Outstanding Scholars and Teachers of New CosmologyYour teachers are theologians, cosmologists, historians, research and earth scientists, biblical scholars, artists, psychologists, dancers, musicians, and sociologists. Collectively, they honor a variety of learning styles and understand the needs of adults who are lifelong learners.At the Sophia Center you will be nurtured by a remarkable faculty dedicated to fostering a greater understanding of the unfolding universe and its implications for the world and its ways. |
 Carl Anthony, PhD is currently a Ford Foundation Senior Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Department of Geography at the University of California at Berkeley. Before joining the Ford Foundation, he was Founder and Executive Director of the Urban Habitat Program, He served as President of Earth Island Institution, an international organization for the protection of the biosphere. He co-founded and published the Race, Poverty and the Environment Journal, the only environmental justice periodical in the United States. Anthony is co founder with Margaret Paloma Pavel of the Earth House Leadership Center. He is writing a book on the Earth, the City, and the Hidden Narrative of Race. |
 Masankho
Kamsisi Banda, MA is a multi-disciplinary performing artist,
educator and peacebuilder, originally from Malawi, Central Africa. Masankho
uses his talents to share his passion for his culture and to spread the
message of peace and justice around the world. (UCanDanc). |
 Gregory Baum, PhD is Professor Emeritus at McGill University's Faculty of Religious Studies. His academic education was in Catholic theology and sociology; his publications dealt with ecumenical relations, inter-religious dialogue, and the religious quest for a just and peaceful world. During the Vatican Council (1962-1965), he was an appointed theologian at the Ecumenical Secretariat responsible for the conciliar documents on Ecumenism, Religious Liberty and the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions. Among his many publications, his book Religion and Alienation has recently been released by Novalis. |
 Jennifer Berezan, is an internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter/recording artist and teacher.
She is a unique blend of poet, musician, and music healer. She has been
performing and recording for the past 20 years, creating a wide range of
styles from folk/rock to meditative healing recordings. Her work includes
many collaborations and features guest artists such as Academy Award winning
actress Olympia Dukakis and Pulitzer Price winner author Alice Walker. (About Berezan) |
 Thomas
Berry, MDiv founded the History of Religious Program
at Fordham University and the Riverdale Center of religious Research. He
has served as president of the American Teilhard de Chardin Association,
and won a Lannan Foundation Award for The Dream of the Earth. Together
with the scientist Brian Swimme, he wrote The Universe Story: A Celebration
of the Unfolding of the Cosmos. (About Berry) |
 Cynthia Brix, M.Div, MA. is Program Director of Satyana Institute. She was formerly the Unitarian Universalistic campus minister at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and completed her seminary training at Iliff School of Theology. A student of Eknath Easwaran’s Passage Meditation, Cynthia co-leads retreats on interfaith spirituality for religious leaders and supports women’s projects in India. Cynthia is contributing author of Divine Duality: The Power of Reconciliation Between Women and Men. |
 Patricia
Mathes Cane, PhD. Capacitar founder/Co-Director has 15 years experience teaching bi-lingual workshops to thousands of participants in body-mind-spirit practices in 15 state and 20 countries. As founder and Co-Director of Capacitar, an international project of empowerment and solidarity, she works nationally and international in the area of personal and societal healing and transformation. She is the author of Capacitar Manual of Body-Mind-Spirit Practices; and Trauma Healing and Transformation. |
|
 Michele
Cassou, Author of Point
Zero, Creativity Without Limits, and co-author of Paint and Passion:
