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

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.

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.

Found Theology

Author: Ben Quash
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0567111652
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
Found Theology is a book about how theology deals with newly-encountered (of 'found') material in time, and about the role of imagination in these encounters. The book is unusual and ground-breaking exercise in the interdisciplinary discussion of theology and the arts. Ben Quash brings together elements of doctrine, scripture, the fine arts and the experiences of everyday life. He looks closely at Christian artistic traditions via a number of case studies that represent a rich source of examples of the way that the new times properly stimulate new expressions of known and loved things. Quash engages closely with some serious and prominent American scholars, namely Peter Ochs, Daniel W. Hardy, C.S. Peirce and David H. Kelsey.

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.

The Strength of Her Witness

Author: Johnson, Elizabeth A.
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608336395
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 471

Book Description
The Gospel of John recounts the story of an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman at the well. After their conversation, she goes out to tell her neighbors about the mysterious stranger, and many of them believed "on the strength of her witness." These essays, drawn from around the world, reveal the many ways that women have reflected on and borne witness to the person, teaching, and praxis of Jesus Christ in light of their own varied contexts. These contexts include their struggles for life amidst wrenching poverty, racism, and violence; their experience of being female in male-dominated structures in the church and society; and their commitment to promote justice in view of the human dignity of women, all done in tandem with their faith relationship with the living God.