Patrick McCormick's elegantly written book on beauty and justice is an extended meditation on the biblical visions of Genesis and the care for the stranger so prominent in both testaments. In four rich chapters, McCormick raises questions about the significance of creation, theological anthropology, social ethics, and ecological justice in the context of his argument that “beauty is often a path that leads to justice and that real justice is characterized by the harmony, clarity, and balance long associated with beauty” (xi). In setting out the many aesthetic and ethical dimensions of the biblical vision of creation, McCormick shows how a Christian theoethical conception of beauty is not just inclusive of stunning natural scenery—indeed, he shows how such a shallow understanding of beauty misses the mark. A deep awareness of beauty, McCormick shows, has an impact not only on the environment but also on how human beings treat immigrants and how we ought to think about work and leisure. He notes that many modern artifacts of beauty are in fact made on the backs of the poor.

As an entrée into moral theology, beauty reveals much that other, more “rational” approaches (virtue, deontology, natural law) miss or fail to emphasize enough: the need for human companionship, appropriate rest, generosity, and creativity. God's Beauty is a work of social ethics, but it also is a theological anthropology and a vision of what human society in communion with its environment might look like, if we have the vision to see it and the courage to live it out.

There are a few issues that raised some questions for this reader. A number of themes recur throughout the book, including the contrast that the biblical creation accounts offer to what McCormick sees as the chaos and ugliness of tohu wabohu of Genesis 1. I would suggest that this image be supplemented with an acknowledgment of the ambiguity of the biblical creation account. Such a perspective (such as that elaborated by Catherine Keller) raises the gendered dimensions of tohu wabohu and shows how the priestly biblical account decisively conquers the divine feminine. In addition, there is an unarticulated assumption of gender complementarity that is never fully explicit but does not do enough justice to the diversity of creation and sexuality. McCormick also argues for a normative “lush and harmonious cosmos” (134), but such things as predation and massive natural climactic events—both of which long precede human environmental impact—seem also to be a part of creation. Thus the place of “natural evil” and tragedy is a question worth pursuing here.

This book offers much to the reader and would be an ideal text for undergraduate courses in ethics relating to poverty and environmental issues; it would also serve well as one text among others for introductory courses in theology. This book not only fulfills its promise to engage critically the relation between beauty and justice but is also beautifully written, thoughtful, and engaging.