C. Brown Mackenzie, ed. Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism: Evolutionary
Theories in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian Cultural Contexts. Sophia
Studies in Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, 33. New York: Springer, 2020. 391 pp.
$149.99, cloth, ISBN 978-3-030-37339-9.

Reviewed by Clinton G. Godart (Tohoku University, Graduate School of International Cultural Studies)
Published on H-Buddhism (July, 2021)
Commissioned by Jessica Zu (USC Dornsife, School of Religion)
Very soon after Charles Darwin published On

Communication and Appropriation of a British

the Origin of Species in 1859, it became clear that

Evolutionist (2015), Erik Hammerstrom’s The Sci‐

the theory of evolution and Darwin’s theory ofence of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Cen‐natural selection in particular bore on issues welltury

beyond biology. Despite its wide-ranging implica‐

Dharma, and the Divine: Evolutionary Theory andtions, historians and scholars of religion have un‐Religion in Modern Japan (2017), Vladimir Tikhon‐

til recently not paid much attention to how reli‐ov’s Social Darwinism and Nationalism in Korea:

gions in Asia responded to Darwinism. This over‐the Beginnings (1880s-1910s) (2010), Hyung Wongsight was partly because many scholars assumed

Park’s work on creationism in South Korea, andthat the major religions in Asia placed no or lessother, forthcoming work on global creationism.

emphasis on creation and were therefore lesslikely to clash with evolutionary theory thanChristianity. These assumptions have proved
wrong on several levels. Christians have embraced
as much as clashed with evolution. And on closer
inspection, so did adherents of Asian religions.

Engagements (2015),

myown

Darwin,Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism has
an ambitious scope. It comprises three chapters on
the Islamic world (Turkey, South Asia, and the Per‐
sianate world), and five chapters each on South
Asia (Hindu, Jain, Indo-Tibetan, and Jain re‐sponses) and East Asia (four on China, and one on

Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism is aJapan). The main thrust of the book is to explore

major contribution to the fields of religion and sci‐

how proponents of Asian religions responded toence and reception studies of Darwinism, two

three main Darwinian challenges: that life (andfields still dominated by Western and Christianthe universe) was a random process, that naturalconcerns.

Marwa

selection was an amoral process, and that human‐

Elshakry’s Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950

kind was not unique. The editor observes that “the(2013), the edited volume Global Spencerism: The

most widely shared concern among Asian reli‐SomecontributionsareH-Net Reviews

gions regarding these three issues was the concep‐

itant to say that the revitalizing of traditions hastion of a universe devoid of any transcendent dir‐resulted in a serious reconciliation of religious be‐ection, meaning and purpose, in short the lack ofliefs and Darwinism in its specific details andcosmic teleology in this model” (p. 3). A major

more precise and rigorous forms, … claiming suchstrength of the book is to point to the sources ofa harmony is quite different from being in actual

resistance against evolutionary theory in Asia, dis‐harmony” (p. 8). Mackenzie’s statement makes anabusing us of the idea that the challenge of Dar‐

important intervention in science-religion rela‐winism was felt only in Christianity. While the his‐tions in Asia: the rhetoric of harmony can conceal

torians of science have understandably emphas‐serious tensions. For example, Hindus have re‐ized the spread of scientific ideas, it is importantsponded positively to evolution, but tend to under‐

to acknowledge that anti-evolutionary theories

stand evolution as a spiritual and karmic process

also spread globally.

(p. 102).

Religious responses to scientific thought is aHowever, I am afraid this might also confuse

complex topic, involving not only a profound re‐two approaches that are taken in the volume: thethinking of nature and humanity but also print,philosophical (asking if we can coherently recon‐

education, readership, translation, religious doc‐cile Hindu, Buddhist, or Islamic religious world‐

trine, colonialism and nationalism, and the emer‐

views with Darwinism) with the historical (howgence of new concepts including “science” anddid actual Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists ap‐“religion,” just to name a few issues. All these as‐

proach and reconcile evolutionary theory?). A

pects come up in the book. The volume provides

problem with the philosophical approaches in thefascinating explorations of a wide range of major

volume (especially in chapters 6, 9, and 10) is toreligious thinkers and their approaches to Dar‐take a particular idealized twenty-first-centurywinism. Major figures that emerge are, among

form of evolutionary Darwinism (materialist, non-others, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Yan

teleological, and amoral) and measure how wellFu, Taixu, and Nichiren Buddhists in Japan. It isparticular religious worldviews or approaches

significant that similar strategies were used

could conform to these standards. As many studies

among Asian thinkers. One, for example, was tohave pointed out, the nineteenth-century cleric‐counter the missionary rhetoric of the superiority

ally educated and romantic Darwin was a com‐of Christianity by reversing the rhetoric, pointing

plex figure whose ideas don’t always match

to their own religion as more compatible with sci‐twenty-first-century scientific standards. In addi‐

ence and therefore superior to Christianity. Anoth‐tion, the global spread of evolutionary theory waser was to accept science but assert that Hinduism,

as much or more due to Herbert Spencer, Ernst

Buddhism, or Islam “completed” it. Modern Hindu

Haeckel, and later, Peter Kropotkin and Henrithinkers for example, pointed to a long, cyclicalBergson. (The chapters by Burenina and Ritzinger,

view of cosmic evolution, of which the modernfor example, point to the important influence ofevolutionary theories of the West described only

Kropotkin’s evolutionary theories in China and Ja‐

one part, a strategy also adopted by several Japan‐pan.)ese Buddhists.

Also, several of the book’s articles tend heavily

Some of the works mentioned above, includ‐

towards the philosophical and metaphysical as‐

ing my own, have emphasized the stimulating in‐pects of the meeting of Asian religions with Dar‐fluence evolutionary theory had on religious

winism, with much less attention going to politicalthought (and vice versa). In contrast, Mackenzie

aspects and contexts. Modern religious engage‐takes more a negative position: “But I am very hes‐

ments with evolutionary theory were as much2H-Net Reviews

about theories of the universe as about the com‐munities in which these debates took place. Antievolutionary thought is often more about politics
than about biology or religion.
With edited volumes, it is often not construct‐
ive to mention what “should” have been in there,
usually reflecting personal biases. Still, it is worth
considering the structure of the book and thechoices made. This reviewer was at first some‐what surprised that there is not a lot of space for
Buddhism. The emphasis is quite strongly on
South Asia, Islam, and the Hindu world, which isthe strength of the book. (And indeed, in sheer
numbers of followers, Islam and Hinduism are,after all, Asia’s two largest religions.) Somewhat
unfortunate is that three out of four chapters on
China are taken up by studies on the translatorand scholar Yan Fu. While a hugely influential fig‐
ure in the reception of Darwinism in China, thismisses the opportunity for a wider and varied in‐quiry to religious responses to Darwinism inChina.
I hope in particular for more research on
Southeast Asian and Theravada Buddhist re‐sponses to Darwinism. Another promising avenueof research is the interreligious and transnational
dimensions: how did adherents of Asian religions
learn from each other in thinking about scienceand evolution? I hope this excellent volume will
stimulate more scholars to investigate the impactof Darwinism in Asia.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at
https://networks.h-net.org/h-buddhism

Citation: Clinton G. Godart. Review of Mackenzie, C. Brown, ed. Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism:
Evolutionary Theories in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and East Asian Cultural Contexts. H-Buddhism, HNet Reviews. July, 2021.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56369

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