Reflections on nature, culture & the inner life
A New Biography of Thomas Berry "The universe,” Thomas Berry wrote in his prescient Dream of the Earth, “is a single, gorgeous, celebratory event." Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal recently published Thomas Berry—A Biography. It is the definitive...
Dear New School Friends, As I write, we have just completed our third day-long workshop with Beatrice Chestnut, author of The Complete Enneagram: 27 Paths to Greater Self-Knowledge. The enneagram, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a model of the human...
Dear TNS Friends: The chatter of politicians and commentators continues about all manner of things. But nature bats last. The "Polar Vortex" descends on the Midwest. Here is a beautiful piece from WIRED: "And now the weather: Mars-like, with a chance of apocalypse."...
Dear New School Friends, Health, the environment and justice have been keystones for Commonweal's work for 43 years. Services for at-risk children was the first program at Commonweal. David Steinhart has led the Commonweal Juvenile Justice Program for more than two...
December 26, 2018 Dear Commonweal Friends: I hope this Fall Letter finds you well. You recently received the Commonweal News. This is the personal letter I write to you twice a year. I can’t touch on all Commonweal programs, but I want to give you a sense of the...
Dear New School Friends: Does some part of you call out for healing? Do you know we heal best in relationship, in community? Do you wish for a relationship or community that would help you heal--and learn better how to help others? Healing Circles is a simple way to...
Dear New School Friends, Since 38% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime, doesn't it make sense to know that integrating the best conventional and complementary therapies can improve quality of life, potentially slow or prevent recurrence,...
Dear New School Friends, I am honored and delighted that my friend and colleague Beatrice Chestnut will be presenting three day-long workshops of Enneagram panels at Commonweal. Enneagram is an archetypal depth psychology. It has enormous power to deepen our insight...
For The Children The rising hills, the slopes, of statistics lie before us. The steep climb of everything, going up, up, as we all go down. In the next century or the one beyond that, they say, are valley, pastures, we can meet there in peace if we make it. To climb...
A Brief for the Defense Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn...