Monkey Trials and Gorilla Sermons
Subtitle: Evolution and Christianity from Darwin to Intelligent Design (New Histories of Science, Technology, and Medicine)
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: September 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780674026155
Subjects: Nature & existence of God; Science; Religion - Socialissues; Science/Mathematics; Christian Theology - History; Life Sciences - Evolution; Religion & Science; Science / History; History; Religion, Politics & State; Christianity; Creationism; Evolution (Biology); Religious aspects
Description: From the beginning, Darwin's dangerous idea has been a snake in the garden, denounced from pulpits then and now as incompatible with the central tenets of Christian faith. Recovered here is the less well-known but equally long history of thoughtful engagement and compromise on the part of liberal theologians. Peter J. Bowler doesn't minimize the hostility of many of the faithful toward evolution, but he reveals the existence of a long tradition within the churches that sought to reconcile Christian beliefs with evolution by finding reflections of the divine in scientific explanations for the origin of life. By tracing the historical forerunners of these rival Christian responses, Bowler provides an alternative to accounts that stress only the escalating confrontation. --From publisher's description.