This 1007–page book releases this month:
J. P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer, Christopher Shaw, Ann K. Gauger, and Wayne Grudem, eds. Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017.
Check out this 79-page PDF excerpt. It includes …
- the endorsements
- the Table of Contents
- Stephen Meyer’s scientific and philosophical introduction
- Wayne Grudem’s biblical and theological introduction
I recently spent about twenty hours surveying the book. I micro-read the introduction, macro-read or surveyed the sections on science and philosophy (each article has a helpful short summary at the beginning), and more carefully read the section on theology.
My take: The book is impressive, comprehensive, and compelling.
As Ted Cabel explains in his recent book on why Christians should not divide over the age of the earth, professing evangelicals engage evolution today in four different ways (and a popular group is associated with each):
- young earth creationism (Answers in Genesis)
- old earth creationism (Reasons to Believe)
- evolutionary creationism (BioLogos)
- anti-evolution without theology (Intelligent Design, e.g., Discovery Institute)
The book Theistic Evolution is not about the age of the earth. Instead, views 1, 2, and 4 in the above list combine as allies to oppose view 3. Wayne Grudem summarizes the book’s goal (pp. 64–65):
Our goal in this book is to say to our friends who support theistic evolution, and to many others who have not made up their minds about this issue,
1. that recent scientific evidence presents such significant challenges to key tenets of evolutionary theory that no biblical interpreter should think that an evolutionary interpretation of Genesis is “scientifically necessary”;
2. that theistic evolution depends on a strictly materialistic definition of science that is philosophically problematic; and
3. that the Bible repeatedly presents as actual historical events many specific aspects of the origin of human beings and other living creatures that cannot be reconciled with theistic evolution, and that a denial of those historical specifics seriously undermines several crucial Christian doctrines.
Mission accomplished.
Update: Here’s a 9-minute video highlighting the book:
