Brian Swimme

Brian Thomas Swimme was born in 1950. He pursued his education in mathematics, completing a PhD at the University of Oregon in 1978 with a dissertation in mathematical cosmology. He taught mathematics at the University of [[puget-sound|Puget Sound]] briefly before — in 1982 — meeting [[thomas-berry|Thomas Berry]] at the Riverdale Center for Religious Research in New York City. The meeting was decisive for both. Swimme spent substantial time with Berry over the following months and then sustained the collaboration for the rest of Berry’s life (Berry died in 2009).

Swimme moved to [[berkeley|California]] in the late 1980s and joined the faculty of the [[berkeley|California]] Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco, where he founded and continues to direct the Center for the Story of the Universe. He has been one of the principal academic-public articulators of the new-cosmology project and has produced a substantial body of accessible writing, lectures, and (especially) film work bringing the contemporary scientific cosmology into wider cultural conversation.

The principal contributions

Swimme’s distinctive contributions, complementary to Berry’s:

• Mathematical-scientific rigor. Swimme is a working scientist; the cosmological accounts in [[the-universe-story|The Universe Story]] and elsewhere are scientifically substantive. The book is not religious fantasy projected onto science; the scientific picture is presented carefully and the religious-philosophical reflection is what is added.
• The narrative form. Swimme has been particularly skilled at presenting the cosmological story as story — as a substantial narrative running across [[deep-time|deep time]], with characters (the early universe, the first stars, supernovas, the early Earth, the first life, etc.) and a continuous arc. The narrative form makes the cosmology accessible to non-scientists in ways that strict academic presentation does not.
• Film and public presentation. Swimme’s Powers of the Universe DVD series (2004), his lectures at the Esalen Institute and elsewhere, and especially the Journey of the Universe film (2011, made with [[mary-evelyn-tucker|Mary Evelyn Tucker]]; the film won an Emmy) have brought the new-cosmology framework to enormous lay audiences.
• Integration with contemplative practice. Swimme has been substantially engaged with contemplative practice traditions — particularly [[engaged-buddhism|engaged Buddhism]] (he has worked with [[joanna-macy|Joanna Macy]]) and the Catholic tradition (in continuing collaboration with Berry’s circle).

The principal works

• The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story (1985). Swimme’s first book; written as a dialogue between the youth and the elder cosmologist; presents the new-cosmology framework in accessible form.
• [[the-universe-story|The Universe Story]]: From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era (1992; with [[thomas-berry|Thomas Berry]]). The systematic co-authored articulation. Swimme’s principal scientific contribution; Berry’s principal cultural-religious contribution.
• The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story (1996). Brief, accessible, lyrical articulation.
• The Powers of the Universe (2004). DVD lecture series; substantial subsequent reach.
• The Journey of the Universe (2011; with [[mary-evelyn-tucker|Mary Evelyn Tucker]]). Both the book and the Emmy-winning documentary film. The most consequential of Swimme’s late projects; substantial reach into general audiences and into university curricula globally.
• Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe (2022). Late book reflecting on the development of the new-cosmology framework over four decades.

What this gives the platform

Three contributions:

1. The cosmological narrative as resource. [[0mn1one|The platform]]‘s [[mission-district-sf|mission]] of worldwide abundance for every form of life benefits from the cosmological framing — that humans are part of a 13.8-billion-year evolutionary story, that life on Earth has a particular and precious place in that story, that the work of caring for life is the continuation of cosmic creativity.
2. A model of science-spirituality integration. Swimme is unusually credible to both communities — a working mathematician and a participant in contemplative traditions — and his career models how the integration can be conducted with substantial seriousness in both directions.
3. The continuing teaching. The Journey of the Universe materials, the CIIS programs, the substantial body of lectures and writing — Swimme has built a substantial pedagogical infrastructure for the new-cosmology framework that [[0mn1one|the platform]] takes as continuing resource.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Subset of: [[spiritual-ecology]]
• Parallels: [[thomas-berry]]
• Member of: [[person]]

Sources

1. Brian Swimme. The Universe is a Green Dragon. Bear & Co., 1985. Source class: book / primary.
2. Brian Swimme & [[thomas-berry|Thomas Berry]]. [[the-universe-story|The Universe Story]]. HarperSanFrancisco, 1992. Source class: book / foundational co-authored articulation.
3. Brian Swimme. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos. Orbis, 1996. Source class: book / primary.
4. Brian Swimme & [[mary-evelyn-tucker|Mary Evelyn Tucker]]. Journey of the Universe. Yale, 2011. Source class: book / synthesis.
5. Journey of the Universe (film, 2011, dir. David Kennard). Source class: documentary.
6. Brian Swimme. Cosmogenesis. Counterpoint, 2022. Source class: book / late retrospective.

Lenses still to grow

• The Center for the Story of the Universe at CIIS as a continuing institution.
• Journey of the Universe as a film and curriculum.
• The relationship between Swimme’s mathematical training and his cosmological storytelling.
• The new-cosmology framework’s reception in scientific, religious, and general lay communities.