Brian Swimme
Encyclopedia
Brian Thomas Swimme is on the faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies
, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology
to graduate students in the humanities. He received his Ph.D. (1978) from the department of mathematics at the University of Oregon
for work in singularity theory
. Swimme was a faculty member in the department of mathematics at the University of Puget Sound
in Tacoma, Washington
, 1978-81. He was a member of the faculty at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names University in Oakland, California
, 1983–89, and is presently adjunct professor for Holy Names University's Sophia Center.
Swimme brings the context of story to our understanding of the 13.7-billion-year trajectory of cosmogenesis
. His published work includes The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984), The Universe Story (Harper San Francisco, 1992), written with Thomas Berry
, and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996). Swimme is the producer of three DVD series: Canticle to the Cosmos, The Earth’s Imagination, and The Powers of the Universe.
Jerome Stone, author of Religious Naturalism Today, lists Swimme as a contemporary religious naturalist. Mary Evelyn Tucker, historian of religions at Yale University
, teamed with Swimme to produce Journey of the Universe, an HD film released in 2011. They draw together scientific discoveries in astronomy, geology and biology, with humanistic insights concerning the nature of the universe
.
Swimme's primary field of research is the nature of the evolutionary dynamics of the universe. He has developed an interpretation of the human as an emergent being within the universe and earth. His central concern is the role of the human within the earth community, the cultural implications of the Epic of Evolution
, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of earth and cosmos. Toward this goal, he founded the Center for the Story of the Universe in 1989.
His published work includes The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984), The Universe Story(Harper San Francisco, 1992) written with Thomas Berry, and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996). Swimme’s books have been translated into eight different languages.
Swimme was featured in the television series Soul of the Universe (The BBC, 1991) and The Sacred Balance produced by David Suzuki
(CBC and PBS, 2003). He is the producer of a twelve-part DVD series Canticle to the Cosmos which has been distributed worldwide. Other DVD programs featuring Swimme’s ideas include The Earth’s Imagination and The Powers of the Universe.
Swimme founded the international Epic of Evolution Society in 1998. This was a result of his participation in the conference Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
the year before.
introduced Swimme to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
. Swimme's passion for understanding were deeply influenced by Teilhard's ideas. Swimme describes his discovery of Teilhard in his Foreword to Sarah Appleton - Weber's new translation of The Human Phenomenon: He adopted Teilhard’s thinking that everything in existence has a physical as well as a spiritual dimension. He believes the universe is a deep transfiguration process. Love, truth, compassion and zest—all of these qualities regarded as divine become powerfully embodied in the universe. In this way, the universe becomes divine.
Suzanne Taylor, founder of Mighty Companions, says Swimme is a charismatic person who seeks to place scientific technology in its context of the infancy of the earth community as it struggles for reconnection to its sacred source. She believes that he sweeps us into the grand picture of human beings as the current culmination of the still-evolving universe. Swimme tells the story of the evolution of the universe and attempts to pull us into a universe of meaning, where there is not only connectivity, but directionality as well.
In Canticle to the Cosmos he says If you look at the disasters happening on our planet, it's because the cosmos is not understood as sacred...a way out of our difficulty is a journey into the universe as sacred. Eric Chaisson writes that Swimme, a mathematician by training, seeks a larger, warmer, more noble science story. Our story is not merely a collection of facts; science should be a student’s guide to a grand world view, including, if possible, meaning, purpose and value. He sees the cosmological perspective as one to which all modern scientists can subscribe, yet the meaning and purpose of its being a subjective outgrowth of an individual’s reflections upon that cosmology remains.
