Chapter 4 - Evolutionary Biology and Christian Responses

Summary

In the mid-nineteenth century, Darwin articulated his theory of evolution and thereby crystallized growing scientific suspicions that the diversity of organic forms – including humans – was produced by natural processes. Although tensions between science and religion since the dawn of modernity had been forcing thinkers in both disciplines to reassess their view of the status and meaning of being human, this new theory made our biological origins and development yet another occasion for religious response. Particularly orthodox Christians had to ponder whether humble animal origins were consistent with the high view of humanity as made in God’s image – and indeed what it would mean for God to have become a human being in the Incarnation. Darwinian theory was a seismic shift in our concept of the living world, one that has been augmented and confirmed many times over by advances in science. These matters are the subject of this chapter.