Healing All Creation

Book excerpt: In Healing All Creation, a scripture scholar and a religion journalist explore the literary and theological symmetries of Genesis, the Gospel of Mark and the unfolding story of evolution, as told by science and the emerging discipline of cosmological theology. Read together, these narratives shed new light on the Judeo-Christian tradition and offer fresh ideas about how to respond to the moral and environmental crises of our times. Scientific discoveries make it increasingly clear that everything in the world is connected. Physically and spiritually, small actions can have great impact: In the creation myths of Genesis, it is possible for individuals to generate great evil, but also do enormous good and repair a broken world. Mark’s story of the public life of Jesus speaks to the transformative effect of cumulative acts of compassion. Cosmological theology suggests that evolution is spiritual as well as material, and that our search for meaning is dynamic, ongoing and grounded in the sanctity of all creation. This book speaks to those for whom Judeo-Christian scripture is important, but also to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious: those who stand in awe of the majesty of the universe and appreciate the sanctity of all creation. It introduces to a general audience a century-long dialogue among scientists, theologians, scripture scholars and summons the voices of 20th century spiritual heroes, contemporary theologians and religion scholars from a variety of traditions and perspectives. This accessible but scholarly narrative and robust endnotes make it valuable as a textbook for college-level courses on religion and ecology. The authors offer fresh insights into Mark’s story of the healing ministry of Jesus and his relationships with women, including his crushing final encounter with the women who stayed with him to the end and the transformative mission it inspired. It raises questions about the gender inequity that persists in organized religion and in the world at large. This book examines institutional Christianity’s historical failures such as the early abandonment of nonviolence and its tendency to question the validity of scientific discoveries. It explores the impact of dispensational theology, whose vision of a material world ending in fiery apocalypse produced Christians so focused on the end-times that they have scant regard for the sanctity of the Earth. It has been said that the Bible is the most-purchased and least-read book in America. This accessible narrative introduces a diverse general audience to the riches of contemporary scripture scholarship, the wisdom of cosmological theology and a renewed awareness of the sanctity of all creation.