My second book, co-authored with the gentle genius Robert M. Price, is Evolving out of Eden: Christian Responses to Evolution. It was truly an honor to work with this man. I’ve learned a great deal from him, not just about the Bible (which he seems to have memorized several times over), but also about the history and theological nuances of my former faith as well as the craft of writing itself. He sure knows how to turn a phrase, making serious points in an engaging, even amusing way.
The book’s layout centers around three main “branches” of theological conception that are each profoundly impacted by evolution:
I: The Word (the Bible) that was produced by human beings,
II: The Creature (Homo sapiens) who wrote and now expounds on the Word,
III: The Creator, whose recognition and appeasement is the ultimate object of Christian theology.
This tree-branch metaphor is inspired by the idea of an evolutionary “tree of life,” which Darwin illustrated in an 1837 notebook. We’ve adapted his drawing for this image. A different version of it heads up each of our book’s six major sections.
You can read the first half of our “Cast of Characters” chapter online for free. You’ll learn not just about the book and the faith journeys of its authors, but perhaps also a few things you didn’t already know about the wonders of evolution.
The Amazon reviews have been very gratifying. As of September 2014 (when this post was last updated), it’s got 4.4 out of 5 stars there.
