Creationist Debate: The Encounter between the Bible and the Historical Mind [Paperback]

Arthur McCalla (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2006

This book places the present Creationist opposition to the theory of evolution in historical context by setting out the ways in which, from the seventeenth century onwards, investigations of the history of the earth and of humanity have challenged the biblical views of chronology and human destiny, and the Christian responses to these challenges. The author's interest is not primarily directed to questions such as the epistemological status of scientific versus religious knowledge or the possibility of a Darwinian ethics, but rather to the problems, and various responses to the problems, raised in a particular historical period in the West for the Bible by the massive extension of the duration of geological time and human history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The historical context of American creationism typically begins with early 20th-century American fundamentalism and biblical literalism. The Creationist Debate provides a much richer historical framework for understanding creationism in America by situating it within the long history of biblical interpretation. Prof. McCalla frames the evolution-creationism controversy in the U. S. by weaving it into a discussion of western European religious history and its intersection with the history of western science. In doing so, he also illuminates the historical underpinnings of intelligent design creationism, providing the historical context of the intelligent design movement's reactionary resistance not only to evolutionary theory, but to most of the intellectual accomplishments of the modern world." Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and co-author with Paul R. Gross of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design

'This is a major work of scholarship. For the first time, the whole evolution-creation debate is illuminated by someone deeply learned in church history. There is a magnificent sweep of four hundred years of theological wrestling with the findings of modern science, particularly as they pertain to organic origins. Anyone who wants to understand the modern-day debate about where we all came from will have to include The Creationist Debate in their reading. From scholars to laypeople, all will benefit from this book.'

(Michael Ruse, Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University )

'In The Creationist Debate, Arthur McCalla analyzes America's peculiar history of anti-evolution activism through the lens of theology and religion. Well researched and forcefully written, McCalla explores the religious motivations driving American creationists in their ambitious program to change the very definition of science.'

(Edward J. Larson, Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law and Richard B. Russell Professor of American History, University of Georgia, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science a )

'With meticulous scholarship Arthur McCalla demonstrates that the debate between creationists and evolutionists has been not only about science but also about the Bible. He shows that the underlying assumption of creationists is that the Bible is not merely inerrant but also transcendent. Its meaning bypasses history and is therefore immune to the challenges from worldly, contingent domains like natural science. After reading McCalla's book, one wonders how scholars have managed for so long to focus on disputes over how to read the world and to have downplayed disputes over how to read a text. A first-rate work.'

(Robert A. Segal, Chair of Religious Studies, University of Aberdeen )

McCalla has engaged many colleagues and students in a measured, broad-based,
and critical analysis of evolution and creationism. In this thoroughly researched and cogently argued book-destined to ignite significant discussion in both theological and secular realms-he frames the debate between creationism and evolutionary science and the central position of the Bible by beginning with the 16th-century and extending into 21st-century religious perspectives. His impeccable scholarship is balanced and
respective of varying commonly held beliefs and clearly addresses problems arising from the literal biblical chronology. The material is dense but easily understood by most readers interested in cultural and religious issues. McCalla fully succeeds in articulating a position based on evidence and intellectual history. The book concludes with a detailed notes section and a bibliography and index. Recommended for academic and theological
libraries.

(Library Journal )

"In this outstanding work of scholarship on the historical background of the evolution-creationism controversy, McCalla (Mount Saint Vincent Univ., Halifax) presents a critical and wonderfully detailed account of attempts, spurred by the rise of modern science, to accommodate the emerging Book of nature with the Book of Scripture. In illuminating the historical background of the relations between science and religion that underlie some of the global crises facing humanity today, this book will have broad appeal. Highly recommended".- CHOICE, February 2007

"Anyone who is interested, or involved, in this debate would do well to read this eruidte and well-written book." Rev Adam Ford, Church Times

(Adam Ford Church Times )

"In The Creationist Debate, Arthur McCalla provides a well-written and well-documented background for one of the hot button issues of our time: the debate about what public schools should teach regarding the origins of the earth and humanity... This book is an excellent resource, with clear references to primary texts, for anyone interested in the ways that both scientists and religious professionals responded to the mounting discrepancies between what had been the dominant understanding of our origins... and the growing body of evidence regarding those origins being discovered by scientists." -catholicbooksreview.org

(Catholic Books Review )

Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

'McCalla's essay is well-researched, timely, and terrifying...All theologians with an interest in the future of their subject should read this book.'

