19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Trinitarian Theology?, July 18, 2002
This review is from: The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology (Paperback)
I picked up this book in the interest of seeing how Trinitarian thought could apply to the theory of evolution. Edwards' subtitle to this book is 'A Trinitarian Theology'. We shall see if this subtitle applies to the book. The book is rather short (144 pages) and should be considered more of a survey text rather than a full treatment on the intricacies of evolutionary thought. The theory of evolution is accepted and never called into question. A literal view of the 6 day creation is negated although Edwards does point to the significant doctrines that one can still take from the first two chapters of Genesis regardless of whether you take it literally or symbolically. Edwards is faced with a dilemma: He believes that evolution is true and also holds a belief in the Christian God. Historically these two beliefs have been difficult to combine. Edwards asks how God fits into evolution. Note that Edwards begins with evolution and attempts to merge his faith in the Christian God into it; he does not start with God and try to merge evolution into Him. This is a subtle but crucial difference as one involves changing theology (the choice Edwards makes) and the other changing science.
The first two chapters contain most of the references to the Trinity. The main premise is that since ontologically (in essence and being) God is relation, His creation should also be considered as being ontologically relationship oriented. This takes care of science's claim that all is interrelated including the evolutionary development of humans. Science is full of references to the relationships between cells to species etc. In short, reality is fundamentally relational. However to apply the relational structure between the Godhead and man is one thing; looking at the relationships developed by evolution/science is another story. Relationship, from an ontological standpoint is more than just being related to; there is a consciousness of communication. If Edwards' premise is accepted the road is paved to allow theology to change (or evolve) in order to meet the requirements of modern evolutionary thought.
Edwards then attempts to explain the more capricious sides of evolution (natural selection etc) and how a loving God could allow some animals to be victims and others to dominate. In order to do this Edwards adopts a process theology (derived from Whitehead) to explain that God limits himself in His actions and allows a certain freedom to His creatures. This takes the responsibility for evil away from God and (voila!) deals with some of evolution's cruelness. To process theology Edwards adds the increasing interest in random chance that is found in most studies of evolutionary thought today. Taken together (a limiting God and chance) evolution is not portrayed as evil. Obviously it is difficult to ascribe morality to chance.
The chapter that tries to deal with the problem of sin is the weakest in the book. It takes the line that sin is more a result of human finitude or limit than due to a separation between man and God. Of course there is no Fall in the evolutionary framework. Man's struggle with his environment and with each other is more a result of the evolutionary process than it is of a sinful nature. Edwards does not divorce God from being involved with His creation but is ambiguous about when this begins. Edwards must tackle the point where man becomes spiritual, the point that God and man first intercept. Is it near the beginning of the evolutionary cycle, further along at Neanderthal man or only when homo-sapiens distinctly evolve? When does sin appear? If sin is taken out of its historical Christian context you can be sure that grace will be as well. Grace for Edwards is something that is always in the background, not a description of God directly intervening in the lives of his creation. This, of course, limits the importance of the incarnation.
The final chapter discusses Christ in the evolutionary context by adopting a Wisdom Christology. This incorporates Sophia (the personification of wisdom) as the main force propelling evolution forwards in a positive manner that fulfills God's purposes. While a small argument could be made for this position it is a far different country than the Trinitarian basis that Edwards begins the book on.
In order to make this book seem more mainstream than its hodgepodge of modern theologies would appear, Edwards continually quotes or reflects on the thought of some mainline thinkers. Karl Rahner, the eminent Catholic theologian is the most quoted person in the book followed closely by German Protestant thinker Jurgen Moltmann. How far these two great theologians ascribe to Edward's thought I have yet to determine as I must read their actual texts outside of the evolutionary frame Edwards constructs around them.
The book is well written but takes the form of individual essays that are then tied together to make a whole. The last paragraph of each chapter refers to the first paragraph of the next. Each chapter begins with a restatement of the original thesis. There is nothing wrong with this per se since this is really a survey work.