The Magic of Spontaneous Expression. She is known internationally for
her ground breaking work in exploring the spiritual dimensions of the creative
process. She has made several videos of her work and has taught workshops
in the US and Europe for the last 25 years. (Creativity
Without Limit) Back to Index |
 John
B. Cobb, Jr., PhD. is a leader in the field of process theology.
He taught theology at the Claremont School of Theology and the Claremont
Graduate School. He is founding co-director of the Center
for Process Studies and co-founder of Mobilization for the Human Family,
and author of Transforming Christianity and the World, The Earthiest
Challenge of Economism, and Postmodernism and Public Policy. Back to Index |
 Jim
Conlon, PhD, is the director of the Sophia Center at Holy
Names College. He holds degrees in chemistry, theology, social science and
culture and spirituality. He is a graduate of programs in urban training
and community organization. Among his publications are The Sacred Impulse,
Ponderings from the Precipice, Lyrics for Re-Creation, Earth Story, Sacred
Story, Geo-Justice, At the Edge of Our Longing and From the Stars to the Streets. (More about Conlon) Back to Index |
 Phil
Cousineau is
a best-selling author, award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, teacher, and sports coach. He has published over twenty books, most recently Once and Future Myths and Stoking the Creative Fires, and he has more than twenty film credits, including The Hero's Journey: The World of Joseph Campbell and The Future of the City: Reinventing the Urban World. His books include: The Hero's Journey: Joseph
Campbell on His Life and Work, Soul: An Anthology: Reading from Socrates
to Ray Charles, the Art of Pilgrimage, Once and Future Myths, and The Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on The Spiritual Life. (More about Cousineau) Back to Index |
 Kathleen Deignan,CND, studied with Father Thomas Berry during her graduate work in the history of Christian Spirituality and Historical Theology at Fordham University, New York. She is Professor of Religious Studies and founder of the Iona Spirituality Institute, which she directs at Iona College, in New Rochelle, NY. A sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame, she lives her community’s spirit of Magnificat as a composer of sacred and liturgical song. She is artist in residence at Schola Ministries, a project in service to the liturgical and contemplative arts, which has produced a dozen collections of her original songs, most recently The Gift (2007). She sits on the board of the International Thomas Merton Society and is a GreenFaith Fellow. Back to Index |
 Drew
Dellinger, spoken word poet, teacher, and activist—has been described by YES! magazine as an ‘important voice of the global justice movement,’ and by Joanna Macy as “a national treasure.” Dellinger is the founder of Poets for Global Justice and author of the book of poems, love letter to the milky way. Dellinger has studied cosmology with Thomas Berry since 1990, and has presented and performed across the U.S., addressing issues of cosmology, justice, ecology, and democracy. (More about Dellinger). Back to Index |
 Susana Diaz, MD, Clinical Psychologist, Focusing Oriented Psychotherapist, and Master in Culture and Spirituality, is co-founder and coordinator of “Los Cerezos”: The Cherry Trees Center, for Ecology, Spirituality and Holistic Health. She has been committed for more than thirty years to marginalized people of her country, working with aboriginal communities and abused women and children of Argentina. She is also Capacitar International Advisor for her country working with PTSD victims. (More about Diaz) Back to Index |
| Dody Donnelly, PhD,ThD, is a theologian and historian, and author of Team Works and Radical Love. She is a faculty member at the Fromm Institute of the University of San Francisco and the Graduate Theological Union. |
 Larry Dossey, MD, is a physician of internal medicine, the executive editor of the peer reviewed journal, Explore, and the author of ten books on spirituality, consciousness and health, including New York Times best seller, Healing Words: The Power of Prayer and the Practice of Medicine, and the upcoming The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things. (More about Dossey) Back to Index |
 Stephen
Dunn, C.P. is the founder and former director of the Elliott
Allen Institute for Theology & Ecology and continues directing
the Centre for Ecology
and Spirituality. Before starting the Institute, he was a director
at the Passionists' Holy Cross Retreat Centre in Port Burwell, Ontario
Canada In the late 1970s the retreat centre began giving annual
colloquia featuring Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme in its commitment to
bring religion and ecology into dialogue. The net effect of this
collaboration resulted in the momentum to make the faculty of theology
at the University of St. Michael's College more responsive to the ecological
crisis by initiating for an integrated approach around these issues in
theological studies with the introduction of a specialist certificate
in ecology and theology. Steve recently retired from his full-time
professor position at St. Michael's College in spring of 2002. Back to Index |
 Michelle
Dwyer, AA, is a teacher of
Chinese healing arts and martial arts. She is well known locally, nationally
and internationally for her modern teaching methods in using physical culture
as a means for inner growth and transformation. She has written a book on
Tai Chi Chuan and is a contributing author to martial arts magazines and
anthologies Back to Index |
