Alister E. McGrath, Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), xiv + 298 Pps., $34.95.
Alister E. McGrath, Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford University, continues a fine quasi-tradition with this title, building on what has been a prolific topic for him over the last several years (cf. The Open Secret: A New Vision for Natural Theology [Wiley-Blackwell, 2008]; A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Theology [Westminster John Knox, 2009]). Though covering much of the same ground, this text is derived from his 2009 Hulsean Lectures delivered at the University of Cambridge, which marked the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species. In it, as he did somewhat with the aforementioned texts, he examines the relation of evolutionary thought and natural theology.
McGrath broadly argues that nature must be read in certain ways if it is to disclose the transcendent. Instead of using with the conceptually ambiguous, fluid, and imprecise traditional definition of natural theology, McGrath herein defends a distinctively Christian approach to natural theology. He argues that a Christian view of it provides the interpretive framework by which nature can be seen to connect with the transcendent, thus picturing natural theology as an enterprise of discernment. The first part of this title, chapters 1 and 2, seeks to clarify the multifarious meanings of both “natural theology” and “Darwinism”, elucidating particularly the notion that definitions of terms are absolutely central to evaluations of relationship between terms. Part II of this title, composed of chapters 3-6, expands on the distinct form of natural theology within England during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries; this part is largely historical in its thrust, and one might therefore think it to be inconsequential to a book that seeks to explicate the significance – in contemporary thought – of natural theology. This would be a mistake, however, as these historical chapters actually form the core of his argument, illustrating that today’s debates over natural theology are largely overshadowed by the debates of past: particularly this time period. Through a careful depiction of the state of natural theology from the 1690’s leading up to Paley’s (1802) Natural Theology, McGrath shows that numerous of the traditional judgments concerning natural theology and Darwinism cannot be sustained: for example, Darwin’s writings did not (and do not…) abolish the notion of teleology, merely reforming it and ‘widening’ it (to coopt a phrase from Huxley) instead. Additionally, McGrath shows that the Bridgewater Treatises of the 1830’s recognized the danger of the Paleyan approach to natural theology, at least implicitly, and therefore offered a more nuanced approach to it, in fact often accentuating the consonance (or harmony) between Christianity and the scientific exploration of nature instead of what one often interprets – wrongly or rightly – as ‘proofing’ from the Paleyan approach to natural theology. In another important note from this section of the book, McGrath postulates and demonstrates that Karl Barth was truly criticizing this distinctly English form of natural theology, and not the generic enterprise itself.
Building from his historical treatment in the former section, Part III, chapters 7-9, focuses on the contemporary situation of – at least his vision of it – natural theology, particularly with respect to the biological sciences. Part IV is a concise summary of the book’s major contentions and points, and could very well serve as a profitable read in and of itself. In sum, the overall argument of the book is profound in its implications: primarily, McGrath asserts that it was not the Christian enterprise of natural theology, per se, that was discredited by Darwin, but instead a specific form of natural theology that emerged in England after 1690 (often, and correctly, associated with William Paley). In lieu of the Paleyan-like natural theology, McGrath characterizes natural theology as the systematic exploration of a putative link between the everyday world of experience and a transcendent reality.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA