“Each of the four authors contributes a chapter to this small but handsomely produced and illustrated book. Their general aim is to show that religion and science can be comfortable partners, without a sacrifice of either critical intelligence or religious faith. They focus in particular on approaches to the theory of biological evolution.

“Birge begins with some astute general observations about how to read scripture and follows through with a compelling exegesis of the specific context, historical and cultural, which lie behind the Jahwist creation story in Gen. 2–3 and then the priestly account in Gen. 1, all done clearly enough for even a high school student. Birge makes it clear that a literal reading of the six days is unjustified.

“Taylor provides a cogent description of the method of science as a process of testing [an] hypothesis, over time and widely, until the success of the hypothesis at meeting countless tests allows it to become a “theory,” strongly supported even though never finally proven. He then shifts to the theory of evolution, offering a sampling of the many kinds of evidence which support evolution, followed by a critical look at charges that creationism wrongly levels against it. Again, a very readable account.

“Henning offers a history of materialism, as it were, beginning with Democritus’s’ atomism, contrasting this with Aristotle’’s hierarchical universe of forms and teloi. Descartes represents a shift to a bifurcated creation made up of mechanical nature and spiritual human soul, in which humans are exceptional, different from all the rest of nature. Henning uses evolutionary theory to reinsert humans into nature, not as an exception but as an exemplification of the patterns of life. This allows Henning to argue against both the mechanistic view of life in general and the “arrogant anthropocentrism” that has allowed humans to treat other animals as merely property. This also shows that evolution and Christian faith can be quite compatible.

“Finally, Stoicoiu seeks explicity to reconcile evolution with a theology based on a faith seeking understanding. She rejects three alternative attempts: creationism, intelligent design, and separatism between religion and science. She adds to Taylor’’s critique of creationism, criticizes Behe’’s “irreducible complexity” argument for intelligent design, calling it a version of “God of the gaps,” and insists that theology and science cannot be so neatly separated as Gould tried to do with his nonoverlapping magisteria. She favors process theology’’s interpretation of suffering in the world as part of evolution, as well as the Teilhardian-Rahner notion of an evolving universe moving towards God.

“The authors achieve their goal well. This book provides a very useful starting point for an undergraduate religion and science course, leaving openings for many supplementary readings.”