Selfish Genes and Christian Ethics: Theological and Ethical Reflections on Evolutionary Biology – By Neil Messer

problematized for diluting Buddhism or celebrated forelevating psychotherapy. One thing is clear though: it is thecommitment to the alleviation of suffering that fundamen-tally unites the Buddha (framed in these essays as essen-tially a psychologist) and contemporary psychotherapists.

Ann GleigRice University

Religion and ScienceBACK TO DARWIN: A RICHER ACCOUNT OF EVO-LUTION. Edited by John B. Cobb, Jr. Grand Rapids, MI:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008. Pp. xiv +434. $36.00.

This anthology lays the groundwork for developing acomprehensive evolutionary cosmology derived from White-headian process philosophy—one that provides the basis foran alternative to the “neo-Darwinist” orthodoxy in biologicalresearch. According to Cobb, the neo-Darwinist paradigm ismarred by its materialism and reductionist methods thatresult in a distortion of the complex and relational nature ofthe organic world. Cobb defends a return to Darwin and tomore inclusive modes of comprehending the organic world,which would help to “clear the slate . . . restrictive” neo-Darwinian interpretations of it. A process evolutionary cos-mology maintains that organisms have a degree of agency indirecting evolutionary processes, largely consistent with J. M.Baldwin’s theory of “organic selection,” in which the behav-iors, the mentalities, and the selective activities of organismsare said to play a role in directing the morphological evolutionof their species. One weakness of the book, however, is that itpoints only to well-worn examples terms of the Baldwineffect. While Cobb enlists renowned geneticist F. Ayala toprovide insightful commentary on the status of current bio-logical research, Cobb responds to Ayala’s proposal in Dar-win’s Gift (2007) for a continued separation of biologicalscience and theology. Cobb argues for a “new integrationbetween science and religious belief” made possible by theacknowledgment that the subjectivity and purposes of organ-isms play a role in evolution.

Adam C. ScarfeBrandon University

GOD AFTER DARWIN: A THEOLOGY OF EVOLU-TION. By John F. Haught. Second Edition. Boulder, CO:Westview Press, 2008. Pp. xi + 244. $30.00.

Setting out the main contours of a novel theology ofevolution, Haught (Professor of Theology at Georgetown Uni-versity and Director of the Georgetown Center for the Study ofScience and Religion) claims that nature is comprised of ahierarchy of levels that neo-Darwinist reductions of theorganic world to its material and mechanistic elementscannot fully express. Accompanying, but not reducible to, thematerial laws of nature, there is a higher level of information

transfer that is at the root of organic processes—for example,the functioning of DNA as a code—a fact that opens up newavenues for speculating about the influence of God in nature.Contra Dennett, evolutionary novelty cannot arise if naturalselection is simply a linear algorithm, its pattern fully discov-erable by mathematical thinking. The emergence of evolu-tionary novelty is the product of a contrastual blend ofcontingency, predictability, and temporality, in which natureworks on past forms, but breaks out of deterministic same-ness in its generation of truly new mutational variations.While this provides the basis of his evolutionary metaphysicsof promise, bringing evolution, eschatology, and ecologytogether (in contrast to the cosmic pessimism that the neo-Darwinists so generally espouse), Haught might have donemore to express how this blend of elements—constitutingbiological creativity—should be conceived. In the new chapterin this edition, Haught references the Kitzmiller v. DoverSchool District case in which he was a witness and lays out thecase against teaching intelligent design in biology courses.


EVOLUTIONARY CREATION: A CHRISTIANAPPROACH TO EVOLUTION. By Denis O. Lamoureux.Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2008. Pp. xx + 493. $55.00.

Lamoureux finished his doctor of dentistry before pur-suing PhDs in theology and biology, the latter two degreesfocused on the theology and science of origins. This bookrepresents more than thirty years of thinking and researchon this question, a journey (recounted in chapter 9) that tookhim from a Catholic upbringing through successive periodsof scientistic atheism and scientific creationism beforeembracing what he calls evolutionary creation. This positionaccepts God’s purposive creation in and through the evolu-tionary processes and history of the world. The heart of thebook (chapters 4-7) is directed toward a conservative evan-gelical audience in order to explicate Genesis 1-11 as“ancient science” and “ancient history” that should read notliterally but theologically. This means, in part, that Adamand Eve are not historical figures and there was no literalcosmic fall, even though God accommodated the theologicalmessages regarding the fallen character of creation in theprimordial creation narrative and informed the understand-ing of the New Testament authors. What is proposed, argu-ably, is an evolutionary hermeneutic that overcomes theconflict or concordist models of religion and science and thatmakes sense of death in the world long before the firsthuman beings came on the scene. The style is engaging andaccessible (there are over eighty illustrations/figures)—evenas scientific and theological substance has been preserved inthe ten appendices at the end of the book—which means thatEvolutionary Creation will engage the intended readership ofthe book. Hopefully many will read it.

