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“The incarnation, at the center of Christian faith, provides a touchstone for understanding the world as God’s good creation and human beings as called to embodied, dialogical relationship with their creator.” ~J. Richard Middleton, theologian.

Loren Wilkinson explains how creation is a work of love and self-giving in his book, Circles and the Cross: Cosmos, Consciousness, Christ, and the Human Place in Creation. On pages 270-73, Wilkinson tags John Polkinghorne’s edited volume, The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis. “God’s self-giving creates space for each creature to be its own self….. Polkinghorne would also agree with Julian of Norwich that without God, creation would become nothing. But he identifies creation as the work of both power and love–and love looks sometimes like powerlessness…. The picture of a controlling Creator is corrected by the incarnation: The Logos of creation became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood. (John 1:14). Creation is “safe” because God never stops loving it”

Grok, operating as my research assistant, replied to my inquiry as follows: In Circles and the Cross: Cosmos, Consciousness, Christ, and the Human Place in Creation (2023), Loren Wilkinson—a professor emeritus of philosophy and interdisciplinary studies at Regent College—presents a lifelong theological and personal reflection on humanity’s relationship to the created world. Drawing on over 50 years of teaching, writing, and hands-on environmental engagement (including life on Galiano Island, British Columbia), he weaves together science, philosophy, poetry, biblical exegesis, and autobiography to argue that Christian faith demands a profound ethic of creation care. Central to this is the Celtic cross as a unifying symbol: the circle evokes the repetitive, interconnected cycles of the natural cosmos (birth, death, renewal), while the cross—intersecting and extending beyond it—represents Christ’s disruptive, redemptive intervention into those cycles through incarnation, suffering, and resurrection. Wilkinson relates the incarnation (God’s self-emptying kenosis in becoming human flesh, as in Philippians 2:5–8) to creation care by emphasizing its cosmic scope and ethical implications. He critiques Enlightenment-era anthropocentrism and linear “progress” narratives, which he sees as fostering human domination over nature and exacerbating ecological crises. Instead, the incarnation reveals God’s intimate solidarity with all creation—not just humanity—as vulnerable, interdependent stardust within the vast cosmos. This “deep incarnation” (echoing theologians like Elizabeth Johnson, though Wilkinson grounds it biblically) means Christ enters not only human history but the entire web of life, sharing in its beauty, pain, and finitude. As Wilkinson writes, the incarnation holds together divine transcendence (God beyond the circle) and immanence (God within it), affirming creation’s intrinsic value as a gift from a loving Creator.

This theological vision motivates creation care as an extension of Christ’s incarnate love. Humans, as image-bearers, are called to “step into the cycles of nature” with empathetic, self-emptying actions—mirroring Jesus’ precarious vulnerability on the cross—that disrupt destructive patterns and foster life-giving renewal. Wilkinson illustrates this through personal stories (e.g., his family’s stewardship of land) and figures like Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poetry celebrates “pied beauty” in creation’s diversity. The cross’s hope breaks the circle’s potential despair (endless ecological decay), offering resurrection as a promise of cosmic healing, but it demands active participation: reducing consumption, restoring habitats, and pursuing justice amid climate grief. In essence, for Wilkinson, the incarnation isn’t an abstract doctrine but a mandate for embodied hope. It liberates Christians from escapist eschatology (fleeing a doomed earth) toward a “cross-shaped” vocation of healing the planet, as one reviewer notes: a “compelling case for how Creation Care…should be a central concern for Christians.” This relational ethic counters modern alienation, inviting wonder at the “miracle of the cosmos” and our conscious place within it, all illuminated by Christ’s light.

I agree with this analysis, having read the entire book recently, and with great enthusiasm, for our lecture with Martin de Wit from South Africa. The book is a real statement of hope in an age heavily influenced by nihilism. I do, however, disagree with Wilkinson’s use of Richard Rohr, who is actually a panentheist, and not a trinitarian theist. He should at least have made a footnote in this regard. One final quote from Loren Wilkinson: “The whole cosmos could never have arisen if the self-giving love of God–which resulted in the incarnation, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ–had not been at the centre of the universe” (Loren Wilkinson, Circles and the Cross, 309).

~Dr. Gordon E. Carkner, Graduate & Faculty Christian Forum at University of British Columbia, author of Towards an Incarnational Spiritual Culture. Find upcoming lectures at https://ubcgfcf.com.

Feel free to write gord.carkner@gmail.com if you want to be added to the Graduate Christian Union information list