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

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.

"This book is a call to broaden our focus, beyond the hierarchy we have perceived in Genesis, beyond the individualistic angst of human sin and redemption. It shows us that biblical revelation is bigger than this – God is bigger than this." - National Catholic Reporter

"Johnson’s work is vivifying, encouraging not only Christian thoughtfulness but also reverence toward the ecosystem on its behalf. An overdue reconciliation of religious belief to scientific cognizance, Ask the Beasts should become the benchmark for conversations between the disciplines." - ForeWord Reviews

"With Ask the Beasts Elizabeth Johnson gives us a gift of the insights, scope of vision and impact of Darwin’s theory on the way we humans view the history of life on our planet and our responsibility to care for our home." - Association for Mormon Letters

"In constructing her “dialogue between Charles Darwin’s account of the origin of species and the Christian story of the ineffable God of mercy and love recounted in the Nicene Creed” (xv), Johnson writes so skillfully in her judicious use of a broad swathe of traditional and contemporary literature, and also so beautifully, that this book may well stand out as one of the most important to come from the early twenty-first century." - Worship, V. 89 N. 2.

"Like Darwin marveling at the web of life observed in the tangle of vegetation, insects, birds, and animals along a riverbank and at discovering the “grandeur” of a view of life that is dynamic rather than static, Johnson’s stance is most often one of profound wonder at the complexity, beauty and mystery of creation and of its Creator." - Anglican Theological Review

"Elizabeth Johnson’s most recent publication demonstrates not only her facility and keen insight on matters of theology, but also her knowledge of evolutionary theory as introduced by Darwin and updated by other scholars. Johnson is a clear and persuasive writer who substantiates her work with footnotes and an eleven-page select bibliography. … Ask the Beasts forwards the conversation between science and theology and is well-suited for any library, but particularly for a theological library." - Catholic Library World

"Johnson makes the world sing through the pages of her book ... Ask the Beasts provides a blueprint for a new theology of Creation, in fact, a new ecological theology. Others have been working towards this for some time, but none more persuasively or more beautifully than Elizabeth Johnson." - The Tablet

"This Spirit-imbued vision of creation yields the kind of strong ecological ethic demanded in our day. … Ask the Beasts presents a deeply sacramental, incarnational view of the natural world and our place in it." - The Journal of Religion

"What might have been a book review of Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love ... has become that and something more because of the quality of the book and the contemporary relevance of the issues with which it deals. Indeed, those issues are not only central to Christian faith and life, but also concern the threat that we humans now pose for all life on the planet ... It is the fruit of careful and detailed study, dialogue, tested judgements and conclusions across fields not commonly traversed by a theologian. It bears the mark of the deep and careful reflection of an accomplished theologian." - St Mark's Review