Thomas Berry is usually categorized as "a cultural historian" and a "theologian." This reflects the fact that he has devoted his life to the study of the world's great cultural and spiritual traditions. He also speaks from an amazing depth of understanding about the ever-changing world of science. He calls himself a "geologian" which emphasises his lifelong commitment to the study of the earth.

One of the wisest and most humble persons I have ever met, Thomas Berry is a giant of a man. He speaks and writes with great power and the ideas he promotes literally have the power to change the world! Having said all that, I want to take one of his concepts and offer some reflections on it.

I have heard Thomas Berry say, on a number of different occasions, that Christians need to put the bible on the shelf for 20 years and start paying attention to the scriptures of the natural world. Original Christian teaching, he points out, considered nature to be a holy book, "written" by divinity and a primary revelation of the divine. It wasn't until the 16th Century that western Christian teachers turned away from the concept of a sacred earth and found "the word of God" only in the written words of the Bible. It was this emphasis that opened the door to the exploitation of the earth, the results of which are today, everywhere apparent. As someone who has spent a great deal of time within the world of the church, I know how threatening it is to think that divinity is to be seen, tasted, encountered in the natural world. As long as "the truth" about God can be locked up in the scriptures and the creedal traditions of the church, there is a chance to stay in control. Allow divinity out into the woods, streams, mountains and clouds and anyone can claim to encounter the divine.

One of the ugliest aspects of contemporary life is the systematic destruction of the natural world deliberately carried out in the name of industrial progress. I despair that our western religious heritage - with its loss of vision - can turn things around. Perhaps we can hear the voices of the native peoples of North America who never lost their sensitivity to the sacred earth and, despite centuries of abuse, are calling on us to honour and respect the natural world. Or maybe we can heed the call of a man like Thomas Berry who says: "Our soul's life is dependent on the divine splendour in the natural world and our access to that world."