Redeeming a cruciform nature
Date
2018
Authors
Rolston, Holmes, 1932-, author
Wiley, publisher
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Christopher Southgate recognizes that the natural world is both ambiguous, mixing goods and bads, and dramatically creative. Life is lived in green pastures and in the valley of the shadow of death. Perhaps this is the only way God could have created the values found on Earth, by means of such disvalues, as a Darwinian natural selection account suggests. But Southgate judges this too uncaring of suffering individuals, the products of evolution sacrificed to the systemic process. Perhaps God through Jesus redeems all the sacrificed individuals but redemption of all the bull-frogs and acorns becomes an incredible hope. Nature is a cruciform creation, where life persists in perpetual perishing. Life is forever conserved, regenerated, redeemed.
Description
This peer-reviewed version of the article is part of a series of articles evaluating the work of Christopher Southgate, University of Exeter, UK.
Rights Access
Subject
cruciform creation
evolution
Southgate, Christopher
suffering