 Riane Eisler, JD PhD, is an eminent social scientist, attorney, and author best known for her bestseller The Chalice and The Blade: Our History, Our Future. Her newest book, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics – hailed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking,” by Peter Senge as “desperately needed,” by Gloria Steinem as “revolutionary,” and by Jane Goodall as “a call for action” – proposes a new approach to economics that gives visibility and value to the most essential human work: the work of caring for people and planet. Her ideas have inspired thousands of scholars and social activists. Her pioneering work in human rights expanded the focus of international organizations to include the rights of women and children. Her research on cultural transformation has impacted many fields, including history, economics, psychology, and education.( More about Eisler) |
 Mary Ann Finch, MA is the Director of the Care
Through Touch Institute, a professional school of massage and a service
agency that provides Care Through Touch to thousands of poor, homeless,
elderly and dying women, men and children in the Bay Area. She is the author
of Care Through Touch. Back to Index |
| Catherine M. Firpo, PhD, holds a Doctorate in Mythological Studies with an emphasis in Depth Psychology. "As an artist, writer, and educator I work with the synthesis of visual imagery and archetypal elements woven into patterns of individual and collective psyche. My emphasis includes the magnificence and mystery of the creative process within each individual that I believe allows new perspectives and global intelligence to come forward with collective and awareness and compassion into our world." Back to Index |
 Carol Lee Flinders received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, specializing in medieval studies. She then spent fifteen years writing about natural foods, co-authoring the popular Laurel's Kitchen cookbooks and writing a weekly syndicated newspaper column. Carol's latest book is Enduring Lives: Living Portraits of Women of Faith In Action (Putnam/Archer). It profiles four contemporary women that she believes live and work in the "spiritual mother-line" of women like Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint Catherine of Genoa. (More about Flinders) Back to Index |
John Fox CPT, is a poet and certified poetry therapist. John teaches at the Sophia Center of Holy Names University. He is adjunct associate professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. He teaches in the Graduate School of Holistic Studies at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, California and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. He is author of Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-making and Finding What You Didn't Lose: Expressing Your Truth and Creativity Through Poem-Making and numerous essays. He works throughout the United States and has brought "poetic medicine" to Ireland, the United Kingdom, Israel, Kuwait, South Korea and Canada. John is the past president of the National Association for Poetry Therapy. (More about Fox ) Back to Index |
 Susan Plummer Freeman, PhD. a psychotherapist for 17 years has worked with individuals, couples
and families. her background in teaching, training and research, as well
as a therapy group facilitator and consultant, is combined with a lifetime
pursuit of understanding the very human and vital experience of deep change.
After receiving a BS degree in Behavioral Science she went on to UC of Berkeley
earning her M.S.W. in Community Organization and Social Planning. She graduated
with distinction from Saybrook Institute in San Francisco, CA with a PhD.
in Psychology. Back to Index |
 Barry
Friedman, PhD, MFT is a licensed psychotherapist and historian of religion practicing
in the East Bay. Barry’s doctorate is in South Asian Languages and
Civilizations. He also holds a MA in Divinity and a MA in Counseling Psychology.
He brings to his work over a decade of training and experience in depth
psychotherapy, two decades in the field of history of religions and world
mythology, and a long-term study and practice of Buddhist and Hindu mediation,
prayer and Tai Chi Chuang. Back to Index |
 Susan
Golas, csjp, MA, the “founding mother” of WATERSPIRIT in 1998, continues to serve as the director. Her background includes efforts in education, peace and justice work, and church renewal. She has served in leadership positions in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, an international, Catholic religious order committed to peace through justice. Suzanne also serves as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace's non-governmental organization (NGO) representative at the United Nations where she concentrates on sustainable development and environmental issues, specifically water. Suzanne participated in the Earth Literacy program at Genesis Farm, Blairstown, New Jersey. Back to Index |
 Marya
Grathwohl, OSF, MA lives at Prayer
Lodge, a center serving native American women. She is passionate about
changing human consciousness toward love for the planet and is writing a
book that integrates her transformative experience with Crow and Northern
Cheyenne peoples with insights from the 13.7 billion year story of the universe.
Marya lives in a solar and wind power home, heated and cooled by a geothermal
system. She is a Sister of St. Francis since 1963. (More
about Grathwohl) Back to Index |
 John
Grim,
PhD, is the chair of the Religion Department at Bucknell University and
specializes in Native American religions. John is the editor of the volume Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The InterBeing of Cosmology
and Community.
