David Livingstone has written a well-researched and very readable book that explores one aspect of the relationship between science and Christianity. His aim is to show how many late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century evangelicals were in varying degrees favourably disposed towards the theory of evolution. Contrary to what many modern-day evangelicals may believe, some of our scholarly forebears did not react in a wholly negative way to Charles Darwin.

After setting the scene and recounting the Darwinian revolution, Dr Livingstone describes first how evangelical scientists and then how evangelical theologians met the challenge. Evangelical Christianity was the culturally dominant religion in nineteenth-century North America and therefore it is not surprising that there were many scientists in key institutions who were orthodox evangelical believers. Livingstone shows how men such as Asa Gray (Harvard), George F. Wright (Oberlin), James Dana (Yale), A.H. Guyot (Princeton), William Dawson (McGill), Alexander Winchell (Michigan), George Macluskie (Princeton) and others grappled with the issues raised by Darwin. They responded in different ways, some more favourably and others less so, but none dismissed any form of evolution as incompatible with orthodox Christianity. Livingstone points out how the issue for them was not so much the challenge of Darwinianism to the Bible as to the concept of divine design in nature.

Among the theologians opinion was more varied, but again surprisingly favourable. Charles Hodge of Princeton, the most eminent nineteenth-century Calvinist theologian, did react unfavourably to Darwin’s theories, especially as they touched upon divine design. However, his colleague at the college, the philosopher James M’Cosh, took a more favourable view; as did, perhaps most surprisingly, B.B. Warfield. Other notable theologians such as R.L. Dabney, W.G.T. Shedd and Augustus Strong are dealt with, as well as British theologians such as James Orr.

It is only with the twentieth century that evangelicals began to divide over evolution. The modernist controversy signalled the decline of evangelical orthodoxy and the rise of theological liberalism in the churches and colleges. As the century wore on tensions over the issue rose. Livingstone helpfully puts the debate within its wider cultural context, especially in the period following the First World War. From a position of cultural ascendancy evangelicals were forced to the periphery of church life and society. The result was that evangelicals saw science as a threat. Towards the end of the book Livingstone takes the debate up to the present time.

This book gives the creation-evolution debate a needed historical perspective. It reveals how committed evangelicals grappled with the issues raised by Darwin in a sophisticated and learned manner. It also reminds us how evangelicals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century were very much in the cultural and intellectual mainstream in a way their heirs have not been since. However, the book leaves some questions unanswered. Dr Livingstone ably expounds the various positions, but he does not deal with the theological issues raised. No doubt this was beyond his purpose in writing the book. Nevertheless, the theological issues are real ones, and whatever our forebears thought, we still have to deal with these. The theologians Dr Livingstone deals with were concerned with design and providence, but what about the reality of death in the world? How does the entry of death relate to evolution?

The other criticism I have of this enjoyable book is that it is written like a tract. Dr Livingstone has done his work well, but he has done so for a cause, that of theistic evolution. The book has a partisan flavour to it. That is no bad thing in itself, but I think it has coloured its treatment of more recent contributions to the debate. I found Dr Livingstone unnecessarily dismissive of those who do not echo the earlier tradition he has ably sought to recover.

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