If Dom Crossan gave us the biblical account of creation’s groaning, Philip Clayton just gave us the cosmic one. And I’m not exaggerating when I say this might be the most integrative theological vision I’ve seen laid out in 40 minutes at Theology Beer Camp.
Phil took the universe—all 13.8 billion years of it—and showed us what it looks like when everything is groaning together toward something new.
The Universe is a Baby, and It’s Still Being Born
Phil walked us through what the James Webb telescope is showing us—galaxies from 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only 800 million years old. Stars forming in clouds of dust and gas. The Pillars of Creation. Young stars, newborn stars, growing.
And then he dropped this from Brian Swimme:
“We do not know what mystery awaits us in the very next moment, but we can be sure we will be astonished and enchanted. This entire universe sprang into existence from a single numinous speck—our origin is mystery. Our destiny is an intimate community with all that is.”
That’s the setup. We live in an ever-becoming cosmos. Continual emergence of novelty. And the question Phil wants us to ask is: what does it mean to groan with this cosmos as it keeps being born?
The Periodic Table is Doing Theology
I loved this part. Phil showed us the periodic table—the noble gases on the right that don’t interact with anything because they’re full and stable, the alkali metals on the left that are so volatile they’re hardly ever found in pure form. And all of it? The basis for the emergence of complexity, chemistry, and eventually life.
Einstein said there are only two ways to live: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.
And Thich Nhat Hanh said, “People usually consider walking on water or in thin air as a miracle, but I think the real miracle is not to walk on water, but to walk on the earth.”
Phil’s point: science doesn’t diminish the sacred. It reveals it. This baby universe we’re part of? It’s magic all the way down.
From Cells to Consciousness to Kanzi the Bonobo
Phil took us on a journey through biology—the incredible complexity of DNA, the machinery inside every cell, the emergence of ecosystems and consciousness. The human brain: 10 to the 11th neurons, 10 to the 14th neural connections. The most complicated object we’ve yet seen in the universe.
He showed us the Dalai Lama fascinated by brain scans of meditating monks. Tibetan Buddhist monks covered with electrodes, advancing science while doing what Buddhists have done for centuries.
And then Kanzi—the bonobo who transformed primatology. Watching Kanzi make a fire, roast a marshmallow, and put the fire out reminded us how close we are to other species. “We’re all the same in the end,” Phil said.
Everything Always All at Once
Here’s where Phil got to the heart of it. We’re living in a moment where everything seems to be groaning at once. It used to be one crisis at a time—COVID, the Twin Towers, the threat of nuclear war, Vietnam, JFK, World War II. But now? Sudan, Gaza, Somalia, Ukraine. Wars and famines. It’s everything always all at once.
But the ecological crisis is different from all the others. Why? Because when people stop killing each other, people stop being murdered. But carbon is the gift that keeps on giving—for thousands of years.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth Phil named: in the United States, Christians are more likely to deny climate science than any other group. The effect of Christians against climate science is greater than any other opposing factor.
Something’s missing. We need a biblically based theology that reaches everyone. We need a theology of the groaning of creation.
Paul’s Birth Metaphor Changes Everything
Phil built his theology around Romans 8:22: “We know the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together.”
And here’s where it gets interesting. This is the one area of theology where men cannot claim special competence. What do men know about birth pains?
Phil shared what it was like watching his partner in back labor—the most painful kind—groaning with no way for him to help take the pain away. “I’ve never felt more powerless in my entire life. Here was somebody groaning whom I love deeply, and there was nothing I could do.”
That’s the starting point. Often, we’re not the person groaning. We’re watching another and learning empathy, learning how to respond.
So Phil showed us videos of women in labor. The cramps. The brutal pain. And then—the joy. The baby arriving. The mother catching her own child.
“I like a theology that would start with something so real as pain,” Phil said, “because it’s pain that isn’t pointless, but leads to this incredible joy.”
The Divine Spirit is Big with Child
The Greek word for groaning—stenagmos—means groanings but also sighs. It’s the deep, visceral sound that erupts when pain, longing, or holy desire presses beyond the limits of normal speech.
“If you don’t get this groaning,” Phil said, “you don’t get the gospel.”
When Phil was a young charismatic Pentecostal, he thought the “sighs too deep for words” in Romans 8:26 were about his own little woes getting their own special language. Now he reads it differently: the divine Spirit is big with child. The Spirit is groaning for the becoming of the world that’s meant to be.
Salvation is a birth metaphor. And it’s a partnership between God and everything else.
Three Kinds of Groaning
Phil found at least three kinds of groaning in Romans 8:
Creation’s groaning
Our groaning within ourselves—which is communal (have you ever been part of a grieving community? That’s one of the most powerful things human beings do together)
The Spirit’s groaning—sighs too deep for words
And this theology spreads outward. Jesus uses the same Greek word when he heals with “a deep sigh” in Mark 7, and when he “groaned deeply in his spirit” at the Pharisees’ unbelief in Mark 8. It connects to Israel groaning under Pharaoh. To our longing for presence with God after death.
