Ps & Gs Church, Edinburgh hosted a recent Bible Lab event where we explored how we love God, our neighbour and all creation as we heard from Professor Loren Wilkinson. Prof Wilkinson is an Emeritus fellow at Regent College, Vancouver and was one of the earliest international voices to speak on Christianity and creation care.
Dr Bethany Sollereder started the evening by introducing Prof Wilkinson. Bethany is a Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. She specialises in theology concerning evolution and the problem of suffering. She is currently working on the theological aspects of climate change.
Prof Wilkinson introduced us to the themes of his new book “Circles and the Cross: Cosmos, Consciousness, Christ, and the Human Place in Creation”. This was followed by a time of Q&A. Prof Wilkinson spoke on the symbolism of the Celtic cross, and how the circle (representing the circle of life) is both dependent on and held by the cross. His talk emerged out of three mysteries: the mystery of the cosmos (why is there something rather than nothing?), the mystery of consciousness (why are we aware of ourselves?) and the mystery of Christ (how is God a part of creation?).
He spoke about religion, art, science, creativity and wonder, weaving his message together through poetry, philosophy, and history. He spoke about our ability as humans to enable others to be themselves, to create space for the whole of creation and to make decisions in awareness of our dependence on the natural world.
Prof Wilkinson described partnering with God in creation as finding freedom from despair – knowing that God’s purpose is to bring about a renewed heaven and earth. He encouraged us to add ‘rejoice’ to the well-known list ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ as we all make sacrifices in our lifestyles from a place of worship. He encouraged as to attend to creation.
During the Q&A session, he said the most important thing many of us could do is spend less time staring at screens, and more time outside. We also discussed the image on the front of his book, representing Christ embracing the beauty of creation, the pain of death, and the hope of the empty tomb.
You can listen to Prof Wilkinson’s talk here and if you’d like the slides from his presentation, please contact office@psandgs.org.uk.
Bethany Nelson, Empowerment Coordinator
