About this item
Highlights
- The last century witnessed an explosion of theologies born out of the conviction that the science of evolution can and must contribute to our understandings of God, humanity, technology, suffering, sin, and the natural world.
- Author(s): Michael Anthony Abril
- 248 Pages
- Religion + Beliefs, Religion & Science
Description
About the Book
"Evolutionary Theology provides a clear, critical, and concise synthesis of the most influential viewpoints in the field--from its origins in the eighteenth century to its maturation in the twenty-first. Topics include scientific contributions, philosophical ideas, dogmatic debates, and the development of process theology"--Book Synopsis
The last century witnessed an explosion of theologies born out of the conviction that the science of evolution can and must contribute to our understandings of God, humanity, technology, suffering, sin, and the natural world. Even today, a sense of development continues to shape contemporary understandings of not only our origins, but also our place in the world now and in the future. Evolutionary theology's popularity continues to accelerate, but the conversation has lacked a critical, comprehensive, and accessible introduction to this field--until now.
Evolutionary Theology provides a clear, critical, and concise synthesis of the most influential viewpoints in the field--from its origins in the eighteenth century to its maturation in the twenty-first. Topics include scientific contributions, philosophical ideas, dogmatic debates, and the development of process theology. Abril provides a springboard for researchers, teachers, and college students to critically engage the existing literature and develop new, constructive ideas. Evolutionary Theology is accessible to students, is helpful to scholars, and includes a wide range of perspectives from science, philosophy, and theology--Catholic and Protestant. It illustrates how integrating faith with science, as an inescapable and crucial dimension of modern life, leads to both fruitful discoveries and important challenges.
Review Quotes
This excellent and well-written book seeks to provide a coherent understanding of evolutionary theology, what the term "evolutionary theology" means, and how such a theology can refocus questions of original sin, evil, and theodicy. Building on the groundbreaking ideas of Teilhard de Chardin and Alfred North Whitehead, among other contemporary theologians, Michael Abril offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the intersection of evolution and theology, laying out various viewpoints and ideas in a simple and concise manner. This book is a welcome addition to the ongoing question of faith and science and will be invaluable for classroom education and adult faith formation. --Ilia Delio, OSF, Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology, Villanova University
Abril's book offers readable introductions to some well-known Christian theological interpreters of biological evolution. Teachers and students will find the author's succinct summaries of their contributions very thought-provoking. --John F. Haught, author of God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution
A masterful and panoramic presentation of the philosophical and theological background and outcomes of the idea of evolution. --Neil Ormerod, honorary professor of theology, Alphacrucis University College, and coauthor of Creator God, Evolving World