Theological Cost of Evolution

Here is a good review in the latest issue of Themelios by Hans Madueme on a recent attempt to reconcile evolution with Christian theology.

Dr. Hans Madueme is associate professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, USA. He reviews the volume Finding Ourselves After Darwin: Conversations on the Image of God, Original Sin, and the Problem of Evil (ed. Stanley Rosenberg, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018).

The contributors discuss how, in the light of evolution, Christians should update their understanding of anthropology, original sin, and evil.

In his review Dr. Madueme assesses:

"The recommendations to revise our understanding of original sin and theodicy raise particularly challenging questions. Traditional interpretations of Scripture, for instance, are often devalued in order to reduce tensions with our current scientific understanding. Additionally, the more radical arguments undercut doctrines that earlier Christians believed are pivotal to the biblical story.”

Further, he is not convinced that they adequately justify the theological cost for updating our theological anthropology in line with evolution.

Dr. Madueme notes that the few essays that make only minor changes in traditional theology still leave deep tensions with evolutionary science. Hence, they don’t really solve the presenting problem. On the other hand, the essays that harmonize better with evolution make radical theology changes that clash louder and sharper with traditional interpretations of Scripture.

He concludes:

“Although the more controversial essays make good use of Scripture, my impression is that traditional ways of reading it are downgraded whenever the canons of science pull in a different direction. This tendency—rightly or wrongly—gives the sense of Scripture as inconvenient, a hurdle to circumvent, rather than the trustworthy guide for doctrinal construction. My primary worry, then, is that the more radical revisions in this book tend to undermine doctrines that the church historically considered of high dogmatic rank. Of course, this alone is not an argument against such revisions, but it registers a caution. Tremors in the doctrine of the fall and original sin are only the bellwether, for a theology that absorbs standard evolutionary theory will deform the shape of the gospel story itself (more noticeably than most of the authors acknowledge)...”

But read his review for yourself, for a more detailed account of why theistic evolution raises theological problems that are not easily resolved. 

For an in-depth scientific critique of theistic evolution I recommend the volume TheisticEvolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), edited by J.P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer, Christopher Shaw, Ann K. Gauger, and Wayne Grudem [See my post A New Critique of Evolution].

The best theological critique of theistic evolution is probably the book by Reformed pastor John Otis, "Theistic Evolution: A sinful compromise" (2013).

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