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

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SELFISH GENES AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS: THEO-LOGICAL AND ETHICAL REFLECTIONS ON EVO-LUTIONARY BIOLOGY. By Neil Messer. London: SCMPress, 2007. Pp. viii + 280. $32.99.

This book is oriented toward those engaged in theologi-cal studies. In it, Messer (Senior Lecturer in Christian The-ology at the University of Wales) advances an evolutionaryethic from within a theological context. First, his ethicassimilates the well-founded claims of biological reduction-ism, such as Dennett’s notion that morality has arisen as aresult of evolutionary factors, into itself. Second, it addressesmany of the complexities that the neo-Darwinist reduction ofphenomena to their biological significances has trouble intackling, especially in respect to the antinomy of freedomand biological determinism, as well as to the problem of theexistence of authentically altruistic acts which emerges outof Dawkins’s discussions of selfish genes. Third, it raisesserious ethical issues surrounding evolution, biologicalresearch, and its applications, pointing to the human drive tocontrol the natural world through technology, for example,through genetic manipulation, human cloning, and stem cellresearch. Of particular interest is Messer’s attempt to outlinethe meaning of the Christian doctrine of sin in light of thebiological struggle for existence. He claims that sin involvesthe failure to arrest the sense of pride by which we attemptto overreach our finitude. This distorts our relationship withGod, impels us to divert creation from its natural purposes,and lures us to seek to gain from the coercion of others.Messer, perhaps, ought to have inquired more substantivelyinto the biological correlate of the notion of sin, specificallyas it relates to the putative separation between the naturaland human spheres and in accounting for the realities ofbiotic violence in general.


EVOLUTION AND EMERGENCE: SYSTEMS, ORGA-NIZATIONS, PERSONS. Edited by Nancy Murphy andWilliam R. Stoeger. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Pp. xiv + 378. $125.00.

This volume extends the conversation opened up by theseries of volumes produced by the jointly sponsored VaticanObservatory and the Center for Theology and the NaturalSciences (Berkeley, CA) ventures and by a number of previ-ous publications on the topic of emergence by Oxford Univer-sity Press. Between the introduction and postscript pennedby the editors are fourteen essays/chapters almost equallyspread out in the three sections on the philosophy, science(particularly at the levels of physics, biology, the cognitiveneurosciences, and psychology), and theology of emergenceat the various levels announced in the book’s subtitle. Almostevery essay lays out the conceptual or empirical terrain andexplores various aspects of the notion of emergence beforemaking constructive proposals. Perhaps a central threadthroughout the book is the discussion and critical analysis ofreductionism in its many guises, although there are also

contributors in the middle “science” section who recognizethat not all of these guises should be too easily dismissedwithout attempted retrievals. Put positively, however, thequest to overcome reductionisms motivates the search forappropriate models, conceptual resources, and empirical inti-mations for downward causation, understood variously,along the hierarchy of the sciences. The “science of emer-gence” is far from secure, but the careful work accomplishedby the authors—many well known in the science-religionconversation—surely puts us a few steps further along inthe discussion than we were before the appearance of thisbook.


EVOLUTION: THE DISGUISED FRIEND OF FAITH?:SELECTED ESSAYS. By Arthur Peacocke. Philadelphia,PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2004. Pp. xii + 287. $24.95.

Peacocke demonstrates how religious thought canevolve when it confronts the challenges of new ideas andscientific evidences. There is a constant need to renew ourtheological understandings of the relationships betweenGod, the world, and its creatures. While Darwinian evolutionposes the greatest challenge to the Christian faith, it alsopresents an opportunity to theologians to broaden their hori-zons, as long as they engage in enduring projects of con-structive reconciliation which address the real facts ofscience. Peacocke challenges the reductionist “nothing-buttery” engendered by the narrow ideology of materialistsecularism that has emerged in the wake of the advance ofevolutionary theory. He points the way to a deeper integra-tion of biology and Christian theology by elucidating howhuman beings should act and regard themselves when con-fronted with the possibility that Darwinian natural selectionis the creative tool that God employs in ever-renewing theworld and its creatures. For Peacocke, the sciences canassist us in going beyond dogmatic religious assumptions tocorrect our understanding of God’s nature, and to developnovel conceptions of the divine agency in the world. Ratherthan describing God’s nature through the traditional logo-centric concepts, Peacocke argues fruitfully that the conceptof a loving God is grounded in the notions that God is self-limited, vulnerable, self-emptying, self-giving, and suffering.Nonetheless, his theological discourse in relation to evolu-tion will do little to undo the semmelweis reflex of the averagebiologist to discount “skyhooks” and discussions of finalpurposes outright.


THE EVOLUTION–CREATION STRUGGLE. ByMichael Ruse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,2005. Pp. viii + 327. $18.00.

