If God exists, does he care about his evolving, suffering world? Most answers are unsatisfactory. Morris’s book is different: short but not superficial, strong in its science and philosophy, and realistic as a carer of a handicapped teenage grandson, still unable to walk and talk.

Like Stephen Hawking and Einstein, John Morris also tries to explore the mind of God. Violence began with the Big Bang, long before legendary Adam’s sin. Morris believes God is typically non-interventionist but constantly interactive, operating creatively within his own physical laws, that allow freedom to particles and people, resulting in innovations and mutations, not always beneficial. Compared with other religions, Christ’s cross and resurrection give more historic hope in a God who suffers alongside us, to create good, responsible persons.

Here is a 100-minute read, of interest to believers and atheists alike. Its brave conclusion gives reasonable grounds for thinking we live in a loving God’s best possible world, despite unavoidable suffering and natural disasters.

This is a good little book. The Reverend Doctor Morris has chosen an interesting but challenging topic that has perplexed theologians for years – centuries really – called the “theodicy problem”. Said simply, 1] if there is a God and 2] if God is all powerful and 3] if God is all knowing and 4] if God is good, compassionate, and loving toward His (I use the gender designation only as conventional and convenient) people: Then why is there evil in the world and why do people suffer? Surely, at least one of those four premises must be wrong. … Morris reviews the cosmological and evolutionary material in a conversational and pastoral way, as one might expect from a teacher turned priest, and concludes that there is a creator God – much more likely than not. …Edmund G. Lowrie
 
I have just finished reading the Revised Edition of Contemporary Creed and I congratulate you upon it. It is a remarkable book. It displays an impressive scholarship and human perception. Dr Peter Willis, formerly Reader in the History of Architecture, University of Newcastle.
 
John Morris is one of those who experiences a God presence that he cannot define but who will not deny its reality. He writes with integrity,
clarity and passion, as he explores spirituality with a contemporary accent. John Shelby Spong, former Bishop of Newark, N.J., USA, author
 
Fair and open-minded, widely read in science, philosophy and theology, John Morris offers a vision of Christian belief and ethics which can stand convincingly in this modern world. Work right through it in a group with friends of differing convictions! It could enlarge and enrich all your lives. Rt Revd John Austin Baker, former Bishop of Salisbury, author