For over ten years he has been the president of the American
Teilhard Association. He is also the author of The Shaman and co-editor with Mary Evelyn Tucker of Worldviews and Ecology. (More
about Grim) Back to Index |
| Robert Hale, OSB, Cam, PhD, teaches spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology. He has been a monk since 1959, and former Prior of New Gamaldoli Hermitage for 12 years. He has written articles and three books in the area of spirituality including Christ and the Universe: Teilhard deChardin and the Cosmos. Back to Index |
 Kim Hermanson , PhD, lectures, writes and teaches on topics related to transformative teaching and learning. She is the author of the forthcoming, Getting Messy: Learning as a Way of Teaching. Her most recent book, Sky's The Limit, earned an honorable mention at the 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards. She also teaches at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and University of California Berkeley Extension. (More about Hermanson) Back to Index |
 Barbara
Holmes, PhD, is
Associate Professor of Ethics and African American Religious Studies, Memphis Theological Seminary. She is author of: A Race and the Cosmos:
An Invitation to View the World Differently, Private Woman in Public Spaces,
Joy Unspeakable: The Contemplative Practices of the Black Church, and The Legacy of Martin Luther King, JR.-The Boundaries of Law, Politics
and Religion. Back to Index |
 Patrick Houck,
has a UC Berkeley certificate in landscape architecture and is the owner of a garden design and installation business in the Bay Area. Patrick does process painting as a further aide in understanding the creative process and has been teaching workshops with Michele Cassou. Back to Index |
 Ada
Maria Isasi-Diaz is a professor of Ethics and Theology at Drew University, NJ. She has spent the last 20 years of her life elaborating
a Muejrista Theology — a liberation theology from the perspective
of Latinas living in the USA. She has lectured all over the USA and in Cuba,
Zimbabwe, and the Philippines on issues of justice, diversity and Latinas
religious understandings and practices. Among her publications are Mujerista
Theology - A Theology for the 21st Century and En la Lucha (just re-issued by Fortress press). Back to Index |
 Will
Keepin,
Ph.D. is founding President of Satyana.
Originally trained in mathematical physics. His work on sustainable energy
policy was influential in several countries. Subsequently trained in spiritual
practices and transpersonal psychology. He is adjunct faculty member at
the California Institute of Integral Studies and co-author with Molly Dwyer
of their forthcoming book, Gender Reconciliation. Back to Index |
 Kathy
Kelly ,Ph.D, helped initiate Voices in the
Wilderness, a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq. For
bringing medicine and toys to Iraq in open violation of the UN/US sanctions,
she and other campaign members were notified of a proposed $163,000 penalty
for the organization, threatened with 12 years in prison, and eventually
fined $50,000, a sum which they’ve refused to pay. Kathy was nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize 2000. She is the author of Iraq Under Siege Back to Index |
 Ursula
King,
PhD, is professor and director of the Center for Comparative Studies in
Religion and Gender, Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, England. She is the author of the award-winning, Spirit of Fire, Christian Mystics and Christ in All Things. (More
about King) Back to Index |
 David Korten, PhD, is the co-founder/chair of the Positive Futures Network (YES! Magazine), citizen activist, teacher and author. In his most recent book, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, David draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable way of ordering human society based on democratic principles of partnership is indeed possible. (More
about Korten) Back to Index |
 Alexandra
Kovats, csjp, PhD has been a spiritual director and retreat
facilitator for over thirty years. She is adjunct instructor at the School
of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. Through her teaching and
journeying with people of different ages, life-styles and culture/ethnic
backgrounds she is committed to facilitate them toward a fuller and freer
life. She is the author of Prayer, A Discovery of Life. (More about Kovats) Back to Index |
 Osprey Orielle Lake, MA, is an internationally renowned artist with a lifetime interest in environmental sustainability, diverse philosophies and indigenous worldviews. In her presentations and work in bronze statues and monuments, she combines contemporary and ancient images into meaningful statements about caring for our earth, our communities, and our future. One of the world’s few female monument makers working with allegorical images, Osprey is the founder/artist of the International Cheemah and Mari Monument Projects, which celebrate environmental, multicultural and societal themes. Through her projects Osprey explores art and new narratives as critical tools in societal transformation. Her work emphasizes renewing contemporary human/nature relationships and enhancing appreciation for cultural diversity. (More about Lake) Back to Index |
 Maurice
Lange, OMI, MDiv, at 17 journeyed to Oaxaca, Mexico to live
with indigenous people. This experience, along with 40 years of life spent
largely outdoors, continues to evoke a broader sense of life. Maurice is
a member of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. After a two year
internship at Genesis Farm he now live and works near the St. louis are.
