Living Within the Universe Story

Speaker

Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University

About the Speaker

At Yale University, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D. holds joint appointments in School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She was trained at Columbia University in the study of Asian Religions, and after years of academic research and writing on the Confucian tradition, she was drawn to explore the relationship between the world religions and ecology more deeply. This work grows out of her abiding concern for the environmental crisis. She organized a series of conferences through Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, and edited several volumes of essays addressing the topic. These conferences led to the founding of the Forum on Religion and Ecology (housed today at Yale), which aims to place religion in dialogue with other disciplines in order to shape environmental policy and address environmental problems at both global and local levels.

Dr. Tucker has edited and authored many books, including Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase (Open Court Press, 2003), Ecology and Religion, authored with John Grim (Island Press, 2014). She also co-created a multi-media project called Journey of the Universe. This project includes accessible curricular resources as well as an award-winning film, which tells the universe’s story by integrating contemporary scientific discoveries with humanistic insights.

Location

Fort Howard Theater, Bemis International Center, St. Norbert College

Start Date

2-12-2015 7:00 PM

Description

The theme of Dr. Tucker’s talk is best captured by the words of Albert Einstein: “A human being is a part of a whole, called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Dr. Tucker’s film and lecture presentations will offer a new perspective on the role of humans in the universe and will provoke important conversations about the ecological problems we face.