How can the wisdom of Deeptime
offer guidance and resilience in these turbulent times?
Join Two Courses
with Sam King
#1: JOURNEY of the UNIVERSE
Seven Tuesdays, March 25 – May 6, 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
#2: The WORLDVIEW of THOMAS BERRY
Six Tuesdays, May 20 – June 24, 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
Register for each course individually, or for the combo pack. Scroll down for discounts and to register, or click here.
These courses are foundational to everything we’re doing on the Network, and more . . . they are food for the soul.
— Jennifer Morgan, president, DTN
The JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE and THE WORLDVIEW OF THOMAS BERRY courses
are based on the Yale/Coursera courses,
with the same names, developed by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim
with the assistance of Sam King and Anna Thurston.
They will explore how the emerging story of cosmic evolution can help guide us toward a more just and flourishing future. You may register for each course individually or both together and receive a discount.
Studying the Universe Story and Thomas Berry offers a profound experience of expansion, like traveling through a spiral where each and every part opens infinite depths and possibilities.
— Sam King (Scroll down to see Sam’s bio.)
Course #1
JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE
Seven Tuesdays, March 25 – May 6, 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
By situating ourselves within this story we can better appreciate the complexity and beauty of processes such as self-organizing dynamics, natural selection, emergence, symbiosis, and co-evolution. As we discover these intricate processes of evolution, we awaken to the beauty and complexity of our natural environment at this critical moment in our planetary history.
Journey of the Universe Film Trailer
Course #2
THE WORLDVIEW OF THOMAS BERRY
Six Tuesdays, May 20 – June 24, 7:00 – 8:30 pm ET
This course will complement our course on JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE, the Emmy Award-winning film and multimedia project inspired by Thomas Berry’s call for a New Story. Together we will explore Berry’s deep insights about the unfolding Universe and our role in co-creating a flourishing future for the Earth community.
Description of the Course
Thomas Berry (1914-2009) was a historian of world religions and an early voice awakening moral sensibilities to the environmental crisis. He is known for articulating a “new story” of the universe that explores the implications of the evolutionary sciences and cultural traditions for a new understanding of the Universe, our place within it, and our role in creating a flourishing future.
Adapted from Yale/Coursera, this course investigates Berry’s life and thought in relation to the Journey of the Universe project. It draws on his books, articles, and recorded lectures to examine such ideas as the New Story, the Great Work, and the emerging Ecozoic era. The course explores Berry’s insights into cosmology as a context for locating the human in a dynamic unfolding universe and thus participating in the creative work of our times. In particular, we will examine Berry’s reflections on renewal and reform in the areas of ecology, economics, education, spirituality, the arts, and jurisprudence.
Thomas Berry was an original, creative, and comprehensive thinker, especially regarding the critical nature of our global environmental crisis. His intellectual importance resides in his response to the ecological crisis by bringing together the humanities and science in an evolutionary narrative. In addition, he articulated the need for the moral participation of the world religions in addressing environmental issues. He came to this realization largely through his study of cosmologies embedded within religious traditions. Sensing the significance of these stories as “functional cosmologies” he explored the widespread influence that these stories transmitted through a tradition, for example, in rituals, ethics, and stories.
A 2019 book — Thomas Berry: A Biography, by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim — provides an overview of his life and work.
Sam King is an educator, speaker, writer, facilitator, and environmentalist. He serves as Research Associate for the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and Project Manager for the Emmy Award-winning Journey of the Universe film and multimedia project, curating a monthly newsletter and hosting the Journey of the Universe: 10 Years Later podcast. As Director of Sustainability for the U.S. Marist school network, he also works with youth leaders across the country to galvanize grassroots engagement on climate change, species loss, pollution, and environmental justice.
Sam has taught at The Hotchkiss School, Phillips Academy Andover Summer, and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as a Fulbright scholar in Sri Lanka. He holds a M.A. in Religion and Ecology from Yale and a M.A. in Creative Writing from Dartmouth. An avid gardener, forager, and outdoorsman, he lives on ancestral Quinnipiac land in New Haven, CT.
How each session works:
Each week, participants read articles, watch videos, and engage in embodied practices before meeting with the DTN course via Zoom on Tuesdays at 7:00 PM EST.
Session Descriptions, Week by Week
(Sessions are live with Sam King. Recordings of all sessions will be accessible inside the course space for up to one year. You may participate in online discussions between sessions.)
Course 1
Journey of the Universe: The Unfolding of Life
Week 1 (March 25, 2025)
Introductions
Instructions for Navigating the Course and Using Zoom
Week 2 (April 1, 2025)
Introduction – The Beginning of The Universe
In module two, we explore how humans are part of the larger Universe Story from its inception.
Week 3 (April 8, 2025)
The Formation of Galaxies and Stars
This module explores many of the world’s greatest stories and how they begin our journey, a quest to answer life’s most intimate questions like where we come from and why we are here.
Week 4 (April 15, 2025)
Our Solar System and Life’s Emergence
Here we look at several milestones in scientific discovery that have expanded our understanding of the solar system.