He offers retreats, presentations and Earth Literacy courses which call
forth a mutually enhancing human Earth relationship. Back to Index |
 Miriam MacGillis, OP, MA, is an earth activist and artist. She co-founded Genesis Farm Learning Center in Blairstown, NJ. The farm practices biodynamic methods of agriculture and some 180 families are shareholders in its economic support. The farm is also an ecological learning center based on the vision of Thomas Berry where the focus is on how to live in the new cosmological order and, especially, how to live within the bioregional context. Back to Index |
 Joanna Macy, PhD, is a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. A respected voice in movements for peace, justice, and ecology, she interweaves her scholarship with four decades of activism. She has created a ground-breaking theoretical framework for personal and social change, as well as a powerful workshop methodology for its application. Joanna travels widely giving lectures, workshops, and trainings in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. (More about Macy) Back to Index |
 Carolyn McDade, has just completed her latest of thirteen music recording projects. Almost 300 women meeting in local communities in Canada and U.S were the heart and soul of "My Heart Is Moved", a project of song, study, and action into the call of The Earth Charter with its vision of a sustainable, just and peaceful global society within the well being of the whole community of life. (More about McDade) Back to Index |
 Jay McDaniel, PhD, is Professor of Religion, Hendrix College, Chair, Department of Religion; Director, Steel Center for the Study of Religion and Philosophy, NS; Director, New Horizons: Center for Study of Science and World Religions. "McDaniel's class at Sophia is entitled: Animals, Jazz, and Poetry." Back to Index |
 Sallie
McFague, PhD, holds a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) from Smith College, a Bachelor of Divinity (magna cum laude) from Yale Divinity School and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Yale University. Dr. McFague also holds an Honourary Doctor of Letters from Smith College. She has retired as Carpenter Professor of Theology at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is a prolific author. Her books include: Metaphorical Theology, Models of God, The Body of God, and Super,Natural Christians. Dr. McFague's most recent book is Life Abundant: Rethinking Theology and Economy for a Planet in Peril. Back to Index |
 Patricia
Mische,
PhD, is the Lloyd Professor of Peace Studies and World Law at Antioch College
and co-founder and President of Global
Education Associates, a network of people in 90 countries working to
advance global systems that will assure greater peace, social justice, economic-well-being,
ecological integrity, and democratic participation. She also collaborated
with United Nations programs, is an activist and co-author of Toward
a Human World Order, author of Star Wars and the State of Our Souls,
Ecological Security and the United Nations System: Past, Present and Future, and Toward a Global Civilization. Back to Index |
 Albert
Nolan, OP is founding member of the Institute for Contextual
Theology in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is author of the classic Jesus
Before Christianity and God in South Africa. Within the perspective
of the new cosmology he is an enduring presence in the work of healing the
wounds of apartheid in his homeland and as a leader within his Dominican
community. (More about Nolan) Back to Index |
Dennis Patrick O'Hara, PhD, is a chiropractor, naturopathic doctor and ethicist who teaches graduate courses in ethics and eco-theology in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College, and environment and health for the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto. He is the director of the Elliott Allen Institute for Theology and Ecology at St. Michael’s, directing masters and doctoral students with their dissertations in eco-theology.Back to Index |
 Bill Plotkin, PhD, is a depth psychologist, guide of wilderness rites, ecotherapist, and founder of Colorado’s Animas Valley Institute. He is the author of Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (2008) and Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche(2003). (More
about Plotkin) Back to Index |
 Diarmuid
O’Murchu,MSC, PhD, is a counselor and social psychologist, and the a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland, is a social psychologist whose entire working life has been in social ministry. In that capacity he has worked as a couple's counselor, in bereavement work, AIDS-HIV counseling and laterally with homeless people and refugees. As a workshop leader and group facilitator he has worked in Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, The Philippines, Thailand, India, Peru and in several African countries. His best known books include: Quantum Theology, Reclaiming Spirituality, Evolutionary Faith), Catching Up with Jesus. (More
about O'Murchu) Back to Index |
 Sister
Helen Prejean author of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States which was developed into a major motion picture and also the basis for a new opera. Her organization, The Moratorium Campaign works to deepen the discourse around the death penalty and to bring about moratoria across the USA. (More
about Prejean) Back to Index |
 Richard
Rohr,
OFM, is founder of the Center
for Action and Contemplation. He is an internationally known speaker,
and the author of many books including Simplicity: The Art of Living,
and Everything Belongs and Wildman’s Journey: Reflections
on Male Spirituality. Back to Index |
 Belvie Rooks, is a writer, educator and producer whose work weaves the worlds of spirituality, feminism, ecology, racial and environmental justice and a passion for dialogue. She is the producer and host of Conversations that Matter: Frontiers of Race, Cosmology, and Consciousness, which brings consciousness studies down to earth, making them real and relevant for everyday life. She is also the creator of Hey, Listen Up! Race, Cosmology and the Environment, a ground-breaking multimedia-based urban eco-literacy project and curriculum. Her published works have been included in a number of books and anthologies including My Soul is a Witness: African Women's Spirituality (Beacon Press, 1996). Back to Index |
 Rosemary
Radford Ruether, PhD, is a theologian and historian. Her
publications include Gaia and God, Women and Redemption, Sexism and God-Talk,
and Women Healing Earth. (More about Ruether) Back to Index |
 Dr. Donald Rothberg, PhD, is one of the nation's foremost leaders in socially engaged spirituality. He has practiced Buddhist meditation for over 25 years and has been significantly influenced by other spiritual traditions, particularly Jewish, Christian, and indigenous. Currently, Donald is directing a two-year training program in connecting individual and social transformation, "The Path of Engagement," through Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. His book, The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World, was named one of the best spiritual books of 2006 by Spirituality and Practice. (More about Rothberg) Back to Index |
 Elisabet
Sahtouris,
M.S., PhD, is an evolution biologist and futurist who travels. Lectures
and consults all over the world to show how knowledge of biological evolution
can guide us in solving problems of inequity and ecological crises. (Life
Web) Back to Index |
 Stephen
Scharper,
is Assistant Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies with the Center
for the Study of Religion and at Innis College at the University of Toronto where he serves as Associate of the Institute for environmental Studies.
He is author of Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment and coauthor with his wife Hilary Cunningham of The Green Bible. (More about Scharper) Back to Index |
 Mary
Schmitt,
has a B.S. from Marian College of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; a Master's degree from Marquette University, and a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. She is currently teaching at the Sophia Center at Holy Names University, and John F.Kennedy University, Pleasant Hill. CA. Her passion is the study of consciousness in all of nature, and especially the human role in its evolution. Back to Index |
 Michael S. Schneider has a B.S. Degree in mathematics and a Master's Degree in Mathematics Education, and has been teaching 33 years. He's the author of A Beginner's Guide To Constructing The Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes Of Nature, Art and Science and five related workbooks. Michael was a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar in India studying ancient mathematics and sciences. In 1993 he designed the geometry harmonizing the statues on the south side of the "Portal of Paradise" (central entrance) to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. He has worked at the United Nations, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and MTV. Presently Michael is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and occasionally holds workshops for educators, artists, and children on the wonders of mathematics in nature, science, art and culture. (More about Schneider) Back to Index |
 John
Shea,
PhD, is a research professor at the Institute for Pastoral Studies at Loyola
University, Chicago, and senior scholar at Park Ridge Center for the Study
of Health, Faith and Ethics. He is a renowned storyteller and the author
of The Legend of the Bells, Gospel Light and Elijah at the
Wedding Feast and other Tales.
