God’s Good Earth

“A beautifully written book that can be read for pure enjoyment and enlightenment, and/or used as a scholarly resource on the essential problem of evil in God’s creation. The optimistic theme is a rare commodity in the modern marketplace of ideas. The chapters on science are a powerful antidote to the prevailing popular view of evolution as a violent deadly struggle. A book full of new ideas, fresh approaches, and profound insights.”


—Seymour Garte, and Editor-in-Chief, God and Nature Magazine





“A book that will bring us back to celebrating the joys and goodness of creation rather than mourning its destruction and fallen state. This demands positive action from us.”


—Ghillean T. Prance, Scientific Director of The Eden Project





“Jon Garvey has written a challenging but necessary work on the goodness of creation. From opposite ends of the spectrum, young earth creationists and theistic evolutionists assume that radical evil permeates the natural order, in the form of earthquakes, predatory carnivores, etc. Garvey critiques this view, building a case from scripture and classical theology that humanity alone, not the whole created order, is fallen. This vindication of creation’s goodness is a welcome rebuttal of modern-day Gnosticism.”


—Nick Needham, Highland Theological College, Scotland





“Jon Garvey’s astounding thesis, that the Bible does not teach the fall of nature due to human sin, seems on first hearing simply misguided. But his tour though biblical creation texts and the history of Christian theology is a revelation. Not only does Scripture clearly teach God’s providence in creation’s wildness—including animal predation—but the idea of nature’s fall becomes popular only in the sixteenth century onwards. This is a brilliant book!”


—J. Richard Middleton, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College