The Creationist Debate: An Encounter between the Bible and the Historical

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy

School of Theology

Arthur McCalla, New York: Continuum, 2006

Reviewed by Anthony J. Kelly, CSsR, Australian Catholic University

The author of this erudite book is at present an Assistant Professor in the Department of philosophy and religious studies at Mt Vincent University, Halifax, Canada. The situation he deals with concerns the present dispute between the creationism and evolutionary science, especially in its North American form. As is well-known, the current disputes do very little credit to either intelligent faith, or to the true open-mindedness of science itself in regard to the full range of human consciousness in the exploration of the real.

"Where are the baby dinosaurs we can pet?" Young visitors to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta ask such questions, and find it difficult to realise that dinosaurs have been extinct for the 65 million years. They may find that their naïve questions are more easily answered at the more accommodating Museum of Creation and History, situated on the outskirts of San Diego, California. The expectations of the young implicitly signal a foundational conflict, a long time brewing, and now assuming political, religious and educational forms, especially in North America.

The author points out that this disagreement is turns on the nature of authority, and the competing worldviews which sustain it. In this current context, his book examines many features of the controversy especially in relationship to the understanding of human history itself, the interpretation of the Bible as an historical text, and all this in relationship to the developing evolutionary sciences that so deeply affect the modern world view.

The thirteen chapters of this densely packed book defy summary. On the other hand, they offer an instructive record of the origin of the problems now inhibiting genuine dialogue between a reflective faith and the evolutionary sciences. This text concentrates on of the Protestant strands of the history concerned, and so makes little reference to the problems, lost opportunities, and, for that matter, the resources on the Catholic side—for example, a philosophical tradition, and some familiarity with the Wisdom Literature.

But this is a rewarding book; and a fine resource for anyone attempting to understand the roots of the sorry situation that has emerged.