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Ask The Beasts Chapter Summary

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Published in 2014 by Bloomsbury in London, Ask The Beasts: Darwin and the God of love , is a book written by Elizabeth Johnson who turns her attention as to what she likes to call “the second big bang” which is evolution. Exploring the Christian tradition, she seeks to find an understanding of the religious meaning of the ecological world of species. Illustrating passages from Charles Darwin and his book “The Origin of species” and the Christian Story of the God of mercy and love in association with the Nicene Creed, she begins to talk about the relationship between the evolving world and God. In Chapters 2-4, Johnson focuses on the evolution of species and on Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection. Next, Chapters 5-8 bring the Christian stories …show more content…

1.The living God creates and cares for all creatures. 2. This love encompasses all creatures even in their suffering and dying. 3.These creatures are part of the flesh of the world which the Word of God joined via incarnation. 4. The death and resurrection of Jesus offers hope of redemption for all flesh. 5. The life-giving presence of the Spirit who empowers all creation is also the power of resurrected life for all beings. Not knowing a lot about theology myself I was surprised when she linked lots of the Christian stories to the natural world. For example, she talks about in the beginning how can one make a theological statement about a lady bug? We can’t but we can reflect on the lady bug and all its kin in the world of species beyond humans, finding them to be intensely important if overlooked subject of religious value. (p.g xvii) I found it unfair to choose only one of these five assertions and find that each one plays a role in creating a better understanding between theology and the natural world. We can infer that the evolving world of plant and animal species can connect with religious stories. That Earth will always be a dwelling place of God and that all who live here are dependent on the

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