Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life [Paperback]

John F. Haught (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 16, 2010

Evolution makes good scientific sense. The question is whether it makes good theological sense as well. Christians who find evolution contrary to faith often do so because they focus solely on the issues of the world's design and the notion of the gradual descent of all life from a common ancestry. But that point of view overlooks the significance of the dramatic narrative going on beneath the surface. What evolution is has become more important than what it means. Haught suggests that, rather than necessarily contradicting one another, theologians and Darwinian scientists actually share an appreciation of the underlying meaning and awe-inspiring mystery of evolution. He argues for a focus on evolution as an ongoing drama and suggests that we simply cannot-indeed need not-make complete sense of it until it has fully played out. Ultimately, when situated carefully within a biblical vision of the world as open to a God who makes all things new, evolution makes sense scientifically and theologically.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"John Haught is not simply one of the best theologians of our time; he. . .is a prophet. Any serious thinker will find in his book a rich banquet of thought, a depth of insight and a God who belongs to evolution."

--Ilia Delio, O.S.F, America, March 15, 2010

"Making Sense of Evolution will appeal to anybody with an interest in the roles of science and religion in the modern world. Just as Haught argues that Darwin simultaneously challenges and enriches theology, HaughtÂ's book challenges and enriches the contemporary discourse between science and religion."

--Kenrick Vezina, ForeWord Reviews, March/April 2010

"Ours is an age dominated by 'nothing but' treatments. Religious conservatives and atheist biologists alike engage in a war-to-the-death between evolution and creation. How refreshing, then, to read this brilliant 'both and' synthesis by one of America's leading experts in the field. Authoritative yet immensely readable, this volume offers a powerful vision of a God big enough to encompass the adventure of evolution, contingency, suffering, and randomness. Somehow, one feels, when the dust of battle settles, something like John Haught's rich description of 'infinite and inexhaustible depth' will remain standing." Philip Clayton, Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University and author of In Quest of Freedom: The Emergence of Spirit in the Natural World.

"By taking Darwin's and neo-Darwinians' work seriously, Haught satisfyingly shows how Christians can and should be both rigorous scientists and faithful believers." Terrence W. Tilley, Professor of Theology and Chair of the Department, Ford-ham University, Bronx NY

About the Author

John F. Haught is Senior Fellow in Science and Religion at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. One of the world's leading thinkers in the field of theology and science, Haught was Chair and Professor in the Department of Theology at Georgetown from 1970 to 2005. An international lecturer and prolific author, his books include Christianity and Science, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, and the prize-winning Deeper than Darwin: The Prospects for Religion in the Age of Evolution.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (February 16, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 066423285X
• ISBN-13: 978-0664232856
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.4 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #337,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Theology shaped by science January 16, 2012

By Les Brighton

Format:Paperback

Readers who have appreciated John Haught's earlier book God and the New Atheism may be a bit disappointed by this one. Haught here moves beyond an analysis of the intellectual sloppiness of the Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris phenomenon to a discussion of the way theology needs to be reinterpreted in the light of what he understands to be the established truth of evolutionary origins. While the evidence that evolution is a primary mechanism of creation is now incontrovertible (see Denis Alexander's Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose? for an accessible and scientifically robust demonstration of this from a committed Christian), this for Vaught seems to have become a dominant new paradigm from which everything else has to be interpreted.

Vaught approvingly summarizes Teilhard de Chardin's view that "the intellectual context for any believable theology today is shaped primarily by science, and especially its new story of an unfinished universe. So what is needed theologically is a thoroughgoing reinterpretation of Christian teaching about God, Christ, creation, incarnation, redemption, and eschatology in keeping with Darwin's unveiling of life's long evolution and contemporary cosmology's disclosure of the ongoing expansion of the heavens." (p.142)

The key issue is whether in a context "shaped primarily by science" theology should also be shaped primarily by science. It is true that theology must live in the 21st century and not the 19th, or the 16th, or the 3rd century. It is also absolutely correct that if it is true, Christian theology will not find any challenge, but rather support and stimulus from anything that material science can reveal.... If alongside the daily newspaper and popular culture Christian thinkers and preachers can't also refer when necessary to discoveries in cosmology and genetics; if we are not reading and thinking in these areas as part of our intelligent engagement with the real world of knowledge in which we live, then we are failing in our task. But if it is truly theology it surely must be shaped, not by science, but by what God has revealed of himself through the ages of his involvement with human beings. That is, the living word of God encountered through scripture must be the starting place. We don't have a God about whom we have to speculate, a God whom we have to re-envisage or re-cast in the light of a new revelation (even supposing that material science could provide such revelation). We have a self-revealing God, not one whom we have to discover ourselves, or to re-conceptualize in the light of new data.

It seems to me that, while not necessarily coming from a non-orthodox starting place, Haught continually walks along the edge of that latter possibility. The content of "God" as Haught uses the title does not seem to be driven by revelation but by scientific discovery (seen as a set of established conclusions, rather than as a still-breaking wave). This leads to a kind of free-floating speculation about how we might think about God. Haught's many thoughtful discussions still at bottom have this air of speculation: as if the ideas were floating six inches above a ground so taken for granted that it seems not even to exist. In particular, the past seems in Haught's thought to have been almost entirely relinquished to evolutionary processes. While the terms creator and creation are used, they occur as ciphers rather than as having real content. The much more dominant sense is of a self-creating universe, come to awareness in human beings, and being called in its growth and development into a future grounded in God. Haught correctly eschews a view of God that sees him primarily located in the past. But instead of the eternal God, Haught's God appears to be located exclusively in the future: the universe is growing on into God, and it is that future-located God who meets and calls to us in the present.

