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Science and the Doctrine of Creation:
The Approaches of Ten Modern Theologians

Geoffrey Fulkerson,

Joel Chopp

IVP Academic

Can Christians take seriously the claims of modern science without compromising their theological integrity? Can theology contribute to our understanding of the natural world without reducing the doctrine of creation to a few flashpoint issues? While there is no shortage of works that treat the intersection between science and religion, little attention has been paid to the theological reception of developments of modern science. Yet a deeper look at the history of Christian thought offers a wealth of insight from theological giants for navigating this complex terrain.

Can Christians take seriously the claims of modern science without compromising their theological integrity? Can theology contribute to our understanding of the natural world without reducing the doctrine of creation to a few flashpoint issues? While there is no shortage of works that treat the intersection between science and religion, little attention has been paid to the theological reception of developments of modern science. Yet a deeper look at the history of Christian thought offers a wealth of insight from theological giants for navigating this complex terrain.

Science and the Doctrine of Creation examines how influential modern theologians—from the turn of the nineteenth century through the present—have engaged the scientific developments of their times in light of the doctrine of creation. In each chapter a leading Christian thinker introduces readers to the unique contributions of a key theologian in responding to the assumptions, claims, and methods of science. Chapters include

  • Kevin J. Vanhoozer on T. F. Torrance
  • Katherine Sonderegger on Karl Barth
  • Craig G. Bartholomew on Abraham Kuyper
  • Christoph Schwöbel on Wolfhart Pannenberg

Edited by Geoffrey Fulkerson and Joel Chopp of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding, this book grows out of the Henry Center’s Creation Project, which promotes biblically faithful and scientifically engaged dialogue around the doctrine of creation. From Warfield’s critical appraisal of Darwinian evolution to Pannenberg’s pneumatological reflections on field theory, these studies explore how Christians can think more carefully about the issues at stake using the theological resources of their traditions.

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Geoffrey Fulkerson

Geoffrey H. Fulkerson (PhD Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Dordt University.  He co-edited Science and the Doctrine of Creation: The Approaches of Ten Modern Theologians (IVP Academic, 2021). His research interests lie at the intersection of ecclesiology, cultural engagement, and place-theory.

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Joel Chopp

Joel T. Chopp (PhD University of Toronto, Wycliffe College) is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and the former Communications and Project Manager at the Henry Center.  He is the co-editor of Science and the Doctrine of Creation: The Approaches of Ten Modern Theologians (IVP Academic, 2020). His essays have appeared in Nova et Vetera and the Journal of Theological Interpretation.

Endorsements

This volume represents another valuable contribution of the Creation Project to our understanding of this vital doctrine. The thinkers profiled are influential, and the chapter authors are insightful. As the editors suggest, these case studies frequently deepen our awareness that seeking appropriate concord between theology and science is complex but inevitable for biblical Christians.

Daniel J. Treier, Knoedler Professor of Theology, Wheaton College

The person who does not specialize in the work of modern academic theologians wants to know who the key writers are, with a clear survey of their distinctive views and contributions, given with sympathy and even critique. This volume, with its focus on the specific question of how these theologians have brought the Christian doctrine of creation into engagement with the sciences, has achieved exactly that. The editors, representing the Carl Henry Center for Theological Understanding, have done great service to us all and furthered the invaluable work of the center. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude!

C. John ("Jack") Collins, Professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

How did the most important twentieth-century Protestant theologians model Christian engagement with the scientific questions of their time? Rather than staking out a definitive position on creation and science, each of the ten essays in this book gives an account of the diverse ways a particular theologian (Warfield, Barth, Torrance, Moltmann, Pannenberg, etc.) addressed current scientific issues and how he understood the very relationship of science and theology in light of the doctrine of creation. This is a rich feast indeed!

J. Richard Middleton, Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis, Northeastern Seminary at Roberts Wesleyan College

Science and the Doctrine of Creation presents ten of the most influential nineteenth- and twentieth-century theologians writing on dialogue with the sciences, analyzed by ten leading contemporary scholars in the field. With this new book, Geoffrey Fulkerson and Joel Chopp confirm the leading position of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding as a forum for informed scholarly debate, bringing theology and science into fruitful interaction.

Lydia Jaeger, Lecturer and Academic Dean at the Institut Biblique de Nogent-sur-Marne, France; Research Associate, St. Edmund's College, University of Cambridge

For too long Christians have weaponized the seeming conflict (or harmony) between science and theology. Good historians urge us instead to pay attention to the actual practice of particular theologians and scientists: 'Don't generalize in the abstract; look and see!' they say. Science and the Doctrine of Creation is a wonderful example of this salutary approach, drawing on theological luminaries like Barth, Torrance, and Pannenberg as guides into the rich meaning of creation. These learned essays remind us that the dogmatic issues surrounding God's creation extend far beyond the customary debates over origins. Readers will naturally gravitate to some chapters over others, but the ten chapters taken together offer a banquet of stimulating analysis for famished readers. What a welcome addition to the science and theology dialogue!

Hans Madueme, Associate Professor of Theological Studies, Covenant College

Book Reviews

The collection of essays in Science and the Doctrine of Creation invites its readers to explore the wide variety of ways in which Christian theologians in modernity have made sense of their faith in relation to natural science. Although this review highlights the interaction between one's doctrine of creation and one's view of science as the main thread that cuts across the whole book, the content of each chapter is rich with informative reflections on various additional issues concerning the relation between Christianity and science. Each chapter reflects the unique context and purpose that have shaped the thoughts of the modern theologians under consideration, which makes the book as a whole a valuable resource for those who are seeking to make sense of the complex relation that holds at the interface between natural science and Christian faith.

Taejung E. Kim

Trinity Journal 43, no 2 (2022): 235-237.

Overall, this is a rich book that provides useful summaries of the way different major Protestant thinkers engaged the sciences. I came away from reading the volume with two major questions for future theological scholarship. First, it is interesting that most of the theological objections in the book were not to evolution but to picturing the world as a mechanism.... The second point: I was struck by how little the authors wrestle with the ancient cosmologies that one finds in scripture (e.g., stars falling from the sky no longer makes sense on our scientific picture of the world).... I look forward to more Creation Project publications dealing with these sorts of problems.

Josh Reeves

Director, Samford Center for Science and Religion

Christian Scholar's Review 51, no 3 (2022,): 407-410.

This is not another book on the intersection of science and religion; rather, it is a review of Christian thought on the creation-evolution issue by influential modern theologians from the nineteenth century to the present. It covers in detail how they dealt with the scientific developments about the origin of life in light of creation doctrine.... In sum, the book is one of the best concerning leading theologians’ views on the creation-evolution issue.

Jerry Bergman

Instructor, Northwest State Community College

Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 33, no 1 (2021): 177-179.

This edited volume provides a helpful overview of scientific themes in celebrated thinkers from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.... Geoffrey H. Fulkerson and Joel Thomas Chopp are to be commended on having compiled such a broad yet concise and readable overview of modern theological commentary on the natural sciences. I expect that their book will prove stimulating and helpful for theologians, setting alongside each other such varied—indeed, often mutually exclusive—approaches to the sciences.

Richard Gunton

Lecturer in Statistics, University of Winchester

Ethics in Conversation 26, no 1 (2022)