General conclusion summarizes the entire project, restating its principal objectives and achievements. (1) It emphasizes that evolution does not oppose or contradict the classical Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophical and theological view of reality. (2) It stresses the importance of the constructive proposal of metaphysics of evolutionary transitions, which takes into account the interplay of chance and teleological order in speciation. (3) It refers to the importance of the distinction between creation and divine governance of the universe, where the evolutionary origin of the new living beings belongs to the latter category and not to the former. (4) Finally, it emphasizes the relevance of Aquinass view of divine action as applied to the notion of divine concurrence in evolutionary transitions. All these aspects contribute to the contemporary Aristotelian-Thomistic model of theistic evolution developed in the volume. The research presented in it proves that, despite a certain dose of skepticism toward classical philosophy and theology, the longstanding legacy of the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition remains vigorous and ready to enter a vivid and fruitful conversation with contemporary philosophy and science.

General introduction contextualizes research presented in the project and presents the three main conversation partners that are taken into account. First, it explains crucial stages of the development of evolutionary theory – from Darwin’s proposal, through the neo-Darwinian contribution and the two stages of the twentieth century evolutionary synthesis, until the most recent expanded evolutionary synthesis. Second, it lists foundational categories in the Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics that become relevant in the context of contemporary evolutionary biology. Finally, it refers to the classical theology of creation as grounding a constructive model of the most up-to-date Thomistic version of theistic evolution that will be developed in the book. Introduction ends with a general plan of the project.