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2019 ILLUMINATION AWARD: Silver, Theology
ONE OF THE 50 BEST SPIRITUAL BOOKS OF 2018—Spirituality and Practice
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, and editor of The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women.
