IN PRAISE OF The Love Story of Creation—Book One
“I am pleased to respond tothis work, The Love Story of Creation, Book I, by Edward Ruetz which is primarily ‘…for young adults’s limited understanding of the scientific story of creation.’ Supporting elements are very helpful: glossary, sources consulted, preface and afterword are very revealing. These ‘novel’ elements can be useful to older tolks as well. The work is the most innovative-creative approach to the subject of ‘Creation’ that I have ever seen. Written as a novel and primarily for young adults the message is clear and rewarding. Characters are well developed as in any worthwhile novel. I am happy to endorse such unusual writing and presentation.” Dr. George E. Carter is a Book Editor and Author of the book, Founder of Unitarianism in South Africa—David P. Faurey and Editor of the book, The Story of Joshua D. Dreyfogle, Private, 4th Ohio Infantry and the Civil War.
“What a creative and entertaining way to infuse the theories of creationism and evolution. This story is able to blend elements of both ways of thinking through the summary of indisputable scientific facts and the presence of the Divine Beings, especially Ruah, throughout the creation of the universe and planet Earth. Your readers will end Book I with much curiosity about the story of the creation of man and about the future of planet Earth and won’t want to have to wait to read Book II to find out what happens.” Heather Carmichael, Editorial Consultant to iUniverse, Bloomington, Indiana.
“The Love Story of Creation, Book One is a work of love from you to a world that needs to hear the story. You tell it with imagination, depth and even accuracy regarding the creation story as we now know it. I love your departures from the expected, especially your idea of a Quaternity that includes Sophia, Ruah, Elohim and Dabar. The twelve atom characters are also wonderful, making the Sacred Scripture of Creation accessible to young and mature alike. You no doubt know Aquinas statement, “Creation is the primary and the most perfect revelation of the Divine.” Bro. Joe Kilikevice, OP, Founding Director of ShemCenter for Interfaith Spirituality, Oak Park, Illinois.
“Many thanks for sending me a copy of The Love Story of Creation, Book One. What a great story you have put together! And what a host of information. I stand in awe at the breadth of your knowledge, the years of teaching experience, the creative approach used for your message and the message itself.” Michael Morwood, Author of such books as, Tomorrow’s Catholic, Is Jesus God? Finding Our Faith and Praying a New Story.
The Englewood Review of Books
Book Review: THE LOVE STORY OF CREATION – Edward Ruetz
A Brief Review of
The Love Story of Creation: Book One
The Creative Adventures of God, Quarkie, Photie and their Atom Friends.
Edward Ruetz.
E-Book and Paperback: iUniverse, Inc., Bloomington, IN,2009.
Reviewed by Karen Altergott.
Imaginative interweavings of the scientific story and the God-story of creation make The Love Story of Creation unique. A tale is told with the help of a cast of animated atoms and photons who, along with the Godhead, spend billions of years together. Beginning from before all time and ending with the existence of 92 atom families and bacterium and a eukaryote cell in a mere 322 pages in an ambitious enterprise. Carefully incorporating the best science available and the theology of divine love and creativity is an amazing accomplishment. Ruetz communicates with beauty and delight about a God who is present during the minute transformations of matter into the complex reality we know. This book conveys the miraculous and the true drama of those billions of years! What a miracle today is, when we consider all that came before.
As a visual person, I sometimes wished this book had been embellished with accompanying illustrations from the NASA photographs of deep space and perhaps illustrations of processes. While word pictures are well-developed throughout the book, the combination of cosmic events and invisible processes at the atomic and subatomic level would make illustrations helpful. It is not easy to remember the whole story, but the careful science that underlies the story is revealed in an appealing way.
The characters, both divine and physical, and their relationships are important in holding the reader’s attention through billions of years. The personified atoms, photons and quarks – Quarkie, Quarko, Nitro, Hydrojean, Phoson, Oxyjoy and friends – provide a great education in the science of early creation. Ever teaching about science, the interactions among characters and within communities of particles, quarks, atoms and photons provide character lessons as well. Throughout the book, these physical beings face situations with personality, and community issues that would emerge in any creative enterprise are faced and resolved. Both scientific and character lessons would be valuable to young readers.
