Book Review: Thomas Berry Biography

Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, & Andrew Angyal, Thomas Berry: A Biography. (Columbia University Press, 2019)

Mary Evelyn Tucker and her spouse John Grim (both of Bucknell University at the time) are noted for their work of three years at the Harvard Center of World Religions. In the spirit of one of their mentors (Thomas Berry, 1914-2009) who in his writing had shown the dependence between humans and earth, they engaged scholars and practitioners of religion to face the challenge of the eco-crisis of our time. Their three-years of coordinated effort produced the following books-all published by Harvard University Press: Daoism and Ecology (2001), Buddhism and Ecology (1997), Confucianism and Ecology (1998), Christianity and Ecology (1999). Hinduism and Ecology (2000), and Indigenous Traditions and Ecology (2000).

Although I had read some of the writings of Thomas Berry while being a chaplain and lecturer in religion at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (1965-1976), I did not meet him in person until I accepted the position of director of the China Program of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA in 1976. With its headquarters at 475 Riverside Drive in New York, it was convenient for me to cross Broadway to Columbia University where I attended the monthly seminars on Nee-Confucianism (1985-1995) led by Wm. Theod_ore de Bary. It was at one of these seminars that I finally met Father Tom Berry.

Just before my retirement in 1993 I got Father Tom to come to the lnterchurch Center to talk about the book which he coauthored with Brian Swimme, The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era-A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. (HarperOne, 1992), copies of which he had brought along. When asked how much we should charge, he answered, "Nothing; I got them free from the publishers." My immediate response was "Nobody reads books that are given to them free. You should charge at least ten dollars.􀀁 Months before retirement I had scheduled an appointment to meet with Father Tom at his home in Riverdale on the very first day of my retirement from the NCCCUSA. We spent an entire morning conversing about different aspects of ecology, only to be interrupted by his wheeling of his desk chair to his computer where he printed a paper that was pertinent to our discussion. At noon Father Tom invited me to lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, ending a well-spent first day of retirement with my pile of printed papers from Father Tom's computer.

In 1995 I visited Father Tom who had retired in his hometown of Greensboro, NC. He arranged for me to stay with his doctor brother, who had converted his garage into an apartment for Father Tom. I also met their sister who was a nun. Father Tom told about their father being in the oil business. He took me to the meadows of Greensboro where as a youth he had played with friends and where he first got his inspiration to see the connection between humans and earth. When I told about our moving to southern California, his remark to me was, "Be sure to go to the La Brea Tar Pits. You will gain much insight on evolution."

— Franklin J. Woo