In a 2007 interview with Robert Wright
, Swimme says -
Pacific Sun Magazine reports that Swimme is at the forefront of a new movement that integrates science and spirituality. Swimme believes there is a new story, the Epic of Evolution
, a cosmological narrative that begins with the Big Bang
, which started the whole process, and proceeds to the evolution of the universe and life on earth. This manner of study, which engages heart and mind together, seems to teeter on the brink of religion. He believes that science, holistically, has a soul-shaking impact on people. Big history
science is filled with little mysterious coincidences, upon which our entire existence rests. Swimme notes that this inspires awe and humility, and that this cosmology puts people in their proper place. He thinks that the popular view is that the earth is like a gravel pit or a hardware store, that the earth is just stuff to be used. He believes that consumerism has become the dominant world faith, exploiting the riches of the earth. His fundamental aim is to present a new cosmology—one grounded in a contemporary understanding of the universe but nourished by ancient spiritual convictions that help give it meaning.
This is the greatest discovery of the scientific enterprise: You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone, and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes, and humans. This statement by Swimme has been widely quoted. For him the universe is a radiant, numinous revelation, and contemplating the wonders of the unfolding creativity of the cosmos is a mystical, ecstatic, awe-inspiring event. Swimme says the universe is attempting to be felt, which makes him a pantheist: someone who believes the cosmos in its entirety can be called "God."
Swimme's media work includes the video series, Canticle to the Cosmos and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. With Elisabet Sahtouris, he wrote the narrative of the book for the exhibit A Walk Through Time.
Swimme also introduced Barbara Hand Clow in her books, Heart of the Christos: Starseeding from the Pleiades (1989, ISBN 0-939680-59-9) and The Pleiadian Agenda: A New Cosmology for the Age of Light (1995, ISBN 1-879181-30-4).
California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies is a private institution of higher education founded in 1968 and based in San Francisco, California. It currently operates in three locations just south of the Civic Center district...
, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
to graduate students in the humanities. He received his Ph.D. (1978) from the department of mathematics at the University of Oregon
University of Oregon
-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...
for work in singularity theory
Singularity theory
-The notion of singularity:In mathematics, singularity theory is the study of the failure of manifold structure. A loop of string can serve as an example of a one-dimensional manifold, if one neglects its width. What is meant by a singularity can be seen by dropping it on the floor...
. Swimme was a faculty member in the department of mathematics at the University of Puget Sound
University of Puget Sound
The University of Puget Sound is a private liberal arts college located in the North End of Tacoma, Washington, in the United States...
in Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, 1978-81. He was a member of the faculty at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names University in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, 1983–89, and is presently adjunct professor for Holy Names University's Sophia Center.
Swimme brings the context of story to our understanding of the 13.7-billion-year trajectory of cosmogenesis
Cosmogenesis
Cosmogenesis is the origin and development of the cosmos. This term "Cosmogenesis" was used by Helena P. Blavatsky to describe the content of Volume I of her two-volume The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888; volume II was called "Anthropogenesis" or the origin of humanity.-Teilhard...
. His published work includes The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984), The Universe Story (Harper San Francisco, 1992), written with Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry
Thomas Berry, C.P. was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian ....
, and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996). Swimme is the producer of three DVD series: Canticle to the Cosmos, The Earth’s Imagination, and The Powers of the Universe.
Jerome Stone, author of Religious Naturalism Today, lists Swimme as a contemporary religious naturalist. Mary Evelyn Tucker, historian of religions at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, teamed with Swimme to produce Journey of the Universe, an HD film released in 2011. They draw together scientific discoveries in astronomy, geology and biology, with humanistic insights concerning the nature of the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
.
Background
Swimme is a mathematical cosmologist on the graduate faculty of the California Institute of Integral Studies and currently (2011) an instructor for the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness Program, an area of study within the Philosophy and Religion Program. It is designed to help shape the intellectual, moral and spiritual leadership of its students.Swimme's primary field of research is the nature of the evolutionary dynamics of the universe. He has developed an interpretation of the human as an emergent being within the universe and earth. His central concern is the role of the human within the earth community, the cultural implications of the Epic of Evolution
Epic of Evolution
The phrase Epic of Evolution represents an attempt to create a mythic narrative aimed at reconciling religious and scientific views of cosmic evolution, biological evolution, and sociocultural evolution. According to Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, it is…-History:The term "Epic of...
