At the end of the twentieth century we are coming to understand that the earth is vulnerable, that it is like a tiny garden in space, under threat on all sides. 'Jesus and the Cosmos' is an attempt to think theologically about the ecological crisis we face in the light of the great Christian tradition. Our theological tradition has been shaped within the worldview of a static universe. By contrast, we are told today that the universe began with a cosmic explosion called the Big Bang, that we live in an expanding universe with galaxies rushing away from us at an enormous rate, that we human beings are part of an evolutionary movement on the earth, and that we are intimately linked with the health of delicately balanced life-systems on our planet. Not only has modern science given this age a new cosmology, but contemporary historical studies have provided us with a new approach to the historical Jesus. Critical biblical study has allowed us to know far more about the Jesus who brought
