The Gaia Theory

Its Religious Implications

Abstract

Thomas Berry, a Roman Catholic priest and cultural historian, is the Director of the Riverdale Center for Religious Research in New York and former President of the American Teilhard Association. A self-described “geologian,” he is the author of The Dream of the Earth (Sierra Club, 1988), Befriending the Earth (Twenty-Third Publications, 1991), and The Universe Story (HarperCollins, 1992), with Brian Swimme. In this article, Thomas Berry responds to the Gaia Theory of James Lovelock, which suggests that the Earth is a living, self-regulating entity.