Michael Fuller, Expository Times

(Expository Times )

"This is a fascinating and well-written book, which provides a useful introduction to this topic. It would be of use to students on courses dealing with creationism an evolution, as well as those interested generally in the relationship between science and religion"

John Walliss, Liverpool Hope University, TBR

(John Walliss Theological Book Review )

"[I]t is a book that tells a fascinating story."

Reviewed by John Goldingay in Theology, 2008

Reviewed in International Review of Biblical Studies, 2007.

"This is a major work of scholarship. The author succeeded in framing the Creationism debate in the larger Western European religious context. His basic thesis is that the critical issue is not the content of evolutionary science, but rather, of historical mindedness. This, without a doubt, is a major work of meticulous scholarship and makes an important contribution to our understanding of science and religion." --Catholic Library World (Lucien J. Richard )

Reviewed in Bulletin De theologie, Revue des Sciences Philosophiques et Theologiques, 2008

"The whole book gives the impression of a rushed and superficial job by one who knows literature science and only slightly more about the history of Christian thought, but knows how to write a marketable book"

"How this book got published by a reputable publisher I do not know, but anticreationism, like creationism finds a ready market. It might help his RAE but not the reader."

ANVIL vol.24 no.2 2007

(Michael Roberts )

'The author uses a large canvas for his work, which incorporates insights from science, religion and literature... The book is well researched and well written and covers a lot of ground.'

(Faith and Thought )

'The historical context of American creationism typically begins with early 20th-century American fundamentalism and biblical literalism. The Creationist Debate provides a much richer historical framework for understanding creationism in  America by situating it within the long history of biblical interpretation. Prof. McCalla frames the evolution-creationism controversy in the U. S. by weaving it into a discussion of western European religious history and its intersection with the history of western science. In doing so, he also illuminates the historical underpinnings of intelligent design creationism, providing the historical context of the intelligent design movement's reactionary resistance not only to evolutionary theory, but to most of the intellectual accomplishments of the modern world." Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and co-author with Paul R. Gross of Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design

'This is a major work of scholarship. For the first time, the whole evolution-creation debate is illuminated by someone deeply learned in church history. There is a magnificent sweep of four hundred years of theological wrestling with the findings of modern science, particularly as they pertain to organic origins. Anyone who wants to understand the modern-day debate about where we all came from will have to include The Creationist Debate in their reading. From scholars to laypeople, all will benefit from this book.’

(, )

'In The Creationist Debate, Arthur McCalla analyzes America's peculiar history of anti-evolution activism through the lens of theology and religion. Well researched and forcefully written, McCalla explores the religious motivations driving American creationists in their ambitious program to change the very definition of science.'

(, )

'With meticulous scholarship Arthur McCalla demonstrates that the debate between creationists and evolutionists has been not only about science but also about the Bible. He shows that the underlying assumption of creationists is that the Bible is not merely inerrant but also transcendent. Its meaning bypasses history and is therefore immune to the challenges from worldly, contingent domains like natural science. After reading McCalla's book, one wonders how scholars have managed for so long to focus on disputes over how to read the world and to have downplayed disputes over how to read a text. A first-rate work.’

(, )

“In this outstanding work of scholarship on the historical background of the evolution-creationism controversy, McCalla (Mount Saint Vincent Univ., Halifax) presents a critical and wonderfully detailed account of attempts, spurred by the rise of modern science, to accommodate the emerging Book of nature with the Book of Scripture. In illuminating the historical background of the relations between science and religion that underlie some of the global crises facing humanity today, this book will have broad appeal. Highly recommended”.- CHOICE, February 2007

"Anyone who is interested, or involved, in this debate would do well to read this eruidte and well-written book." Rev Adam Ford, Church Times

(, Church Times )

"This is a fascinating and well-written book, which provides a useful introduction to this topic. It would be of use to students on courses dealing with creationism an evolution, as well as those interested generally in the relationship between science and religion"

John Walliss, Liverpool Hope University, TBR

(, Theological Book Review )

“This is a major work of scholarship. The author succeeded in framing the Creationism debate in the larger Western European religious context. His basic thesis is that the critical issue is not the content of evolutionary science, but rather, of historical mindedness. This, without a doubt, is a major work of meticulous scholarship and makes an important contribution to our understanding of science and religion.” –Catholic Library World (, )

"The whole book gives the impression of a rushed and superficial job by one who knows literature science and only slightly more about the history of Christian thought, but knows how to write a marketable book"

"How this book got published by a reputable publisher I do not know, but anticreationism, like creationism finds a ready market. It might help his RAE but not the reader."