(More about Shea) Back to Index |
 Huston
Smith,
PhD, is a teacher of world religions and author of the international best-selling The Religions of Man. Through his landmark books and documentary
films, Huston Smith has opened the eyes of the world to the "invisible
geometry" that shapes human spirituality. Born in China over 80 years
ago to missionary parents, Huston Smith served briefly as a pastor in the
mid-west. Since the 1950s, he has held teaching positions on the faculties
at MIT, Syracuse, and the University of California–Berkeley. Back to Index |
 Terry
Smith,
MA. A priest from Cincinnati has been involved in spiritual companioning
and retreats for close to twenty-five years. He is presently a pastor in
the Cincinnati area while continuing to companion with others and be involved
in retreats. He has done graduate work in the area of spirituality at Fordham
and Creighton Universities. He was a participant at Sophia Center in 2003. Back to Index |
 Sobonfu
Somé is an internationally-known West African teacher and author of Welcoming
Home Spirit and The Spirit of Intimacy. Her reliance on spirit,
community and ritual that has allowed Sobonfu's personal and professional
path to become on&e. Since the beginning of her journey in the West Sobonfu
has traveled extensively throughout North America and Europe, conducting
workshops on spirituality, ritual, the sacred and intimacy. Her work has
moved African spiritual practices from the realm of anthropology, to a place
alongside the world's great spiritual tradition, with a message of profound
significance and practical application in the lives of Westerners. (More
about Sobonfu) Back to Index |
 Brother
David Steindl-Rast, OSB, PhD,
is author of Gratefulness, The Heart of Prayer, A Listening Heart, Belonging
to the Universe (with Fritjof Carra) and The Music of Silence (Sharon
Lebell). A member of Mount Saviour Benedictine Community, Br. David
has been involved in the renewal of monastic life and contemplative prayer,
both East & West, for more than three decades. (A
Network for Grateful Living) Back to Index |
 Brian
Swimme,
PhD, is a cosmologist, and the author of Hidden Heart of the Cosmos,
Universe Story (with Thomas Berry), The Universe is a Green Dragon and the
video series The Canticle of the Cosmos and Earth’s Imagination. He is a professor on the graduate faculty at the California Institute of
Integral Studies. (More about Swimme) Back to Index |
 Mary
Evelyn Tucker,
PhD, is a professor of religion at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania,
where she teaches courses in world religions, Asian religions, religion
and ecology, and religion and nature writers. (More about Tucker). Back to Index |
 Mark Wallace, PhD, graduate of The University of Chicago, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religion and member of the Interpretation Theory Committee and the Environmental Studies Committee at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. He has authored Finding God in the Singing River: Christianity, Spirit, Nature, Fragments of the Spirit: Nature, Violence, and the Renewal of Creation, The Second Naïveté: Barth, Ricoeur, and the New Yale Theology, edited Paul Ricoeur's Figuring the Sacred: Religion, Narrative, and Imagination. Back to Index |
 Francis
Weller MA,is a psychotherapist, workshop leader and community builder. He has been actively involved in creating community-based study exploration of traditional knowledge. His focus is on recovering a connection with our ancestral roots and on translating the essential wisdom of indigenous traditions into our modern culture. He is the founder and director of WisdomBridge, which offers workshops, trainings and consultations on the recovery of the indigenous soul. He has two Master's degrees and is currently completing a book entitled Unforgotten Wisdom: Reclaiming Our Indigenous Soul. Back to Index |
 Eric Weiss, MFT,PhD, is a professor of Philosophy and Cosmology at the Sophia Center
of Holy Names University and at the California Institute of Integral Studies;
he is also a psychotherapist in private practice. He explores the evolutionary
story with a perspective informed, on the one hand, by Western philosophy,
psychology and science and, on the other hand, by a deep knowledge of Eastern
philosophy and yogic psychology grounded in the teachings of Buddhism and
in the works of the great twentieth century mystic and philosopher, Sri
Aurobindo. Back to Index |
 Miriam
Therese Winter,
MMS, PhD, is a professor of liturgy, worship, spirituality and feminist
studies a Hartford Seminary. She is the author of many books, including Woman Words, Woman
Wisdom and Woman Witness, Defecting in Place, The Chronicles of Noah and
Her Sisters,The Singer and the Song, and her most recent book, Eucharist With A Small "e". (More
about Winter) Back to Index |
 Gail
Worcelo,
CP, MA, is a Passionist Nun originally from St. Gabriel's Monastery in Clarks
Summit,. PA. She is currently co-founding, along with Bernadette Bostwick,
a new monastic community—Green Mountain Monastery—with
the guidance and support of Thomas Berry. The mission of this new community
is the health and protection of Earth. Gail has been a student of Thomas Berry for the past 23 years. Back to Index |
 Mary
Jane Zimmerman, PhD, recently completed a dissertation entitled Trusting the Universe: A Journey of Healing and Reconnection which analyzes the imbalance in Western culture from the perspective of
“Dine” thought. Interested in the bridge between native sciences
and western sciences, she studies Native ways of knowing and healing with
traditional “Dine” elder Leon Secatero, as well as continuing
her studies in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology. She currently teaches literature and honors classes at Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, NM. Back to Index |