In the Darkness Grows the Green: The Promise of a New Cosmological Horizon of Meaning Within a Critical Inquiry of Human Suffering and the Cross by Catherine A. Wright A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Regis College and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College © Copyright by Catherine A. Wright 2015 In The Darkness Grows the Green: The Promise of a New Cosmological Horizon of Meaning Within a Critical Inquiry of Human Suffering and the Cross Catherine A. Wright Doctor of Philosophy in Theology Regis College and the University of St. Michael’s College 2015 Abstract Humans have been called “mud of the earth,”i organic stardust animated by the Ruah of our Creator,ii and microcosms of the macrocosm.iii Since we now understand in captivating detail how humanity has emerged from the cosmos, then we must awaken to how humanity is “of the earth” in all the magnificence and brokenness that this entails. This thesis will demonstrate that there are no easy answers nor complete theological systems to derive satisfying answers to the mystery of human suffering. Rather, this thesis will uncover aspects of sacred revelation offered in and through creation that could mould distinct biospiritual human imaginations and cultivate the Earth literacy required to construct an ecological theological anthropology (ETA). It is this ecocentric interpretive framework that could serve as vital sustenance and a vision of hope for transformation when suffering befalls us. Embracing an Earth-centred context for engaging human suffering could allow believers the ability to recognize the sacred depth and richness of meaning in the cosmos – including its violent, destructive processes – and reconnect sufferers to i Ernest M. Conradie, An Ecological Christian Anthropology: At Home on Earth? (Cornwall: TJ International Ltd., 2005), 5. ii Elizabeth Johnson, “For God So Loved the Cosmos,” U.S. Catholic 75, no. 4 (2010). http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/environment/2010/07/god-so-loved-world-jesus-and-environment. Accessed November 2013. iii See: Maximus, Ambiguum 7, 1096A. Available at “Patrologia Latina the Full-Text Database,” ([S.l.]: Chadwyck-Healey Inc., 1996). See also: Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, Classics of Western Spirituality, eds., Columba Hart and Jane Bishop (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), 124. ii the transformative grace, the green, laying hidden in the darkness of their experience of suffering.iv iv This author is indebted to Magdelna Gomez’s imagery from her poem “In Darkness Grows the Green” in Community of Religions: Voices and Images of the Parliament of the World Religions, ed. W. Teasdale and G.F. Cairns (New York, NY: Continuum, 1996), 76. iii Acknowledgements To the many wise and passionate, fellow sojourners open to the great cosmic adventure Thank you to all those who have sustained, encouraged, challenged, and loved me and my project into existence ... know that I am, and will always be, immensely grateful iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... iv List of Appendices ........................................................................................... viii Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Classic Cosmology and Its Dysfunction ................................................................. 3 A New Cosmology: Cosmogenesis ....................................................................... 7 Our New Context for Engaging Human Suffering ................................................. 11 Methodology: Cosmologically Oriented, Descriptive, Constructive, and Chronological-Historical Method ....................................................................... 17 Thesis Statement .............................................................................................. 32 Thesis Chapters: An Orientation ......................................................................... 34 Chapter One: A Historical Exploration of Suffering ........................................ 37 Sources of Modern Understandings of Suffering ................................................... 38 First Category: Classical Period Witness of Scripture and the Early Church ..................................................... 38 Second Category: Modern Period Witness of Liberative Writers .................................................................................... .62 Third Category: Post-Shoah Period Witness of the Holocaust ............................................................................................. 69 Conclusion: Chapter One .................................................................................................. 73 Chapter Two: The Emergence of Scientific Earth Literacy ..............................76 Earth Literacy .................................................................................................................. 77 Scientific Earth Literacy .................................................................................................. 80 Earth Literacy in Science: A Grand Odyssey of (Re)Awakening ................................... 83 A Crack Appears: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries ................................................. 85 Re-Enchantment: Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries ................................................ 92 Cosmic Domain ................................................................................................................. 93 Ecosystemic Domain ........................................................................................................ 96 Personal Domain ............................................................................................................ 101 Conclusion: Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 106 v Chapter Three: The Emergence of Earth Literacy in Theology ....................... 109 Twentieth Century Contributors ................................................................................... 112 Voices Raised in Protest ............................................................................................... 117 Nativity of Ecotheology ................................................................................................. 121 Cosmology: Thomas Berry ............................................................................................. 122 Systematics: John Haught, Jürgen Moltmann, Gordon Kaufman, Sallie McFague ........ 124 Ontology of Communion: Douglas John Hall, Raimon (Raimundo) Panikkar ............... 130 Justice Movements: Rosemary Radford Ruether, Sean McDonagh, Dorothee Sölle, Jean Vanier ....................................................................................................... 133 Theology of Nature: John Polkinghorne, Arthur Peacocke ............................................ 141 Spirituality: Matthew Fox ............................................................................................... 144 Conclusion: Chapter Three ............................................................................... 145 Chapter Four: Construction of an Ecological Theological Anthropology ....... 148 ETA rather than Relational, Theological Anthropologies ...................................... 150 ETA rather than an Ecological Anthropology ................................................................ 153 Construction of an ETA ................................................................................... 157 First Pillar: Eschatological Hope..................................................................................... 158 Second Pillar: The Intrinsic Worth of Creation manifest in Interconnectivity, Interdependency, and Diversity ................................................................................ 174 Third Pillar: Numinous-Cosmic Communion ................................................................ 185 Fourth Pillar: Kenosis as the Kinetic of Cosmogenesis ................................................. 196 Conclusion: Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 210 Chapter Five: An Exploration of Human Suffering in Light of Cosmogenesis ..................... 212 Definition of Suffering within the Context of Cosmogenesis .................................. 215 Fourth Category: Post-Newtonian Period (Witness of Cosmogenesis) ..................... 220 New Theological Descriptions .......................................................................... 220 Cruciformity of Creation ................................................................................................ 223 Sacrifice and Labour to bring forth Newness ................................................................. 224 Costly Creative Kenotic-Kinetic .................................................................................... 225 New Theological Interpretations ....................................................................... 226 The Mirror: Human Suffering .......................................................................... 228 Audry Lorde gives Voice to