The book is worth reading in order to be able to discuss the creationism/evolution debate in a different and perhaps more helpful light. It raises more questions than answers, or more correctly, it gives weak answers to good questions. It is not a synthesis of Trinitarian theology but it is a good summary of some ways of dealing with God in an evolutionary context.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thought provoking, but only a tentative step, May 1, 2005
This review is from: The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology (Paperback)
I understand where both of the two substantive reviewers are coming from on this book. Firstly, I recommend that anyone interested in the religious implications of evolution consider buying THE GOD OF EVOLUTION, not because it provides definitive answers (although Edwards seems to think he does), but because it's a pioneering attempt to address the religious implications of evolution.
Darwinists won't care at all about this book; it was written for Christians seeking some understanding about evolution beyond the often infantile abuse heaped upon it by the Dawkinses of the world.
There are plenty of books that already address the religious implications of evolution, of course, beginning with THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. But despite Darwin's clever and disingenuous comments in that book that he didn't see how a belief in natural selection conflicted in any way with traditional religious belief, Darwin had already lost his religious faith before he published ORIGIN, and he and the thinkers most closely associated with Darwinism (Huxley, Haeckel, Spencer, etc. etc.) were aggressive anti-Christians. This anti-religious, and specifically anti-Christian, tradition among Darwinists continues to this day with Dawkins, the late Gould, Dennett, Ruse, et. al.
So Edwards is taking on a big task in attempting to reconcile Darwinian evolution (the beginnings of life ex nihilo and natural selection as the principal operating cause of all biological complexity and diversity) with traditional Christianity. It seems clear that Edwards is a believing Christian, so this book is a sincere attempt to achieve this reconciliation.
The question to ask, really, is whether Edwards understands Darwinism better than the Darwinists. They all think that natural selection is a cruel mechanism that unleashes massacre and starvation on the vast majority of living beings but is for the greater good of the biosphere as a whole. The fact that Darwinists are almost exclusively atheists speaks to their view of the kind of God implied by Darwinism. Edwards thinks that Darwinism is consistent with a loving God. Yes, Edwards knows that there is some regretable pain associated with natural selection, but in one of his most superficial sections he tries to make light of all the suffering that the Darwinists, by and large, have the intellectual honesty (perhaps because they secretly relish it) to acknowledge.
Interestingly, Edwards is so committed to strong-form Darwinism that, while he mentions, he does not emphasise the much more ambiguous perspective of physics and cosmology, which seems to suggest some sort of eerie design in the universe, with all its precise constants and finely tuned balances of power, without any of which life could never have evolved. Edwards doesn't need this evidence because he is quite happy to accept Darwin's vision of a cruel, apparently purposeless world. Edwards sees his contribution to theology as his novel proposals to show how the Darwinian vision is perfectly consistent with a loving God who can be worshipped by Christians.
Does Edwards succeed? Not in the view of this reader. He advances some interesting ideas, esp. early in the book, with his reflections on the relational nature of God. But his understanding of evolution is shallow and enthusiastic. In fact, some of his proposals are inadvertently dangerous, as a more clever thinker than Edwards could easily turn them around and use them against Christianity. But Edwards (along with John Haught), is trying to get the ball rolling . . . that is, he is trying to get theologians and religious thinkers to engage seriously with Darwinism, and that is a necessary task.
Readers intrigued by the attempt, however, should also consider reading Simon Conway Morris's book LIFE'S SOLUTION, with its broader view of evolution, in order to first get some of the scientific facts.
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18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply insightful., August 27, 1999
This review is from: The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology (Paperback)
Denis Edwards possesses lucid insights and reveals a surprising consonance of Christian revelation with the theory of evolution.
`The God of Evolution: A Trinitarian Theology' illustrates that the natural world reveals immense wisdom and purpose - and the facts of the world reveal more of a 'Master Plan' than an accident. Edwards shows that in the Christian perspective, everything is seen as an embodiment of the divine - expressed in the nature of God as a 'Trinity'. Everything in the natural world existence is interconnected, and the underlying heart of the matter is the Absolute - The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
An excellent book. Highly recommended.
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