It is with joy and delight to follow the theological mind journey of Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ. From “She Who is: The Mystery God in Feminist Theological Discourse,” to her latest book, “Come, Have Breakfast: Meditations on God and the Earth.” Through a challenge by the United States Bishops, she has persisted in her effort to show that God can be seen in nature, in all of creation, including animals and humans of the male and female genders.

In her latest book, Johnson mines the Bible to understand God’s relationship with nature. A small example of this is her chapter on the wild animals. The scene opens with John the Baptist clothed in camel's hair baptizing crowds of people in the Jordan River. Into this scene steps the adult Jesus of Nazareth. After resisting Satan in the wilderness and before receiving the care of angels, Jesus "was with the wild animals" (Mark 1.13), (Johnson, p. 92). Her point is that Mark is identifying Jesus with “messianic peace,” where the wolf will lay down with the lamb. In the messianic age, wild animals and human children will live together without feeling any harm.

The entire book of meditations dwells on this theme of God’s relationship with nature. Johnson details how many species live on earth, and claims, “the earth is full of your creatures,” that is, bat, cat, rat, dog, pig, fox, baboon, blackbird, bluejay, goldfinch, a long list including fish and trees.  (She is known for making long lists of whatever it is she wants to emphasize.)
She worries that humans do not realize that they are responsible for caring for all, lest they disappear.

Johnson does not shy away from difficult questions such as why we, along with all of nature, suffer. One answer is that creatures grow and pass away to make room for new species to be born. Another answer images God as a creator who, in the beginning, she says, “it is as if the creator gave the world a push saying, “Go, have an adventure, see what you can become. And I will be with you every step of the way.” God is not identified with nature but loves all creatures.
Another tough question is that of life after death. This is not a question for science, she says, but a matter of faith. If God loves all creatures, then God is not going to let them disappear. 

The reader won’t find anything here that hasn’t been said before, but it is totally exciting and amazing how Johnson can see newness in ancient and familiar contexts.  She makes us look forward to that feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines! 

Johnson's emphasis on nature gives the feeling that we are creatures along with all the other creatures on earth. Loved by God, free, but with a heavy sense of responsibility. Nature including other human beings, and all the earth are our sisters and brothers. I can enjoy them to my heart’s content. But I also have to know that I need to tend to them in the sense that I need to remember that all God’s creatures need to be fed, i.e. to “come for breakfast,” so that they can achieve their desired growth and progress and enjoy their freedom to stretch and spread.

List of Books
She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. 1992.
Women, earth, and Creator Spirit. 1993.
Who Do You Say that I am? Introducing Contemporary Christology. 1997.
Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints 1998
The Church Women Want: Catholic Women in Dialog. 2002.
Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints. 2003.
Quest for the Living God. 2007.
Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love. 2014.
Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. 2018.
Come, Have Breakfast: Meditations on God and the Earth.