Berry, Thomas, 1914-2009

Thomas Berry (TMB) is a historian of cultures and a writer with special concern for the foundation of cultures in their relations with the natural world. He comes from the hill country of North Carolina, [and] was born in 1914. He began his [ministerial] life in a Monastery in 1934. His doctoral degree is from the Catholic University of America. He studied Chinese language and culture in China in 1948 with the intention of teaching at Fujen University in Peking but had to leave when Mao Tse-tung moved into the region.

Later he studied Sanskrit at Columbia University. In the 1980s he assisted in the educational program for the T'boli peoples in Mindanao, Philippines. He taught the cultural history of India and China at Seton Hall University in New Jersey and at Saint John's University in New York. He also taught as adjunct professor at various other universities in the eastern United States. He was director of the graduate program in the History of Religions at Fordham University from 1966 until 1979. Founder of the Riverdale Center of Religions Research in Riverdale, New York, he has been its director since its beginning in 1970. He was president of the American Teilhard Association from 1975 until 1987.

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