Published February 2015, by Berrett-Koehler Publishers
The video of the book launch at All Saints Church in Pasadena on January 25, 2015 with David in conversation with Rev. Ed Bacon at the Rector’s Forum, is now available on YouTube.
Our current story is about Sacred Money and Markets. Money, it tells us, is the measure of all worth and the source of all happiness. The market is omniscient. Earth is simply a source of raw materials. Inequality and environmental destruction are unfortunate but unavoidable. Although many recognize this story promotes bad ethics, bad science, and bad economics, it will remain our guiding story until replaced by a more compelling story that aligns with our deepest understanding of the universe and our relationship to it.
A Sacred Life and Living Earth story is grounded in a cosmology that affirms we are living beings born of a living Earth itself born of a living universe. Our health and well-being depend on an economy that works in co-productive partnership with the processes by which Earth’s community of life maintains the conditions of its own existence—and ours. Offering a hopeful vision, this book lays out the transformative impact adopting this story will have on every aspect of human life and society.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue: In Search of a Deeper Truth
Chapter 1: Our Story Problem
Chapter 2: Our Quest to Know
Chapter 3: A Brief History of Story Politics
Chapter 4: Living Universe
Chapter 5: Children of a Living Earth
Chapter 6: Making a Living
Chapter 7: Enslaved by Corporate Robots Chapter 8: Economics for a Living Household
Chapter 9: A Living Economy for a Living Earth
Chapter 10: Own the Story, Own the Future
REVIEWS
An Appreciation of David Korten
A review of Change the Story, Change the Future
by John B. Cobb
April 12, 2018
Many thoughtful people in the world outside academia are raising the questions to which this book provides answers – the right answers – in a way they can appreciate. As a member of the Club of Rome, Korten is visible in wide reaches of society. Let us do all we can to spread the word. This word has great saving potential. Read more…
John Cobb wrote this review for Open Horizons. He is Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate School, distinguished process theologian, and Founding Co-Director of the Center For Process Studies.
Reflections on the book Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth
by Dana Penrice
(Originally posted by The Human Venture.)
Earlier in January, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture and a small group discussion at the University of Alberta with David Korten, the cofounder of Yes! Magazine and author of many books on the Human Venture reading list including Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth and The Great Turning from Empire to Earth Community.
The frontier of how we collectively manage threats and opportunities as a species is upon us. What Korten proposes in his most recent book Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth, is that the most significant work of our current place and time in history is to create and disseminate a collective, shared story that better prepares us to meet the realities of the situation facing humanity and our planet.
Dana Penrice is a board member for The Human Venture Institute and Human Venture Leadership, and Alberta co-ordinator for Young Agrarians.