This book on the evolution–creation debate is of interestto scholars, biologists, and laypersons alike, especially those


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seeking a reconciliatory position between the two sides. Byproviding a concise history of the religious context bothbefore and after the publication of Origin of Species, philoso-pher of science Ruse argues that evolutionism and creation-ism are constituted by rival religious responses to the crisisof faith that started during the Enlightenment. While evolu-tionism is comprised of the postmillennialist hope thatreason and progress can lead to a better world, premillenni-alist creationism is centered on emotion, faith, and on howhuman beings ought to live in it. Ruse recommends that thepolarization between them may be dissolved by focusing ontheir limitations as well as their intellectual commonalities.The theory of evolution is rife with metaphors that aremasked as exact science, yet intelligent design theories donot attain to scientific knowledge. For Ruse, one chief causeof the ongoing conflict is not so much the theory of evolution,but rather it is the atheistic metaphysical naturalism and thevalue program of evolutionism that goes beyond the suspen-sion of moral judgment that is required to study biologicalprocesses scientifically. In making his case, however, Rusewould do well to more adequately consider the chief issue ofcontention: the putative link between biotic selection andhuman selectivity—the eliminative activities, behaviors, andoperations, which remain a central aspect of contemporarysociety.


EXPLORATIONS IN NEUROSCIENCE, PSYCHOL-OGY AND RELIGION. By Kevin S. Seybold. Aldershot,UK, and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007. Pp. ix + 163. $99.95.

Seybold, who is professor of psychology at the evangeli-cal liberal arts Grove City College in Pennsylvania, haswritten a wide-ranging introduction that almost serves as a“state of the question” on the three major topics announcedin his book’s title. Succinctly, lucidly, and accessibly, hecovers, in nine chapters, neuroscience, psychology, religion,philosophy of science, integration issues (important forevangelical institutions of higher education), brain and reli-gion, the self, evolutionary psychology, and the interface ofreligion/spirituality and health. Most helpful is the effectivepastoral sensitivity with which Seybold tackles many of theissues so that the intended evangelical readership is exposedto the major points of contention in a way that is non-threatening to the faithful. The concluding chapter engagesthe topics of transhumanism and neuro-ethics from a com-mitted Christian perspective, albeit, as throughout the book,in a fair and even-handed manner. Scholars from outsidethese fields of inquiry will be brought up to date on what ishappening, although the price of these Ashgate hardbackmonographs will surely militate against the use of this bookin the classroom and its reaching the broader evangelicalaudience that most assuredly stands to gain from readingit.


Philosophy of ReligionC. S. LEWIS AS PHILOSOPHER: TRUTH, GOOD-NESS AND BEAUTY. Edited by David Baggett, Gary R.Habermas, and Jerry L. Walls. Downers Grove, IL: InterVar-sity Press, 2008. Pp. 268. $23.00.

The fifteen essays in this volume support the claim thatC. S. Lewis merits consideration as a philosopher and not justas a novelist, essayist and Christian apologist. Most of theessays were first presented as papers at the 2005 C. S. LewisSummer Institute at Oxford and Cambridge. As the subtitlesuggests, the essays are loosely organized around the threethemes of truth, goodness, and beauty. Contributions addressa range of familiar topics in the philosophy of religion andpolitical philosophy, including some fairly sophisticated butclear treatments of theistic arguments, miracles, and eutha-nasia. Readers of Lewis will appreciate the fact that, likeLewis’s, the writing in many of the articles is both beautifuland well reasoned; the essays are accessible to undergradu-ates without sacrificing academic rigor. Unfortunately, theindex is not very detailed, but it is adequate. The contribu-tions focus on contemporary arguments, and tend not toaddress the development of Lewis’s philosophical thought.Only one chapter deals with Lewis’s deep interest in medievaland Renaissance philosophy, and some philosophers whowere extremely important for Lewis, like Bergson, make noappearance at all. Still, the fact that this book can have suchomissions and still be so good underscores the point thatLewis’s philosophical significance has been neglected toolong, and this book goes a long way to addressing that neglect.This belongs in every college library.

David L. O’HaraAugustana College (SD)

RELIGION AND MODERN THOUGHT. By Victoria S.Harrison. London: SCM Press, 2007. Pp. viii + 408. $35.00.

Religion and Modern Thought is an erudite, clear, andengaging introduction to philosophical and theological reflec-tion within and about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Whileit makes an ideal textbook for university courses with suchfeatures as suggested questions at the end of each chapter, italso contains original arguments and material of interest toscholars. Harrison’s precision and depth of coverage isimpressive considering the book ranges from the origins ofthe Abrahamic faiths to our current pluralistic era. One of itschief virtues is the abundance of vigorous arguments andcounterarguments. Even if one disagrees with Harrison’sconclusions or conjectures (as this reviewer does concerningthe metaphysics of theism or the lessons to be learned fromreligious diversity), Harrison’s work is unrivaled in fairnessand an ideal text to promote dialogue in a university or collegecommunity or in any context that invites capacious, non-dogmatic dialogue about the philosophical and theologicalsignificance of the Abrahamic faiths.

Charles TaliaferroSt. Olaf College


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Selfish Genes and Christian Ethics: Theological and Ethical Reflections on Evolutionary Biology – By Neil Messer