One result of the ungrounded nature of the discussion is that Haught's suggestions for reconfiguring theology often seem much less tangible than the `solid' scientific foundation that has been assumed as the central reference point. Despite the often tellingly acute observations about the inadequacy of a purely materialist viewpoint, the theological suggestions that are made seldom feel any more tangible or authoritative. The impression one gets is of a philosophically interesting but not demonstrably necessary or compelling alternative narrative. Christian concepts are used vaguely, and in numerous places Haught swings into what feels more like mystical rhetoric than hard argument. As one example it is hard to see what actual meaning there is in statements like `The Bible gives us such a worldview, one in which ultimate reality--in other words, God--arrives from out of the future to give new life to the creation and fresh hope to human history." (p.135) My suspicion is that any scientist worth their salt (and the book is a conscious invitation to dialogue) would consider this nothing but mystical claptrap. I feel uncomfortably sympathetic to such a judgement.

With regard to this particular example, one is reminded of the earnestly bizarre theories of the physicist Frank J Tipler in his The Physics of Immortality, who (without giving any indication that he has read Teilhard de Chardin) sees `God' as the future cosmos-filling noosphere reaching back in time to cherish and preserve every aspect of its progress to divinity--including individual human beings (hence the title). While Haught doesn't go nearly this far, it is hard to see what would decisively distinguish his Christian point of view from this charmingly dotty secular one. Teilhard, by the way, along with Whithead, Hartshorne and Tillich, is one of Haught's major influences, and is quoted many times. (For the record I myself think Teilhard's The Phenomenon of Man to be a truly splendid book--up to the point where towards the end he slips across, in my reading of him, into a kind of process pantheism.)

I'm aware that these are pretty robust criticisms. And yet I still think the book has interest and value. It is at least a real attempt to integrate what we know about evolutionary mechanisms into serious Christian theological thought about creation and providence --even if the result makes it appear as if the balance of authority and therefore the need for integration runs the other way. The underlying discussion of the lack of depth or explanatory power in materialist explanations is often excellent, and there are fresh and thought-provoking observations on almost every page. As a short, thoughtful and often wise discussion it is definitely worth your time, even if many Christian readers will want to move on fairly quickly to something more solidly grounded. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Making Sense of Evolution: Darwin, God, and the Drama of Life December 11, 2011

By Spellman

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was pleasantly surprised by John Haught's overview of the deeper meaning of Darwin's work. But, it took me nearly the entire book to get to the meat of Haught's argument. In brief, John Haught views evolution as a layered process involving the materialistic and theologic components. While separate in their need to be evaluated by man to gain an initial understanding of the "transformative drama" ongoing in the universe, the two disciplines are themselves intimately entangled in man's future evolution toward cosmic significance. Drawing heavily on the work of Pierre Teihard de Chadin, Haught explains the significance of Darwin's work as allowing us to view man's evolution as a process eventuating in a conscious level high enough to recognize and partake in God's plan to reveal himself on a universal scale. The development of self awareness in the course of evolution, while rooted in foundational materialism, is itself necessary for man to recognize his role in the transformative drama of the universe. According to Haught, materialism can only partly explain the role of evolution in man's transormation. Theology is need to help illuminate the important principles behind evolution. Evolution and the physical processes in the universe are not blindly driven, as the materialist philosophy explains it. The universe as a whole, is transforming into a more complex entity culminating in the promise of final renewal.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A theological and philosophical discussion of biological evolution January 10, 2012

By Paul R. Bruggink

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This book is framed as a "discussion" with Charles Darwin and some of his followers. Each of the chapters consist of a brief meditation on an aspect of life that Darwin's science requires theology to reconsider. The themes are listed alliteratively, in true Baptist fashion, even though the author is Roman Catholic. They are intended to be starting points for the reader's own theological meditations. The themes (chapters) are Darwin, design, diversity, descent, drama, direction, depth, death, duty, devotion, and deity.

Haught does not challenge evolutionary science, only evolutionary naturalism. He argues that Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Jerry Coyne get it wrong when they go beyond the science of evolution and try to extrapolate to theology.

He urges the reader to think in terms of layered explanations (explanatory layers), i.e., both/and instead of either/or: different levels of explanation as simultaneously operative without ruling one another out. He suggests that we allow for divine creativity at a more fundamental layer of explanation than that at which natural science operates. Scientific and theological explanations can both be accepted without being rivals. Science and theology have different roles.

Haught's book is basically a treatment of the questions that biological evolution raises for Christian faith and theology. I recommend it to anyone interested in "making sense of evolution."

5.0 out of 5 stars Making Sense of Evolution February 22, 2012

By Kathleen Duffy

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Haught's Making Sense of Evolution builds on his already prolific and inspiring work and is even more accessible. For those who consider it impossible to speak of evolution and theology in the same breath, Haught teases out themes from Darwin's Origin of Species demonstrating how Darwin's sense of story provides a way of making profound connections. Instead of remaining stuck in the controversy, Haught shows when perceived as a drama, evolution opens us to the fact that we are in the midst of an exciting journey that is ever moving towards the future.