THIS is a review of Elizabeth Johnson’s book — “Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love.”

Johnson’s “Ask the Beasts” was just published this year and is an interesting, thought-provoking, and elevating read. In her first section, Johnson gives a wonderful presentation of Darwin’s ground-breaking book “The Origin of Species,” much of it using his own words.

While I am relatively familiar with the theory of evolution, I had never actually read the original. Johnson makes clear that he was an eloquent, thoughtful, and deeply spiritual person. The awe and wonder he displays in discussing his finds and their implications is beautiful to behold. “Ask the Beasts” is worth its cost for this section alone.

She then briefly goes over the many things we have learned (and gotten terribly wrong) about Darwin’s theories since publication of his book.

In the first category, perhaps the most important is that instead of evolution proceeding at a rather steady, slow pace over great periods of time, we now know that — while slow — evolution (adaptation to environments) is always going on. Great advances in species diversification and/or within species have been triggered by past dramatic events (the geologically stunning time spans of continental drift and cyclical climate change, for instance, as well as the cataclysmic disasters caused by volcanic eruptions and collisions with asteroids.)

Of particular note is the great asteroid impact in the Yucatan Peninsula around 66 million years ago that not only caused the rapid extinction of dinosaurs but also — because of the generations-long nuclear winter that followed — the die-off of about 75 percent of all existing life on Earth.

In terms of the seriously erroneous applications of Darwin’s findings were the many implications of so-called “Social Darwinism,” which argued that the success of the wealthy elites was due to the “survival of the fittest” and that, therefore, any attempts to ameliorate the lot of the less fortunate was both doomed to failure and, even worse, was effectively going against nature and God’s plan!

The great evil that culminated in Nazi efforts to eliminate entire classes of people as “unworthy,” including the genocide of the Jewish people, was a result of such nonsense and the even more advanced corruption of “scientific eugenics.”

In the second part of her book, she attempts to explain our understanding of evolution Christian theology regarding the evolving understanding of God (whom she often alludes to simply as “Mystery”) in sparking creation itself and the mysterious formation of ever more complex life forms.

Johnson successfully demonstrates that sound theology has always seen human beings within the context of all creation and thus not somehow “separate” or “above” other creatures. But it seems that she forces some questionable concepts as the Trinity into discussing how this works with creation and evolution.

Those more theologically inclined (or curious) might well enjoy this section. For the rest, however, I would advise moving quickly through it. There is richness here, but the first and third sections were, for me, far more informative and powerful.

Mankind versus otherkind

In her third section, she turns to how human beings fit into creation and evolution and asks what our essential role is (or ought to be).

She demonstrates that Christian theology in more recent centuries has forgotten the intimate association with all creation that was so present through much of the Hebrew bible (the Old Testament) and which is truly present in Christian scriptures.

She laments the fact that we have more recently come to see humanity as apart from creation, and even that “God’s major plan” is really solely about humans.

She takes issue with this and shows, with much scriptural support from both of the Bible’s two testaments, that this is a deviation, if not an outright perversion, from the essential message.

For the rest of this review, I think it best you hear directly from Elizabeth Johnson as there is no way I could adequately summarize or improve upon her words.

“Contemporary studies of living animals are making it clear that the gap between humankind and otherkind is much less absolute than previously thought, with many shared characteristics appearing on a graded spectrum. ... With homo sapiens, evolution on this planet has brought forth a creature able to decipher the very process of evolution and draw diagrams about its progression. In so doing, it has brought forth a being that can massively affect the evolution of other species for good or ill. ... Despite our unique capacities for language, reason, morality, and love, however, the human legacy is becoming the erasure of others on the tree of life.”

“The ongoing destruction of life on Earth by human action, intended or not, has the character of deep moral failure. To speak theologically, it is profoundly sinful. By acts of commission and omission, we are perpetrating violence against life and its future. ... Ethicists have coined new words to name the sin: biocide, ecocide, geocide. Sacrilege and desecration are not too strong a designation. ... Whatever the language, the religious judgment remains that the damage humans are wreaking on the earth is profoundly wrong.”

“Social injustice and ecological degradation are two sides of the same coin, lack of respect for life. Both evils precipitate out from policies and lifestyles that reward the greed and selfishness of some to the disadvantage of many others.”

“In terms of the moral good, we owe love and justice not only to humankind but also to otherkind. The moral responsibility associated with extending respect to the natural world thus calls into play the substantial tradition on right and wrong, virtue and sin, already so well developed in terms of the dignity of the human person, and invites its challenging application to this new set of lives.”

“We all share the status of creaturehood; we are all kin in the evolving community of life now under siege; our vision must be one of flourishing for all. ... The long-term goal is a socially just and environmentally sustainable society in which the needs of all people are met and diverse species can prosper, onward to an evolutionary future that will still surprise.”

“The beasts ask of us no less.”

The author has been a college teacher of American history and political science and the director of the US National Catholic Rural Life Conference. He served as a member of the Iowa state House of Representatives and retired from public service in the Iowa executive branch in 2004.