, and the role of humanity in the unfolding story of earth and cosmos. Toward this goal, he founded the Center for the Story of the Universe in 1989.
His published work includes The Universe is a Green Dragon (Bear and Company, 1984), The Universe Story(Harper San Francisco, 1992) written with Thomas Berry, and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos (Orbis, 1996). Swimme’s books have been translated into eight different languages.
Swimme was featured in the television series Soul of the Universe (The BBC, 1991) and The Sacred Balance produced by David Suzuki
David Suzuki
David Suzuki, CC, OBC is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department of the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001...
(CBC and PBS, 2003). He is the producer of a twelve-part DVD series Canticle to the Cosmos which has been distributed worldwide. Other DVD programs featuring Swimme’s ideas include The Earth’s Imagination and The Powers of the Universe.
Swimme founded the international Epic of Evolution Society in 1998. This was a result of his participation in the conference Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
the year before.
Philosophy
Thomas BerryThomas Berry
Thomas Berry, C.P. was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian ....
introduced Swimme to the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ was a French philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of both Piltdown Man and Peking Man. Teilhard conceived the idea of the Omega Point and developed Vladimir Vernadsky's concept of Noosphere...
. Swimme's passion for understanding were deeply influenced by Teilhard's ideas. Swimme describes his discovery of Teilhard in his Foreword to Sarah Appleton - Weber's new translation of The Human Phenomenon: He adopted Teilhard’s thinking that everything in existence has a physical as well as a spiritual dimension. He believes the universe is a deep transfiguration process. Love, truth, compassion and zest—all of these qualities regarded as divine become powerfully embodied in the universe. In this way, the universe becomes divine.
Suzanne Taylor, founder of Mighty Companions, says Swimme is a charismatic person who seeks to place scientific technology in its context of the infancy of the earth community as it struggles for reconnection to its sacred source. She believes that he sweeps us into the grand picture of human beings as the current culmination of the still-evolving universe. Swimme tells the story of the evolution of the universe and attempts to pull us into a universe of meaning, where there is not only connectivity, but directionality as well.
In Canticle to the Cosmos he says If you look at the disasters happening on our planet, it's because the cosmos is not understood as sacred...a way out of our difficulty is a journey into the universe as sacred. Eric Chaisson writes that Swimme, a mathematician by training, seeks a larger, warmer, more noble science story. Our story is not merely a collection of facts; science should be a student’s guide to a grand world view, including, if possible, meaning, purpose and value. He sees the cosmological perspective as one to which all modern scientists can subscribe, yet the meaning and purpose of its being a subjective outgrowth of an individual’s reflections upon that cosmology remains.
In a 2007 interview with Robert Wright
Robert Wright (journalist)
Robert Wright is an American journalist, scholar, and prize-winning author of best-selling books about science, evolutionary psychology, history, religion, and game theory, including The Evolution of God, Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, The Moral Animal, and Three Scientists and Their Gods:...
, Swimme says -
..if you take Buddhism and Christianity and so forth there's a kind of battle — a subtle sort of struggle taking place because they're not standing in a common ground but ... take the Earth or ecology then suddenly they can begin to explore what they have to offer. So I do think I do think absolutely that ... there will be a flourishing of religions, not a withering away. And they will flourish to the degree that they will move into the context of planet and universe.."
Pacific Sun Magazine reports that Swimme is at the forefront of a new movement that integrates science and spirituality. Swimme believes there is a new story, the Epic of Evolution
Epic of Evolution
The phrase Epic of Evolution represents an attempt to create a mythic narrative aimed at reconciling religious and scientific views of cosmic evolution, biological evolution, and sociocultural evolution. According to Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, it is…-History:The term "Epic of...
