Rather than seeing science and religion as oppositional, in Origins: God, Evolution, and the Question of the Cosmos Philip Rolnick demonstrates the remarkable compatibility of contemporary science and traditional Christian theology. Rolnick directly engages the challenges of evolutionary biology - its questions about design, natural selection, human uniqueness, and suffering, pain, and death. In doing so, he reveals how biological challenges can be turned to theological advantages, not by disputing scientific data and theory, but by inviting evolutionary biology into the Christian conversation about creation. Rolnick then lets the vastly expanded time and macroscopic beauty of big bang cosmology cast new and benign light on both biology and theology. The discovery of a big bang beginning, fine-tuning, and a 3.45 billion year evolutionary process brings new ways to think about the creativity of creation. From the tiny to the tremendous, there is an intelligent generosity built into the features of the cosmos and its living creatures, a spectrum of interconnected phenomena that seems tinged with grace. By recognizing the gifts of creation that have been scientifically uncovered, Origins presents a new way to understand this universe of grace and reason.
Philip A. Rolnick is Professor of Theology and Chair of the Science and Theology Network at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. A Universe of Grace and Reason PART II: EVOLUTION: FROM CHALLENGE TO THEOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE 2. Four Challenges of Evolution 3. Evolution and Divine Design 4. Natural Selection and a God of Love 5. Struggle, Pain, and Death and the Goodness of Creation 6. Common Ancestry and Human Uniqueness PART III: COSMOLOGY AND CREATION 7. The Origin and Development of an Inhabitable Universe 8. A Universe Finely Tuned for Life 9. Logos, the Divine Source of Reason PART IV: CREATION'S GIFTS AND HUMAN RESPONSE 10. The Given and the Earned 11. The Old and the New
"Having already written on grace and personhood, Philip A. Rolnick here shows how a universe of grace and rationality can lead to the emergence of something like us: embodied, embedded, and endowed creatures. This is a highly informative and well-written tale of the evolution of human personhood. -- Niels Henrik Gregersen, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Copenhagen "Through a very informed and readable account of the contemporary sciences of evolution and cosmology, Philip Rolnick shows in this remarkable book that science and religion are not only compatible, but mutually illuminating. Faith reveals answers to questions beyond the bounds of science, even as science becomes a benefactor to the faith, opening a way for us, through wonder, to a deeper love of God and creation." -- Michael Dodds, OP, Professor of Philosophy & Theology, Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology It seems that a mind at once challenging and loving has infused clues to itself within the very fabric of nature and evolution -- clues that require another kind of wisdom to explore -- the wisdom of Gods self-revelation. Origins weaves together many contemporary and traditional strands of science and religion into a fascinating, inspiring, intelligible, and original vision of natures proclamation of the glory of God." -- Father Robert J Spitzer, President, Magis Center of Reason & Faith, & author of "New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy" "Philip Rolnicks Origins is a book that deserves attention from any Christian confronted with the relationship between evolution and Christian belief." -- J Daniel McDonald, Boyce College, Journal of Biblical & Theological Studies