Week 5 (April 22, 2025)
Living and Dying and the Passion of Animals
We now invite you to think about the coevolution of the human with other species within this broad time scale. Completing this module may change the way that you understand what it means to be human.
Week 6 (April 29, 2025)
From the Origin of the Human to Becoming a Planetary Presence
In this module, we hope you come to understand the human species to be “planetary” in a unique way through our symbolic consciousness.
Week 7 (May 6, 2025)
Rethinking Matter and Time Within the Emerging Earth Community
What does it mean to live in cosmological time? How is thinking like this different than other conceptions of time? What implications does it have for your understanding of yourself and your sense of your relationship to the world around you? This module explores answers to these questions in relation to contemporary issues and ethical responsibilities for the well being of the Earth community.
Course 2
The Worldview of Thomas Berry
Week 1 (May 20, 2025)
Welcome to the Worldview of Thomas Berry: The Flourishing of the Earth Community
This week will introduce participants to one another and to Thomas Berry (1914-2009), a historian of world religions and an early voice awakening moral sensibilities to the environmental crisis and the possibility of human-Earth flourishing.
Week 2 (May 27, 2025)
Thomas Berry’s Study of World Cultures and Religions
Widely read in Western history and theology, Thomas Berry studied and taught widely in Chinese, Indian, and Native American traditions, seeking to understand how diverse human communities have related to the Earth and Universe across time.
Week 3 (June 3, 2025)
Influence of Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
Learn how the Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin inspired Berry through his understandings of cosmogenesis, spirit-matter, the psychic zest for life, and the emerging noosphere.
Week 4 (June 10, 2025)
“The New Story”
We will discuss Berry’s seminal essay, “The New Story,” (1978) calling for an integral narrative of our shared cosmic origins to awaken awe and orient humanity to a mutually-enhancing presence within the Earth community.
Week 5 (June 17, 2025)
Cosmology and Ecology
We will explore Berry’s vision of the human as embedded in the larger Earth and Universe processes of differentiation, subjectivity, and communion.
Week 6 (June 24, 2025)
The Great Work and the Ecozoic Era
Our final unit will explore the enduring relevance of what Berry calls the Great Work of our time — to reinvent the human species, within the Earth community, by means of story and shared dream experience — to usher in an Ecozoic Era of human-Earth flourishing.
This is a course for you if you:
- have heard about Thomas Berry and wish to study his work.
- know Thomas Berry’s work and want to have a deeper understanding of how to apply it to personal-to-civilizational change.
- are unfamiliar with Thomas Berry and would like to know about him, his work, and how it may be applied.
Key Resources:
-
Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth
-
Thomas Berry, “The New Story“
-
Thomas Berry, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future
“Two things are needed to guide our judgment . . . for the challenges ahead: A certain alarm at what is happening at present and a fascination with the future available to us only if we respond creatively to the urgencies of the present.”
-Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry, A Biography by Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are the co-founders of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. They are, also, trustees of the Thomas Berry Foundation, which has established a website on Thomas Berry’s work, thomasberry.org. This will be valuable to participants as it contains biographical materials about him, articles by and about him, and audio and video presentations by him.
What You’ll Receive in These Courses!
- 1 1/2 hour live weekly sessions on Tuesdays, 7:00-8:30 pm ET
- Video recordings of large group sessions that you can access at any time
- Access to videos and readings posted on each session page in the course space
- Online asynchronous discussion forum to explore topics of interest to you
- The opportunity to interact with Sam King and other course organizers.
- Access to course space recordings, resources and messaging with fellow participants for up to one year
- Participation in a rich and supportive global community
What people are saying about the Deeptime Network . . .
Our Learning Management System
We use Sensei integrated with Buddypress so that participants can engage in asynchronous course discussions, and share resources, profiles, and information about their organizations. We’ve had experience using this technology with people of all levels of technical capability. If you have any questions, we’re right there to help you. All meetings are recorded. The course will remain open for one year so you can view recordings, stay in touch and continue to share thoughts and resources with others sharing the journey with you. Our fearless developer, Mohit Sharma, stands at the ready to solve any tech problems that might crop up a long the way.
Sign Me Up!
Log in first before making your purchase. If you’re not a member yet, sign up for free before purchasing this course. Paid membership discounts will appear after you log in.
- Premium members receive a 10% discount. Become a premium member before purchasing this course and save.
- Check out the installment plan by clicking on payment plan and then “View” to see individual payments.
- Do you need scholarship support? We have some scholarship funds available, particularly for young people. Write to [email protected].
Purchase both courses
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Professional Development
Hours available!
(See below)
Journey of the Universe
(March 25 – May 6)
Without PD Hours – $125
With 10.5 PD Hours- $300
Thomas Berry Course
(May 20 – June 24)
Without PD Hours – $125
With 9 PD Hours – $260
BOTH COURSES
(March 25 – June 24)
Without PD Hours – $230
With 19.5 PD Hours – $520