Theology of Creation in an Evolutionary World

Rating:
Summary: A real step forward in theology, despite one flaw.
Review: For Christianity, the intellectual tragedy of the twentieth century has been the failure of most Christians to understand evolution as a source of theological solutions rather than problems. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin saw clearly that evolution had wholly positive theological implications, but Rome silenced him. Karl Schmitz-Moormann, a leading Teilhardian scholar, continued the development of Teilhard's thought. For this, and for his public dissent from Humanae Vitae, he too suffered, being denied a chair at any German university. Thanks to our shared interest in evolution (he as a theologian, I as a paleontologist), I was privileged to know him slightly in the years just before his death in 1996, and we enjoyed some marathon arguments. Hence, I was reassured to see from this posthumously published book that our areas of agreement were vastly broader than our differences. Learnedly but readably, he demonstrates that the fact of evolution is the necessary point of departure for deepening our understanding of Christian doctrines, from creation to (most interestingly) the Trinity. Along the way he touches on some technical science, but readers comfortable with popular science magazines will have no trouble following him. Despite his impressive general knowledge of science, however, Schmitz-Moormann did not have an up-to-date grasp of evolutionary ecology or paleontology. Where he stumbles is in his visceral but misplaced hostility toward Neodarwinian ideas about the process, as distinct from the fact, of evolution. This was also a blind spot for Teilhard, and has roots in European intellectual history. It somewhat diminishes the book's value, because the details of the process hold crucial keys to theological problems. Still, there is much here that would advance Christian theology, and enlighten and comfort people who are needlessly troubled by evolution and the "problem of evil," if it became generally understood.