. Miller
Jackson Hole, WY newspaper
newsandguide.pressmart.com  
July 20, 2011
http://newsandguide.pressmart.com/JHNG/JHNG/2011/07/20/ArticleHtmls/20_07_2011_210_017.shtml?Mode=1

There are at least 100 billion galaxies in the universe. There could be a trillion or more, all teeming with complexity.

While rapidly discovering the intricacies light-years away, we are also exploring the layers of life here on Earth.

A new film, "Journey of the Universe," dives into the sea of questions about how our universe came to be, how science has evolved and how human interaction with our environment has come to define life on Earth.

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Orion Magazine Review of Journey of the Universe book

Reviewed by Mitchell Thomashow
Orion Magazine
July/August 2011
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/review/6356

HERE’S AN EQUATION for knowing where you are: Cosmology + Bioregionalism = Sense of Place.

The deepest mysteries of the place where you live are linked to the origins of life on Earth and, then, the origins of the universe. Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme propose that cosmology is necessarily the basis of our planetary condition. Such awareness is a daunting perceptual challenge, rarely taught in school and unlikely to be the subject of your daily conversations. Yet, ultimately, one cannot grasp the profound dilemmas of species extinction and climate change without a cosmological orientation.

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A Great Story (Think About This)

Review of Journey of the Universe book
Reviewed by Carter Phipps
EnlightenNext magazine
July 13, 2011
http://magazine.enlightennext.org/2011/07/13/a-great-story-think-about-this/

If Homer was alive in the twenty-first century, he would not be telling stories about ships and seas, sirens and sailors. Surely, the great bard would represent our moment in history with a myth that captures the essence of our contemporary zeitgeist. What would such a myth look like? In their new book, Journey of the Universe, Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker invite us into the scientific story of the Universe, imbuing it with all the passion and purpose of a great religious myth. Their “invitation into grandeur” carries us into the heart of a story that Homer would have loved to tell—the story of how life began, evolved, and turned into you and me.

The Incredible Journey

By Lindsey Blomberg
E - The Environmental Magazine
July 1, 2011
http://www.emagazine.com/magazine/the-incredible-journey

A New Documentary Explores Not Only the Origins of the Universe — But Our Place In It, Too

We are “sailing through the great ocean of the universe,” says Brian Thomas Swimme, as he stands framed by the scenic island of Samos, Greece, in the documentary Journey of the Universe. The bright morning and vacant beach give Swimme—the film’s host and co-writer—the sense that he is “the first person on the first day of creation.”

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Journey of the Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

By Phillip Manning
Science Book News
June 24, 2011
http://www.scibooks.org/pgs/whatsnew.htm

Journey of the Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Yale, $25, 192 pages. Publication date June 28.

Swimme is professor at the California Institute for Integral Studies; Tucker is a senior lecturer at Yale and the author of Worldly Wonder. “Through the astonishing combined achievements of natural scientists worldwide, we now have a detailed account of how galaxies and stars, planets and living organisms, human beings and human consciousness came to be.”

PBS film "Journey of the Universe" has deep roots in Oakland

By Pat McHenry Sullivan
Oakland Local
June 11, 2011
http://oaklandlocal.com/posts/2011/06/pbs-film-journey-universe-has-deep-roots-oakland

“What is the creativity that brought forth a hundred billion, maybe a trillion galaxies?" asks mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme, Ph.D. in the trailer to his stunning new film, "Journey of the Universe." Throughout the film he'll be asking, how can that creativity inspire your own creativity and engagement in an ever-changing world?

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A Christian journey into our universe

By Luc Rinaldi
The B.C. Catholic Register
http://bcc.rcav.org/canadian/812-luc-rinaldi

Documentary asks people to avoid "pre-Copernican" mindset

TORONTO (CCN)--Science and religion were never at war for the creators of Journey of the Universe, a film that will hit its first Canadian audience June 15.

The documentary film, co-written by religious historian Mary Evelyn Tucker and evolutionary philosopher Brian Thomas Swimme, is rooted in the work and ideas of cosmologist and passionist Father Thomas Berry. It tells the story of the universe over 14 billion years, Tucker explains, integrating “the best discoveries of modern science with human history, art, philosophy and religion.”

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'The Journey of the Universe,' by Brian Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker

By Rich Heffern
National Catholic Reporter
May 5, 2011
http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/journey-universe-brian-swimme-and-mary-evelyn-tucker

This film project and companion book are a collaboration of evolutionary philosopher Brian Swimme and historian of religions Mary Evelyn Tucker. They weave a tapestry that draws together scientific discoveries in astronomy, geology, and biology with insights concerning the nature of the universe.

The book will be available soon. The film will be screened at various locations in the United States and Canada throughout the summer. For more information about the project and film showings, see the Journey of the Universe Web site.

Featured Video: Journey of the Universe

By Brita Belli
E – The Environmental Magazine
May 3, 2011
http://www.emagazine.com/featured-videos/journey-of-the-universe

The documentary Journey of the Universe offers a voyage of discovery, from the origins of the cosmos to the rise of creativity and the human purpose.

If Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras knew what we knew, he would be amazed. So begins the invitation from cosmology professor Brian Thomas Swinne to step into Journey of the Universe, a documentary about the origins of the universe, the rapid expansion of human knowledge and our responsibilities to the living world.

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