THE NEW STORY
In Search
of a
Functional
Cosmology
OUR BEGINNING
You have come from the energy
and the power thas has brought
the universe into being
the beginning of the Universe
is also your beginning.
You were born from the fire
that created the stars
that fire is alive in you
B.Swimme
Fire of the Beginning
WHAT IS COSMOLOGY?
Cosmology aims at articulating the story of
the universe so that humans can enter fully
into the web of relationships within the
universe.
A çosmology helps us to understand our
relationship to the Earth, Cosmos, world.
THE NEED FOR A NEW STORY OF CREATION
“It is all a question of story. We are in trouble because we
do not have a good story. We are in between two stories.
The old story, the account of how the world came to be and
how we fit into it, is no longer af fective.
Our traditional story of the universe sustained us for a long
period of time.
We knew our place in creation and the circle of life.
WE NEED A NEW STORY
We need a new story that will provide a
context for our lives.
We need a story;
about how things came to be,
how they came to be as they are now and
how the future can be given direction.
THE BIBLICAL CREATION STORY
The creation story in Genesis Chapter 1, tells
how the world was made in seven
consecutive (Gen 1: 2-4a) days. The chapter
tells how humankind arrived on the scene
(Gen 1:26-31).
 This account of how our world came to be is
no longer adequate or effective in the light of
modern science.
IT IS ALL A MATTER OF COSMOLOGY
How do we see
ourselves
In the world we live
in.
What do we see
when we look
at the world around
us?
Hildegard of Bingen: Cosmic
Human
THE WORLD OF TODAY IS CONTROLLED
BY ITS COSMOLOGY
“The present Ecological crisis has everything to
do with the cosmology that underpins our view
on the world.
Once we are aware of this, we will understand
where the destruction of the Earth comes form.
“A radical reassessment of the human situation
is needed, especially concerning those values
that give life some satisfactory meaning”.
(T.Berry)
THE WORLDVIEW THAT HAS DIRECTED US
The universe includes the human but is
larger than the human.
Because we have not understood this,
we caused so much devastation on earth.
MOVING FORWARD TO A NEW STORY
“We need to connect with the Dynamic Force
behind the Universe and how through it all came
into being.
It is that same power – that after so many ageshas made us aware of our place in the universe.
If we open ourselves to that power, that Wisdom
and that process we can look with new hope to the
future of the human.”
Thomas Berry in “The New Story” in
Dream of the Earth
The quest of humans of all cultures
and all ages
Where do we come from?
Where are we now?
What are we to do?
How are we to live our lives today?
What is our destiny?
What does the future hold for us?
Origin
In the Beginning was
the Dream
The Dream was with
God
The Dream was God….
Through the Dream all
things
came to be.
Origin
Diana Lynne Anderson
A New Creation Story has evolved
in the Scientific Community
The New Story that has been developed by
Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in the light
of modern scientific knowledge, has provided
us with a credible and acceptable story.
This story is the context within which all other
stories of origin find their fulfilment.
This New Story is the greatest change in human
consciousness since the rise of human civilization
WE MUST BEGIN WERE EVERY THING
BEGINS BEGINS
A Story in Four Phases:
The Galactic story
The Earth story
The Life story
The Human story
There is no
moment of
transition
from the
material to
the
spiritual.
All was
there
at once.
SEEING EARTH FROM SPACE
At the beginning of the 21 st century we are
beginning to see the Earth in its context of the
universe. Because of space travel, we have
been able to stand apart from the Earth and
see it, at least in photographs, as a whole.
We have become used to a new picture of the
Earth, as a single, beautiful, blue-green planet
shared by all living creatures.
.
Earth:
Icon of
our
time.
CHRISTIAN COSMOLOGY
A THEOLOGY THAT LISTENS TO SCIENCE
Will see God as creatively at work in and
through the whole process of the emergent
universe as described by contemporary
cosmology.
It will see God as empowering the emergent
universe and every aspect of it from within.
God creates in such a way that all
potentialities of the universe emerge from the
primeval events
WE ARE BORN OF THE UNIVERSE
God creates human
beings
As emergent creatures:
We are born of the
universe,
constituted of the
hydrogen atoms that
emerged in the early 13.7
billion years ago.
DEEP INCARNATION
The universe from its beginning
had a Christ dimension: “all
things were made through him
and without him was not
anything made that was
made”.
John 1, 3
In Jesus of
Nazareth God
becomes a vital
part of an
ecosystem;
interconnected
systems that
support life on
Earth.
DEEP INCARNATION
Incarnation is not restricted to humans; it
is the whole interconnected world. Also the
biological world of living creatures. The
Word made flesh is the whole world of
interrelated organisms.
In becoming flesh God embraced all
creatures in the interconnected web of life.
D.Edwards
In and through Jesus God suffers
with creation
CHRISTIAN COMMUNIT Y
Christian Community can be seen as integral
with the larger story of the universe, of Earth,
of life, and of the human community.
The ultimate community is the whole universe
together.
The integral universe constitues the sacred
community par excellence and needs to be
recognized as such in Christian thought.
Th.Berry
TO CONCLUDE
All that God created was already in Gods presence
before the world began, before the beginning of time.
Hildegard of Bingen ( 1098 – 1179)