The Dream of the Earth by Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry has for many years been a writer and a spokesperson for the dream of the Earth. One of the most important points that Berry makes is that all of creation is an Earth community. All other communities fit into this one big Earth Community. For a long time cosmology saw creation as a three-tier universe, flat earth, heaven above, and the underworld. This view creation as a three-tier universe, religions shaped themselves to make sense out of creation and humankind's place in creation. With the notion of the Earth Community then the priority of relationships becomes self-evident. The Earth is a vibrant living organism and in fact gives birth to all other life forms so that all are interconnected and in a related. All is one.
About 10,000 years ago humankind came to see the Earth as a commodity. A commodity that could be bought and sold and very often, as even in our day, a place for war and violence. The new cosmology makes it very clear at the Earth is not a commodity of living dynamic reality. And it is within the Earth Community people are to discover the presence of the Divine Mystery.
Given the amount of pollution of soil, water and air, the author sets an agenda for the ecological age.
First, human technologies should function in an integral relationship with Earth technologies, not a despotic disturbing matter or under the metaphor of conquest.
Second, we must be clear concerning the order of magnitude of the changes that are needed. Probably the biggest change is people to change their mind and come to realize that all of creation is a living organism. all is sacred.
Third, sustainable progress must be progress for the entire Earth community. Not just for humans.
Fourth, our technologies need to be integral. They need to take care of their waste products in order to avoid polluting the earth, water and air.
Fifth, there is a need for a functional cosmology, a cosmology that will provide a mystique needed for this interval earth human presence.
Sixth, nature is violent as well as benign and our technologies have a defensive role to play.
Seventh, our new and healing technologies need to function within a bioregional context, not simply on a national and global scale.
These seven points for his agenda are well-developed in the book and certainly they giving us a greater understanding what it means to be fully human and to realize our place of this Earth community.