ANVIL vol.24 no.2 2007

(, )

'The author uses a large canvas for his work, which incorporates insights from science, religion and literature… The book is well researched and well written and covers a lot of ground.’

(, )

About the Author

Arthur McCalla is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy/Religious Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Canada.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (August 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826480020
• ISBN-13: 978-0826480026
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #828,248 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is the Bible a fallible historical document or the eternal writ of god?, November 4, 2007

By 

Wolf Roder (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creationist Debate: The Encounter between the Bible and the Historical Mind (Paperback)

The argument between fundamentalist Christians and historians is much older than the modern science of Darwin and Newton. Explorers of the 16th century already realized that the histories of some peoples were much older than permitted by the story in Genesis. By the early 17th century theologians realized the Hebrew text of the OT was the interpretation of 5th and 6th century rabbis, and that we do not possess a complete or accurate text of the Bible. "By the end of the seventeenth century the labours of the Chronologists and biblical critics had seriously undermined the claims of biblical exceptionalism by amassing considerable evidence for two unsettling claims: that the Bible is a book with a history and that the history of the world vastly exceeds in length and scope the limits of sacred history."(p. 38-39)

In the18th century age of enlightenment educated people increasingly learned the Bible was unreliable in regard to history and scientific fact. Even in judging moral and ethical action, man must rely on his common sense and on accepted truth. Thus, the fathers of our Nation justified rebellion and a republican government not from the Bible, but from the common sense philosophy and ethics.

The science of Newton, the geology of James Hutton, the "deep time" of Lyell, and finally the evolution of Darwin showed just how unreliable the Bible is on explaining the working of the world. Most educated Christians could and did accept that science explains the earth, while the word of god tells us its meaning and instructs us in ethical behavior.

McCalla has written an excellent history about our use of the Bible. He does address fundamentalism in America and the Scopes trial in later chapters. This is not a conflict between science and religion, but rather an argument between liberal Christians who accept the Bible as a historical document and simple minded believers who insist on a variety of quite confused literal interpretations.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed review of a complicated subject, June 29, 2008

By 

Tim Beazley - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Creationist Debate: The Encounter between the Bible and the Historical Mind (Paperback)

Just by coincidence, I happened to read "The Creationist Debate" and "Monkey Trials & Gorilla Sermons" back to back. It turns out, they cover much of the same territory.

Basically, there are numerous, competing strands of Christianity, biblical interpretation, and social philosophy, and also different strands of evolutionary theory. Both books discuss how those various, competing strands have interacted with each other over the past couple of hundred years. (TCD goes back even further, to early Church Fathers, but only very briefly.)

For example, Christians who hold to premillennial dispensationalism tend to be biblical literalists, believe that human society is not capable of endless improvement, and reject not only Darwin's method of evolution, i.e., natural selection, but also the fact of evolution, i.e., the claim that species have evolved from goo to you.

Christians who take a postmillennial approach, on the other hand, are much more open to non-literal interpretations of the Bible, much more open to the idea of goo-to-you evolution, and up until about 1930 were open to the Lamarckian method of evolution, in which individuals, through their own efforts, improved themselves and then passed those improvements on to their offspring. That Lamarckian concept of evolution was mimicked in postmillennials' social philosophy too, i.e., their belief that human society was also capable of essentially endless improvement through the efforts of individual members of society.

Both books trace the complex interactions of those various strands of religious and scientific thought over the past two centuries. For example, postmillennialism and Lamarckism dominated up until the 1920s; but developments in genetics indicated that Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics was simply impossible; the political power of premillennial dispensationalists had increased dramatically; and the experience of World War I and the Great Depression shattered belief in endlessly improving society. That complex web of factors combined into a perfect storm of opposition to evolutionary theory.

Both books cover much of the same territory, but McCalla focuses more on the specific issue of biblical interpretation, while Bowler focuses more on theological issues and social philosophies. Take your pick.

Both books mention at least some of the lawsuits about the constitutionality of teaching evolution and creationism/Intelligent Design in public school science classes, but neither book spends much time on the actual constitutional issues. There is also little, if any, discussion of creationism/Intelligent Design's scientific problems. Both books stay focused on the strands of religious, biblical, social, and evolutionary thought I mentioned above.

Both books make some pretty subtle distinctions and are appropriate for people who are serious students of those particular issues.