Elizabeth Johnson's Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love

In the months preceding the appearance of Laudato Si, Elizabeth Johnson published her major new work on the conversation between science and theology, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love (Bloomsbury, 2014). The following discussion of this work took place at the June 2014 meeting of the Catholic Theological Society of America. The panel was convened by Paul Crowley, SJ, and included Roger Haight, SJ, Mary Beth Ingham, CSJ, Brian Robinette, and Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ. As Laudato Si had just been promulgated, the discussion did not directly address the new encyclical. But the discussion was in many ways apposite to some of the theological concerns raised in the encyclical. One question implicitly raised by Laudato Si is the theological meaning of the natural world, a question Johnsons book addresses by bringing the insights of Darwin's On the Origin of Species into conversation with the Nicene Creed. In discussing the book, the panel raised questions about (1) the theological implications of a scientific understanding of the human and nonhuman parts of nature; (2) the ultimate rationale for the incarnation, and whether the Scotist approach to the reasons for the incarnation is more apt for our time than the atonement model; and (3) how the resurrection offers a framework for addressing the problems of suffering and pain in nature. For a review of the book by Terrence Tilley, see Theological Studies 76 (2015) 194-95. © Theological Studies, Inc 2016.