The Cosmos in the Light of the Cross

How is it that the same God who created all that is splendid and who has the power to raise Jesus from the dead also allows the extinction of many wonderful creations, the suffering of cancer, and other difficulties? George Murphy finds understanding in the theology of the cross, with a God who becomes a participant in the universe and thereby shares the suffering, loss, and death that are part of the worldly experience. God is willing to be condemned in the name of the law, to be rejected and abandoned by humanity, and to be abandoned even by God. Murphy uses this theology of the cross as a perspective from which to read ecology, evolution, and bioethics. His view gives us new opportunities to understand the apparent absence of God in natural process, the role of death in evolution, and the ethical ambiguities raised by science-based technologies. George L. Murphy is the Pastoral Associate at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio. A Templeton Fellow, he teaches theology and science at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.