Lament is Not Despair—It’s a Call to Action
This is where Phil really landed it.
A theology of groaning is a theology of lament. And lament is protest. It’s standing up and saying no when something isn’t okay.
Phil told us about his mom’s memorial service. His dad had died after an 18-year illness. His mom had cared for him, and then she was taken by a rare disease less than two years later. At the service, Phil’s sister stood up and said to God, out loud, to the whole congregation:
“This is not fair. This is not just. I don’t accept this. No one should say this is the will of God.”
That’s lament. That’s what we’re called to do when something isn’t okay.
And then? We act. The groaning of creation shows us those who have least power—the species under our control—and calls us to respond. We grieve. We lament. We participate with those who suffer. And then we stand up and act against injustice.
As Gustavo Gutiérrez and the liberation theologians have been saying: those who suffer understand more of God, Christ, and the Gospel than those who live rich, healthy, and easy. We are on the side of those who groan.
No Kings
Phil’s summary: “Groaning is feeling together. Compassion. Suffering with. Empathy. It’s a longing for a community of thriving, of justice for all.”
And then, as tens of thousands of people were marching around the United States, he had us say it together: “No kings.”
This is where theology and cosmology and christology and ecology all come together. It calls us to rethink the relationship between God, humanity, and the non-human world.
Whitehead Gets the Last Word
You knew it was coming. Phil closed with Whitehead:
“The religious insight is the grasp of this truth: that the order of the world, the depth of reality of the world, the value of the world in its whole and its parts, the beauty of the world, the zest of life, the peace of life, the mastery of evil—are all bound together, not accidentally, but by reason of this truth: that the universe exhibits a creativity with infinite freedom and a realm of forms with infinite possibilities.”
Us and God, working together to address the suffering and injustice of the world.
Gloating, Groaning, and Whining
In the Q&A, Phil made an important distinction.
On one side are the groaners. On the other side are those who gloat. Prosperity Gospel is gloating—knowing you’re favored by God because of your checking account balance. It morphs into racial gloating, nationalist gloating, power-based gloating.
And then someone added: the alternative to groaning isn’t just gloating. It’s also whining. “I deserve more. Why am I not getting more?” That’s still the gloating side—the assumption that the world owes you something.
Silence can be a form of groaning too. Phil shared an image he can’t forget: old Quaker women with white hair standing hand in hand outside San Francisco City Hall when the first same-sex couples could marry. Huge crowds of protestors. And these women just standing there in meditation and prayer, silent, while the couples crossed behind them.
The groaning of creation is not a performance. It’s a way of being in the world.
Never Compromise on the Authenticity
Phil’s closing line: “Never compromise on the authenticity of the groaning, of the sharing in suffering.”
But what about empaths who take on too much? Especially women in conservative religious traditions who are told they can never be too empathetic?
Bodies have limits. Flourishing means finding the balance between being genuinely open to the pain of the world and understanding your own limits. After difficult therapy sessions, the recommendation is self-care. Go get the burger and fries.
So yeah, we ended up recommending burgers instead of poetry. But Phil was okay with it.
Come Groan With Us at Theology Beer Camp 2026!
And if you want to experience conversations like this in person—if you want to sit with scholars and pastors and poets and weirdos and talk about the biggest questions over good beer—you need to be in Kansas City next fall.
Theology Beer Camp 2026
October 8-10
Kansas City
This is what we do. We take theology seriously and we take community seriously and we take good beer seriously. It’s church for people who are done with bullshit but not done with the sacred.
Join the Online Lenten Class with John Dominic Crossan!
What can we actually know about Jesus of Nazareth? And, what difference does it make?
For over five decades, Dr. John Dominic Crossan has been one of the world’s foremost scholars of the historical Jesus—rigorously reconstructing the life, teachings, and world of a first-century Jewish peasant who proclaimed God’s Rule in Roman-occupied Galilee. His work has shaped an entire generation of scholarship and transformed how millions understand the figure at the center of Christian faith.
This Lenten class begins where all of Dom’s work begins: with history. What was actually happening in Galilee in the 20s CE? What did Herod Antipas’ transformation of the “Sea of Galilee” into the commercial “Sea of Tiberias” mean for peasant fishing communities? Why did Jesus emerge from John’s baptism movement proclaiming God’s Rule through parables—and what made that medium so perfectly suited to that message?
Only by understanding what Jesus’ parables meant then can we wrestle with what they might demand of us now.
Preview Livestream - Watch the replay here!
4 Visual Lectures - Each pre-recorded video lecture features Dr. Crossan’s masterful teaching, drawing on decades of historical research and his many visits across the Holy Land.
5 Livestream QnAs - Each week includes a live question and answer session with Dr. Crossan and Dr. Tripp Fuller—your chance to engage directly with one of the world’s leading Jesus scholars.
Online Group - Connect with other participants in the private Facebook group and access all lectures and livestream replays on the Class Resource Page.
