Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love

Author: Elizabeth A. Johnson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472903757
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 342

Book Description
For millennia plant and animal species have received little sustained attention as subjects of Christian theology and ethics in their own right. Focused on the human dilemma of sin and redemptive grace, theology has considered the doctrine of creation to be mainly an overture to the main drama of human being`s relationship to God. What value does the natural world have within the framework of religious belief? The crisis of biodiversity in our day, when species are going extinct at more than 1,000 times the natural rate, renders this question acutely important. Standard perspectives need to be realigned; theology needs to look out of the window, so to speak as well as in the mirror. Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love leads to the conclusion that love of the natural world is an intrinsic element of faith in God and that far from being an add-on, ecological care is at the centre of moral life.

Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love

Author: Elizabeth A. Johnson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1472903730
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
An examination of the relationship between faith in God and the concept of ecological care within a crisis of biodiversity

Creation and the Cross

Author: Johnson, Elizabeth A.
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608337324
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Book Description

God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering

Author: Bethany N. Sollereder
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429881851
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
After the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, theologians were faced with the dilemma of God creating through evolution. Suddenly, pain, suffering, untimely death and extinction appeared to be the very tools of creation, and not a result of the sin of humanity. Despite this paradigm shift, the question of non-human suffering has been largely overlooked within theodicy debates, overwhelmed by the extreme human suffering of the twentieth century. This book redresses this imbalance by offering a rigorous academic treatment of the questions surrounding God and the suffering of non-human animals. Combining theological, philosophical, and biblical perspectives, this book explores the relationship between God and Creation within Christian theology. First it dismantles the popular theological view that roots violence and suffering in the animal kingdom in the fall of humanity. Then, through an exploration of the nature of love, it affirms that there are multiple reasons to suggest that God and creation can both be "good", even with the presence of violence and suffering. This is an innovative exploration of an under-examined subject that encompasses issues of theology, science, morality and human-animal interactions. As such, it will be of keen interest to scholars and academics of religion and science, the philosophy of religion, theodicy, and biblical studies.

Can a Darwinian be a Christian?

Author: Michael Ruse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521637169
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
This book, first published in 2000, adopts a balanced perspective on the subject to offer a serious examination of both Darwinism and Christianity. He covers a wide range of topics, from the Scopes Monkey Trial to claims about the religious significance of extraterrestrials. He deals with major figures in the current science/religion debate and considers in detail the claims of the new creationism, revealing some surprising parallels between Darwinian materialists and traditional thinkers such as St. Augustine. Michael Ruse argues that, although it is at times difficult for a Darwinian to embrace Christian belief, it is by no means inconceivable. At the same time he suggests ways in which a Christian believer should have no difficulty accepting evolution in general, and Darwinism in particular.

Quest for the Living God

Author: Elizabeth A. Johnson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1441142665
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Book Description
'Since the middle of the twentieth century,' writes Elizabeth Johnson, 'there has been a renaissance of new insights into God in the Christian tradition. On different continents, under pressure from historical events and social conditions, people of faith have glimpsed the living God in fresh ways. It is not that a wholly different God is discovered from the One believed in by previous generations. Christian faith does not believe in a new God but, finding itself in new situations, seeks the presence of God there. Aspects long-forgotten are brought into new relationships with current events, and the depths of divine compassion are appreciated in ways not previously imagined.' This book sets out the fruit of these discoveries. The first chapter describes Johnson's point of departure and the rules of engagement, with each succeeding chapter distilling a discrete idea of God. Featured are transcendental, political, liberation, feminist, black, Hispanic, interreligious, and ecological theologies, ending with the particular Christian idea of the one God as Trinity.

Dangerous Memories

Author: Elizabeth A. Johnson
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826416381
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 174

Book Description
Elizabeth Johnson takes the 13 gospel appearances of Mary of Nazareth and creates a rich, deep Marian identity from this complex mosaic. Dangerous Memories is taken from her acclaimed Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints (0-8264-1473-7), with the addition of a new introduction and a short annotated bibliography.

A Watered Garden

Author: Benjamin M. Stewart
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
ISBN: 1451420919
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
This book begins with the classic, ecumenically held patterns of Christian worship and explores them for their deep connections to ecological wisdom, for their sacramental approaches to creation, and for a renewed relationship to the earth now itself in need of God’s healing. The Worship Matters Studies Series examines key worship issues through studies by pastors, musicians, and laypeople from throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Features include the following: 1) Informal and insightful writing for all readers; 2) Study questions at the end of every chapter; 3) Examination of vital issues in weekly worship; and 4) Increased ability of leaders and congregants to understand and experience worship more richly.

Dust in the Blood

Author: Jessica Coblentz
Publisher: Liturgical Press
ISBN: 0814685277
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description
2023 College Theology Society Best Book Award 2023 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, Theology – Morality, Ethics, Christology, Mariology, and Redemption 2023 Association of Catholic Publishers Second Place Award, Theology Dust in the Blood considers the harrowing realities of life with depression from a Christian theological perspective. In conversation with popular Christian theologies of depression that justify why this suffering exists and prescribe how people ought to relate to it, Jessica Coblentz offers another Christian approach to this condition: she reflects on depression as a wilderness experience. Weaving first-person narratives of depression, contemporary theologies of suffering, and ancient biblical tales of the wilderness, especially the story of Hagar, Coblentz argues for and contributes to an expansion of Christian ideas about what depression is, how God relates to it, and how Christians should understand and respond to depression in turn.

The Galapagos Islands

Author: Brian D. McLaren
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506448267
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
Bestselling author Brian D. McLaren followed his love of nature (specifically, tortoises) all the way to the Galapagos Islands. There, he paid close attention to the flora and fauna around him but also to what was happening within him, how the natural world awakened his soul in a way that organized religion could not. McLaren's descriptions of birds and reptiles, fish and flowers sing; he walks in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and grieves that Darwin has been demonized by his fellow Christians; and he reflects on how his own faith has evolved in the years since he left the pastorate. McLaren writes in the spirit of Aldo Leopold and Wendell Berry, weaving together the spiritual and the material. Even though most readers will never visit the Galapagos Islands, they can travel with McLaren and experience the beauty and fragility of this extraordinary place.