Book Review: Ask the Beasts by Elizabeth Johnson

Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love, by Elizabeth Johnson

Elizabeth Johnson brought us the glorious book, She Who Is, years ago as a response to the majority of Christian tradition who used exclusively male language for God. As a Catholic, she’s been slapped on the wrist by the Vatican for her ideas published in Quest for the Living God. She has taken a turn towards eco-theology in her later years as a scholar, as many feminists have done. Needless to say, Johnson is a giant of a theologian who has impacted many people, especially women, in their search to craft their own faith. 

As we encourage you to craft your own faith here at The Holy Craft, we want to suggest books that will help you along the way. We humbly recognize that this site is just the beginning of your journey. So by offering you book reviews and suggestions, we are hoping that you will use our book suggestions to help continue your journey of crafting your own faith. 

Elizabeth Johnson’s book Ask the Beasts is a thorough analysis of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. She begins by recognizing a problem that progressive people of faith may have overlooked: theology has become very human-centered. It is all about us. In traditional theology, creation is about giving us the resources to thrive in this world (and maybe be dazzled along the way). The incarnation is about God coming to Earth to save who? Humans. Salvation is only offered to living, breathing human beings. The recreation of the world has been about humans. Everything has become human-centered. 

At the same time, religion and science have become more and more fractured. Now, let me pause here and say first, religion and science are not opposed to one another. Christians have a bad record of opposing scientific revelations throughout history (hello Galileo, Darwin, Bill Nye, etc). This fracture has been perpetuated by the fact that the loudest voices in the Christian world have been the conservatives (fundamentalists and evangelicals) who out of fear have denied major scientific theories and laws. Their systems of faith were houses of cards, where one aspect changes and it all comes falling down. They feared changing their minds on evolution, the sun as the center of the solar system, the Earth’s shape because it would shift their faith in such a way that it would all come tumbling down. Here at the Holy Craft, we are hoping to help you move away from house of cards faith to a faith that can shift and move as you grow and discover. 

So Johnson begins Ask the Beasts with these things in mind, seeking to develop a more integrated theology in which science and theology can talk to each other. Our world desperately needs this because the Earth is fading away. The world cannot sustain human centric theology any more. 

Beginning with Darwin’s Origin, Johnson gives a beautiful picture of evolution, the adaptation, and the religious implications of this scientific discovery. Seriously, if you are a science nerd, you will love the first few chapters of this book. She puts Darwin’s discoveries into the context of the time, showing her readers that the religious and scientific communities out of which Darwin came believed wholeheartedly in special creation. This essentially means that God created each creature and species individually and directly. Needless to say, Darwin’s writing was not immediately accepted during his time because of this. By saying that species adapted over time and had common origins, he was saying that God did not specially create each individual species. But Elizabeth Johnson explains that this process of adaptation in community is empowered by the creative Spirit of God: “For creation to be continuously happening, the creator must be continuously present and active.” (124). 

Relating to our post about the loss of the beloved poet, Mary Oliver, Johnson raises Darwin up as a “Beholder.” Darwin is misunderstood as a brute scientist who hates everything. But Johnson humanizes him in the most beautiful way throughout this book. She explains his grief in losing family members, including his own daughter. Most of all, Johnson lifts him up as a person who is in love with the world. Each species he sees, each tree, each different ecosystem he observes witnesses to the grandeur of the world. His writing oozes with tenderhearted love and appreciation for the world. He truly pays attention. His writing begins at this place of awe and wonder at the beauty within the world. He respects the natural world in a way that we could absolutely learn to do. 

Christians have been critical of the theory of evolution because for many, it makes the narratives in Genesis more difficult to understand. Some religious critics of the theory claim that the theory takes the need for God out of the world. As progressive people of faith, we can find in this book words to help us verbalize our appreciation and acceptance of the theory. Johnson specifically addresses this need by offering a high view of God’s creation. She explains that when God created, it would have been selfish of God not to give creation the power to continue the act of creation. By giving us and the rest of the natural world the ability to participate in the ongoing creation of the world (through evolution), the Creator is giving us incredible power and agency. It is a move based on love and trust. God empowers us to participate with God in the ongoing creation of the world. 

But we have botched it. So Johnson calls us to conversion to the Earth. We must be converted to the Earth so that we can do something to begin offering the liberation of Christ to the “least of these,” which Johnson astutely identifies as the natural world suffering at the hands of humankind. 

Crafters, you don’t want to miss this book. It is a challenge, but it is so worth it to offer an alternate, deeply theological perspective on Darwin and evolution.