, a cosmological narrative that begins with the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
, which started the whole process, and proceeds to the evolution of the universe and life on earth. This manner of study, which engages heart and mind together, seems to teeter on the brink of religion. He believes that science, holistically, has a soul-shaking impact on people. Big history
Big History
Big History is a field of historical study that examines history on large scales across long time frames through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on both the history of the non-human world and on major adaptations and alterations in the human experience...
science is filled with little mysterious coincidences, upon which our entire existence rests. Swimme notes that this inspires awe and humility, and that this cosmology puts people in their proper place. He thinks that the popular view is that the earth is like a gravel pit or a hardware store, that the earth is just stuff to be used. He believes that consumerism has become the dominant world faith, exploiting the riches of the earth. His fundamental aim is to present a new cosmology—one grounded in a contemporary understanding of the universe but nourished by ancient spiritual convictions that help give it meaning.
This is the greatest discovery of the scientific enterprise: You take hydrogen gas, and you leave it alone, and it turns into rosebushes, giraffes, and humans. This statement by Swimme has been widely quoted. For him the universe is a radiant, numinous revelation, and contemplating the wonders of the unfolding creativity of the cosmos is a mystical, ecstatic, awe-inspiring event. Swimme says the universe is attempting to be felt, which makes him a pantheist: someone who believes the cosmos in its entirety can be called "God."
Major publications
- Manifesto for a Global Civilization (with Matthew FoxMatthew Fox (priest)Matthew Fox is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican order within the Roman Catholic Church, Fox is now a member of the Episcopal Church....
), Bear and Company, 1982, ISBN 0-939680-05-X - The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story, Bear and Company, 1984, ISBN 0-939680-14-9
- The Universe Story: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era: A Celebration of the Unfolding of the Cosmos, HarperHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
, 1992 (1994, ISBN 0-06-250835-0) - a culmination of a 10-year collaboration with cultural historian Thomas BerryThomas BerryThomas Berry, C.P. was a Catholic priest of the Passionist order, cultural historian and ecotheologian .... - The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, OrbisOrbis BooksOrbis Books, is an American imprint of the Maryknoll order, that has been a small but influential publisher of liberation theology works, founded by Nicaraguan Maryknoll priest Miguel D'Escoto with Philip J. Scharper in 1970. It was the first to publish Gustavo Gutiérrez's seminal work A Theology...
, 1996 (1999, ISBN 1-57075-281-8) - A Walk Through Time: From Stardust to Us - The Evolution of Life on Earth (with Sidney Liebes and Elisabet SahtourisElisabet SahtourisElisabet Sahtouris is a Greek-American evolutionary biologist, futurist, business consultant, event organizer and UN consultant on indigenous peoples...
), John Wiley & SonsJohn Wiley & SonsJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
, 1998, ISBN 0-471-31700-4 - Chapter 5 – Cosmological Education for Future Generations - The Thirteenth Labor: Improving Science Education
Swimme's media work includes the video series, Canticle to the Cosmos and The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. With Elisabet Sahtouris, he wrote the narrative of the book for the exhibit A Walk Through Time.
Swimme also introduced Barbara Hand Clow in her books, Heart of the Christos: Starseeding from the Pleiades (1989, ISBN 0-939680-59-9) and The Pleiadian Agenda: A New Cosmology for the Age of Light (1995, ISBN 1-879181-30-4).
See also
- CosmologyCosmologyCosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
- Creation-evolution controversyCreation-evolution controversyThe creation–evolution controversy is a recurring cultural, political, and theological dispute about the origins of the Earth, humanity, life, and the universe....
- Epic of EvolutionEpic of EvolutionThe phrase Epic of Evolution represents an attempt to create a mythic narrative aimed at reconciling religious and scientific views of cosmic evolution, biological evolution, and sociocultural evolution. According to Taylor's Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, it is…-History:The term "Epic of...
- EvolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
- Timeline of cosmologyTimeline of cosmologyThis timeline of cosmological theories and discoveries is a chronological record of the development of humanity's understanding of the cosmos over the last two-plus millennia. Modern cosmological ideas follow the development of the scientific discipline of physical cosmology.-Pre-1900:* ca...
External links
- Homepage of Brian Swimme
- Religious Naturalist
- Information on Religious Naturalism
- Brian Swimme MP3 audio - from Shift in Action, sponsored by Institute of Noetic Sciences