The poetic sensibility that keeps emerging in the divine love story of creation may be an overlay that most deeply expresses the theology of the book. God’s love is the source of everything. While it is puzzling in me that Ruetz chose a Quaternity of Divine Beings rather than a triune Godhead, it is within artistic license. I especially valued the role of Ruah, the Spirit of God, as a non-restrictive, but creative presence in the process. Elohim, the Father figure, has some mystery and awe, and is more self-limited than most familiar Creator imagery. The laws of Elohim are the limits within which creation occurs, which is an interesting approach. Dabar, the Son of God, has a role in creation as well. The Godhead is never easy to portray, and I like the way Ruetz handled it here. God community of three so much clearer that in the Matrix of the Shack, and it was creatively done, with integrity! The addition of Sophia, Wisdom of God, as a sometimes prophetic and initially inspiring source, was done in part to balance the gender of the Divine, and to deny the Triune nature of God.
After touring the universe, including our galaxy and earth at various times in creation history, and observing the work of creation of all 92 elements and various components of first life, vivified by Ruah. Ruetz brings this amazing description of the love story to the very edge of single cell life on earth. In a detailed 18 page preview of Book Two, the characters all move to earth and begin the process of diversifying life and observing an every-changing environment. I look forward to the sequel. I think it has potential as a graphic novel, one that would appeal to all ages. The author helps us hold the scientific truths and the Divine Truths in harmony in a unique manner. God created all, and science studies and discovers how! Why should there be a conflict between the two approaches?
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KIRKUS SERVICE FOR SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS
Ruetz, Edward
THE LOVE STORY OF CREATION: Book One: The Creative
Adventures of God, Quarko, Photie and Their Atom Friends.
iUniverse, Inc., Bloomington, IN, 2009
E-Book and Paperback(388 pp.)
ISBN 978-1440188404
Divine grace begets astrophysics in this grandiose cosmological fantasia. Ruetz, a Catholic priest and eco-communitarian, offers this fable as a mythic reconciliation of Christian-ish themes with scientific theories of the Big Bang and evolution. In the beginning, it seems there was a Quaternity of one God in four Persons: Elohim, his wife, Sophia, their son Dabar and a feminine Holy Spirit called Ruah. Their heavenly bliss needs constructive outlets, and before you can say “Through our ecstatic love, we will create space-time as a home in which these possible new creations will live,” a 100-trillion-trillion degree “red bubble-womb” erupts. As the new universe cools the laws of physics takes over, anthropomorphized by a Disneyesque cast of talking subatomic particles, including the squabbling trio of Quarkie, Quarko and Quarkoff and an alliterative photon named Photie. (Sample soliloquy: “Felicitous, faithful friends, potent perseverance calls you to fastidious fidelity.”) They conduct us on a 15 billion-year narrative in which gas clouds coalesce into galaxies and heavy atomic nuclei ae synthesized in supernovae and they gravitate to the nascent Earth. Despite the long-winded dialogue, Ruetz’a fable imparts interesting lore about the developing universe at a level that young readers can digest. Unfortunately, kids and adults may get lost in the story’s second half, which bogs down in details of molecular biology—“First let us build an RNA messenger made of nucleotide bases from our free-floating raw materials and RNA bases”—as loquacious atoms plan the evolution of bacteria into eukaryote cells. Throughtout, Ruetz blends theology into the science: the fundamental forces of physics are but elaborations of a primordial impulse toward love and fellowship, while free will makes the cosmos open-ended rather than deterministic (dangerously so for a hydrogen atom whose sinful pride draws him toward a black hole.) Neither scientists nor religious traditionalists are likely to be swayed by Ruetz’s vision, but it may resonate with those of a determinedly ecumenical mindset. An imaginative but somewhat stilted portrait of a mechanistic yet gushingly self-aware world.