Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril- paperback

* Advance Praise and Reviews *

"I recommend this book to any Christian, theologian and layperson alike, who seeks a view of God and Christ's passion that is capacious and loving enough to authentically respond to our troubled times and planet." — Brianne Jacobs in U.S. Catholic

"A wonderful and engaging book.... elaborates a biblically rich and creation-sensitive theology of salvation rooted in the mercy of God and the divine solidarity with all created things." — Bible Today

"Those who closely follow Johnson's work will recognize that every paragraph is steeped not only in her extensive scholarship, but in the living faith that her writing always reflects and opens up to readers. Though the distressing, pressing issue of the text is our planet's peril, Johnson gifts readers with a theology that both comforts and empowers for change." — Reading Religion

"Elizabeth Johnson is by far my favorite contemporary Catholic theologian. In her superb new book, which takes the form of a lively dialogue, she addresses the essential issues of sin, forgiveness and redemption. She does so in her trademark style: with vast learning, sparkling clarity, and breathtaking insights. A signal contribution to modern theology." — James Martin, SJ, author, Jesus: A Pilgrimage

"Elizabeth Johnson, as so often she does, names and explains a major obstacle in the presentation of the Gospel message. Here I am happy to say, she unpackages what my own Franciscan school (Francis, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus) believed about the atonement and the salvific meaning of the death of Jesus. It was not a juridical transaction but a cosmic revelation." — Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., Center for Action and Contemplation

"This book delights and agitates... What a journey through Anselm's most celebrated work and then on to a consideration of how the cross might be understood today, particularly in light of the whole natural world. Here again she offers us a theological feast." — Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Boston College

In this fresh creative approach to theology, Elizabeth Johnson asks how we can understand cosmic redemption in a time of advancing ecological devastation. In effect, how can we extend the core Christian belief in salvation to include all created beings? Immediately this question runs into a formidable obstacle: the idea that Jesus’s death on the cross was required as atonement for human sin—a theology laid out by the eleventh-century theologian St. Anselm.

Constructing her argument (like Anselm) in the form of a dialogue, Johnson lays out the foundations in scripture, the teachings of Jesus, and the early Church for an understanding that emphasizes the love and mercy of God, showing how this approach can help us respond to a planet in peril.

Elizabeth A. Johnson, a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Theology at Fordham University. A former president of the Catholic Theological Society of America, she is the author of many books, including She Who Is (winner of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion), Quest for the Living God, Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love, Abounding in Kindness: Writings for the People of God (Orbis 2015), and editor of The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women (Orbis 2016).