Mary Evelyn Tucker


Mary Evelyn Tucker is the co-founder and co-director of the at Yale University with her husband, John Allen Grim. Tucker teaches in the joint Master's program in religion and ecology at Yale between the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and the Divinity School. She also has an appointment at Yale's Department of Religious Studies. She has authored and edited close to 20 volumes and has published hundreds of articles. She is a pioneer in the field of religion and ecology. She is the granddaughter of Carlton J.H. Hayes, noted European historian at Columbia University and Ambassador to Spain in WWII under Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As an author, she is largely held in libraries worldwide. She teaches a of three courses on Journey of the Universe and “The Worldview of Thomas Berry.”

Early life and education

Mary Evelyn Tucker was born in New York City, the daughter of William D. Tucker, Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Hayes Tucker. She has a B.A. in English from Trinity College and a master's degree from State University of New York at Fredonia in English. She also studied literature and history at Oxford University. After teaching for two years at Notre Dame University in Japan and studying at Sophia University in Tokyo she received an MA from Fordham University in History of Religions. Her PhD is in Asian religions from Columbia University where she specialized in Confucianism in China and Japan. She has published five books on Confucianism. She has been an Associate in Research at the at Harvard University since 1997.

Thomas Berry

Tucker studied world religions in graduate school with noted cultural historian, Thomas Berry. She worked closely with Berry for 35 years and has edited a number of his books including Evening Thoughts, The Sacred Universe, Christian Future and The Fate of Earth, and Selected Writings on the Earth Community. She and her husband John Grim together carry on the legacy of Thomas Berry through their work in religion and ecology and the Journey of the Universe. They are managing trustees of the . In 2019, Tucker, Grim, and Andrew Angyal published Thomas Berry: A Biography.

The Forum on Religion and Ecology

With the vision of creating a new field of study that could have implications for environmental policy, Tucker and Grim organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University. Ten volumes came out of the conferences and are distributed by Harvard University Press. After the conferences, she and Grim founded the Forum on Religion and Ecology at a culminating event at the United Nations and American Museum of Natural History in 1998, which featured such notables as Maurice Strong, Bill Moyers, Tim Wirth, and Tu Weiming.
The Forum has organized dozens of conferences, published numerous volumes, and produced a on world religions and ecology. It is the largest international multi-religious project of its kind. The Forum is inherently interdisciplinary and acknowledges that the world's religions must engage with other key disciplines in order to find answers to contemporary environmental challenges.
Twenty years ago the field of religion and ecology did not exist. Today there are courses taught at colleges and secondary schools across North America, Europe, and Australia. And a powerful surge of religious environmentalism has emerged globally in churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques. Statements have been issued by every major religion regarding the importance of environmental protection. The Forum on Religion and Ecology has been an integral part of these worldwide developments. To this end Tucker has spoken at conferences around the world, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Vatican Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the Global Forum, Conferences, and the Parliament of World Religions.

Journey of the Universe

With evolutionary philosopher, Brian Thomas Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker created , a multi-media project that carries forward much of Berry's work. The project includes the widely acclaimed Journey of the Universe film, which won a regional Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement: Documentary” and aired on PBS stations across the U.S. for three years. The Journey film was directed by David Kennard and Patsy Northcutt. There is also a book by the same name from Yale University Press and a series of 20 on DVD and podcasts—interviews conducted by Tucker with leading environmentalists, scientists, educators, and historians.
Journey was deeply inspired by Thomas Berry’s essay “,” which looked at how humanity is in between stories—the religious creation stories and the scientific story of the evolution. Tucker and Swimme came together to craft this epic narrative designed to communicate our intricate connection to the cosmos and Earth to a broader audience.
The Journey film was the winner of Best Documentary at the Northern California Emmy® Awards ; winner of the Global Award and received Merit awards for both Scientific Information and Cinematography at the Montana CINE International Film Festival ; winner of the Sierra Nevada Award at the Mountain Film Festival; winner of the El Capitan Award at the Yosemite International Film Festival; chosen as one of the featured films at the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital; an official selection at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival; received an Honorable Mention at the Columbus International Film Festival; and received the Award of Excellence at the Indie Fest.

Awards and Service

Mary Evelyn Tucker has been a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in religion and ecology, the Inspiring Yale Teaching Award, the Thomas Berry Award, the Chancellor's Medal/Joint and Common Future Award, the Unitas Distinguished Alumna Award, the Interfaith Visionary Award, the Faith in Action Award, the Hudson Valley Hero Award, Spiritearth Award, Centennial Alumnae Award for Academic Excellence, among others.
Tucker has been an integral part of the Earth Charter since its initial inception. From 1997-2000, she served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee, chaired by Steven Rockefeller, and she was also a member of the Earth Charter International Council. She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of Orion Magazine, Solutions Magazine, the Garrison Institute, and Green Belt Movement U.S., dedicated to the work and legacy of Wangari Maathai. Since 1979 Tucker has served as vice-president of the , dedicated to the legacy of scientist and philosopher Pierre Teilhard deChardin

Personal life

Mary Evelyn Tucker is married to Yale professor John Grim, an expert on Native American traditions and author of The Shaman. They live in Connecticut.

Education

Ph.D. Columbia University, 1985
M.A. Fordham University, 1977
M.A. State University of New York, 1972
B.A. Trinity College, 1971

Honorary Degrees

Rosemont College, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, May 2014
University of Toronto, St Michael's, Toronto, Ontario, November 2012
Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, June 2012
California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, June 2005

Major Publications

•Tucker, Mary Evelyn, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal. Thomas Berry: A Biography. Columbia University Press, 2019.
•Jenkins, Willis, Mary Evelyn Tucker, and John Grim, eds. Routledge Handbook on Religion and Ecology. New York, NY: Routledge Books, 2016.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to Journey of the Universe. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2016.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. Thomas Berry: Selected Writings on the Earth Community. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014.
•John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Ecology and Religion. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2014.
•Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Journey of the Universe. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn, ed. The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the 21st Century. Essays by Thomas Berry. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. Christian Future and the Fate of Earth. Essays by Thomas Berry. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn. The Philosophy of Qi: The Record of Great Doubts. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn, ed. Evening Thoughts: Reflecting on Earth as Sacred Community. Essays by Thomas Berry. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2015. Originally San Francisco: Sierra Club Books and Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn. Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological Phase. Chicago: Open Court, 2003. Second printing, 2004.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Tu Weiming, eds. Confucian Spirituality, 2 volumes. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, Volume I, 2003, Volume II, 2004.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn, Cliff Matthews, and Philip Hefner, eds. When Worlds Converge: What Science and Religion Tell Us about the Story of the Universe and Our Place in It. Chicago: Open Court, 2002.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. "Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change?" Daedalus. Vol. 130, No. 4, Cambridge, Mass.: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2001.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Christopher Chapple, eds. Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions and Harvard University Press, 2000.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Berthrong, eds. Confucianism and Ecology: The Interrelation of Heaven, Earth, and Humans. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions and Harvard University Press, 1998.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and Duncan Williams, eds. Buddhism and Ecology: The Interaction of Dharma and Deeds. Cambridge, Mass.: Center for the Study of World Religions and Harvard University Press, 1997.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn and John Grim, eds. Worldviews and Ecology: Religion, Philosophy and the Environment. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1993, Paperback edition, Orbis Books, 1994.. Translated into Indonesian.
•Tucker, Mary Evelyn. Moral and Spiritual Cultivation in Japanese Neo-Confucianism: The Life and Thought of Kaibara Ekken , Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1989.