ABSTRACT
This chapter calls for a heroic voyage of thought and action to bring into being a new human–Earth relationship grounded in a positive vision of the Ecozoic and tempered by educated hope. It argues that regrounding the human–Earth relationship entails a foundational shift in the underlying ontology of modernity. It shows how regrounding the human–Earth relationship through such a seismic shift in ontology has important implications for both agency and liberty. It uses Thomas Berry’s Ecozoic as the inspiration for a positive vision of a mutually enhancing human–Earth relationship – a state of harmony and resonance with nature – and shows how liberty and agency play important roles in this vision. Being at home in the Ecozoic does not mean naive optimism for a return to the tranquillity of the Holocene; rather, educated hope can help guide humanity in responding with freedom and creativity to the spontaneity and natural rhythms of the Earth.
