Thomas Berry in Italy: Reflections on Spirituality & Sustainability

FROM 1991 TO 2000 IN ASSISI, ITALY, Elisabeth Ferrero organized and led a series of innovative conferences on "Spirituality and Sustainability," as well creative “Study Abroad for Earth” (S.A.F.E.) programs. The featured speaker and resource person for these conferences and programs was the late Thomas Berry. A scholar in world religions, protégé of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and a great contemporary ecological thinker, Thomas Berry became the leading intellectual figure, in cooperation with scientist Brian Swimme, for an important school of thought known as the "New Cosmology.” This book, edited by Elisabeth Ferrero, gathers a rich and diverse collection of tributes to the memory of Thomas Berry in Italy. The contributors to this volume were mostly important participants in the Assisi conferences on “Spirituality and Sustainability” or participants in the S.A.F.E. programs. Twenty years later, they have become important ecological voices in their fields and many now hold key leadership positions linked to sustainability. After its opening reflections, this book is divided in five additional parts: the universe & the university; innovative study abroad programs with Thomas Berry’s cosmology; sacredness of the natural world; economics and sustainable development; and the Earth Charter as a new global ethic. The book ends with a related letter from Thomas Berry and photographs from events with Thomas Berry in Italy.