Discussion Questions for
"The Great Work"
(Note: the Sacred
Activism group at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 1615 Ogden St. in
Denver, is sponsoring a discussion of "The Great Work" on Oct.
28, 2008, 6:30 - 8:00 p. m. All are welcome. These are the
discussion questions I came up with.)
The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. Thomas Berry. New
York: Bell Tower, 1999.
1. Much of what Berry says sounds familiar to us (we’ve messed up
the environment, indigenous people are good, corporations are bad, etc.)
but much of it is really new and different. What ideas in the book have
you heard before, in what context, and what ideas seem to be really new
and different that you haven’t heard before?
2. Berry’s book is filled with calmly stated apocalyptic
predictions on the environmental crisis. For example: "Never before
has the human community been confronted with a situation that required
such a sudden and radical change in lifestyle under the threat of a
comprehensive degradation of the planet and its major life systems"
(p. 110). And: we are in an "extinction spasm" which is the
"greatest single setback to life’s abundance and diversity"
in earth’s history (p. 164). Is it really this bad? What does the
seriousness of the situation imply about our work as a church and our
work as individuals?
Questions about science:
3. Why can’t scientific materialism lead us out of our ecological
problems? Isn’t it science (not religion) that tells us about global
warming, soil erosion, and the rest?
4. "We need merely understand that the evolutionary process is
neither random nor determined but creative" (p. 169). Berry seems
to be determined to take a middle path on the question of whether God is
responsible for life (e. g. creationism), or whether it’s a random
process (as some atheists have argued). Why does he do this, and what do
you think? What’s wrong with a straightforward scientific explanation?
5. If secularism and technology got us into our current mess, then
why does Berry identify our great epic story — what corresponds to
(say) Genesis among ancient peoples — as a scientific one, as the
"big bang," galaxies forming, and evolution?
6. Berry says (p. 82) that elements have "self-organizing
capacities" and the capacity for intimate relationships . . . these
reveal astounding psychic abilities." Which elements is he talking
about? Hydrogen, helium, carbon, or what? And what is he talking about?
How can carbon organize itself? Is consciousness inherent in matter, or
Questions about our relationship to the earth:
7. "Every being has rights to be respected and revered" (p.
5). Berry elsewhere speaks of the "rights of living species"
(p. 111). In what ways does our food system deny a sacred dimension to
animals (whether we eat them or not). What would a food system that
respected this dimension look like?
8. Groups such as the Sierra Club encourage enjoyment of natural
environments, as a vehicle to preserve the environment. How is this
appreciation of the environment similar to (and different from) the
primitive understanding of the environment and forces of nature?
Questions about religion:
9. Why is environmental degradation linked to degradation of our
inner world? (P. 110). Is the converse also true — that degradation of
our inner world is linked to environmental degradation? How could we
improve our inner world and would this really help the environment?
10. Berry states that ". . . a new revelatory experience is
needed" (p. 165). "Perhaps a new revelatory experience is
taking place, an experience wherein human consciousness awakens to the
grandeur and sacred quality of the earth process" (p. 106). What
kind of experience is he talking about? When, where, and how could we as
individuals or as a church facilitate this?
Questions about the economy:
11. "An extractive economy is by its nature a terminal
economy." (P. 138) What does this imply about the car, our housing
system, and the suburbs? What does this imply about our jobs, for that
matter? What is the future of transportation in a non-extractive
economy? Since our entire economy is based on oil and other fossil
fuels, how do we get out of this way of being?
12. "The petroleum interval is coming to its termination within
the lifetime of persons living in the present" (p. 158). What are
the implications of the decline of oil supplies for our transportation,
our agriculture, our standard of living, the economy, and the hopes of
Questions about culture:
13. Why does Berry emphasize the university rather than government,
religion, or corporations, as the most important vehicle to do the Great
Work? Does this make sense? How does he see it working, or how could it
14. "Our Western culture long ago abandoned its integral
relation with the planet on which we live." (P. 147) What would a
culture that accepted its integral relation with the planet look like?
15. "After considering the wisdom of indigenous peoples, the
wisdom of women, the wisdom of the traditions, and the wisdom of
science, it seems quite clear that these all agree in the intimacy of
humans with the natural world" (p. 193). But since we already have
these four wisdoms, why do we need to transform our culture? What’s