For some time now theologians have been seeking to come to grips with the theological significance of accepting an evolutionary account of life and of human beings in particular. Moving beyond an ill-fated attempt to read the Genesis creation account as a source of scientific information, a more pointed issue arises in relation to the question of the Fall. Without an account of original sin, much of our soteriological narrative begins to break down. Can belief in original sin survive evolution? The present volume, edited by William Cavanaugh and James Smith, is a collection of essays by a variety of theologians from various Christian traditions who attempt to answer that question.

Funded by the Biologos Foundation and supported by the Colossian Foundation, the contributors not only wrote individual pieces; they participated in a process of theological dialogue, collaboration, and worship. The output is ten essays by the individual participants—Cavanaugh, Smith, Darrel Falk, Celia Deane-Drummond, Richard Middleton, Joel Green, Aaron Riches, Brent Waters, Norman Wirzba, and Peter Harrison—in four sections: “Mapping the Questions,” “Biblical and Theological Implications,” “Beyond ‘Origins’: Cultural Implications,” and “Reimagining the Conversation: Faithful Ways Forward.”

The essays are generally informative, especially in the first section where some of the biological evolutionary material is presented (Falk, Deane-Drummond), and in the final section concerning ways forward (Cavanaugh, Harrison). Still the variety of viewpoints (ecclesially) and the lack of any significant cross-referencing between the essays (despite the collaborative intent) does not give the impression of a coherent approach. Some of the essays on the biblical material, while containing some good insights, struck me as “flat” in their reading of the Fall narrative, and the contribution by Wirzbra on Maximus the Confessor seems to sidestep the issue of how Maximus’ account might gel or be revised in light of evolution. Cavanaugh's piece on the ways in which emerging political theories (Hobbes and Locke in particular) eliminated reference to the Fall even prior to Darwin is informative, but it would have been more interesting to dialogue a bit more with Aquinas and a bit less with Augustine on the questions at hand. Certainly on Cavanaugh's account there was more common ground to be found there. Similarly the final essay by Harrison is informative historically, but it was not clear to this reader that considerations of the early debates in Augustine shed much light on the contemporary issue of science and religion, despite the author's claims.

These issues invariably swing on profound theological issues—grace-nature, divine action in the world, the nature of salvation—but these are not directly addressed. Also there are questions of theological method. If we are going to talk about human evolution and distinctiveness, and the impact of the Fall, we need, I think, to directly address what Lonergan refers to as the realm of interiority. For example, the writings of Sebastian Moore in the 1980s and 1990s directly address both these issues from the perspective of interiority and provide some profound reflections on both original sin and salvation within an evolutionary context, as do the more recent writings of Girardians, such as James Alison. None of the authors bring interiority into the debate with any degree of control of meaning.

All in all, there is much to gain from reading these essays as an account of the present state of play in what is a thorny set of theological issues. But it is far from the final word on the topic, with other approaches and resources needed to fill out the account.