Evolution, Scripture, and Science

Are naturalistic and Christian creation irreconcilable ideologies?
In this collection of B. B. Warfield’s writings, editors Mark A. Noll and David N. Livingstone demonstrate that theologians have not always thought so. Around the turn of the twentieth century, Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield believed that synthesizing his commitment to the scientific validity of evolution and to the inerrancy of the Bible was an attainable theological task.
By drawing reasonable distinctions among Darwinism, Charles Darwin, and evolution, he was able to accept the probability of evolution while denying the implications of full-blown Darwinism. In the realm of inerrancy and evolution, Warfield’s writings exemplify civil Christian scholarship and shrewd scientific discernment.
The editors have carefully gleaned Warfield’s writings on evolution and inerrancy from theological essays, book reviews, lectures, and historical papers. Editorial headnotes introduce the reader to each article’s context and content. However, the editors let Warfield’s articles speak for themselves and inform the contemporary dialogue between science and theology. Referring to the current debate, the editors concur that “One way of jolting discussion about science and theology out of the fervent, but also intellectually barren, stand-offs of recent decades is to note one of the best-kept secrets in American intellectual history: B. B. Warfield.”

Mark A. Noll is the McManis Professor of Christian Thought and professor of church history at Wheaton College. He is a leading church historian with many works to his credit, including Turning Points and The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. David N. Livingstone teaches in the School of Geography, Archeology, and Palaeoecology, Queen's University, Belfast, and has written and lectured extensively on faith and science.