The literature on evolution and faith is vast, but the premise of Jack Mahoney's book Christianity in Evolution is that much of this work only deals with ‘postevolutionary apologetics’ aimed at general concerns about the interpretation of scripture, God's existence, divine providence and human dignity. Meanwhile, other serious and potentially troubling implications of evolution for Christian beliefs are often ignored. Mahoney seeks to address this imbalance in the form of a ‘personal exploration’, arguing that Christianity (and the Catholic tradition in particular) can largely accept evolutionary theory and welcome the dogmatic corrections it entails provided that certain standard theological constructions are modified or replaced. Not surprisingly, the linchpin doctrine for this revisionist task is original sin, a topic which has received considerable attention but the full implications of its refusal have only rarely been drawn out. Systematically speaking, Mahoney argues that denying a historical, primordial fall forces one to reconsider standard accounts of creation, incarnation, the image of God, sin, atonement, salvation, and even ecclesiology and the sacraments.

Evolution does more than simply undermine original sin, it also provides Mahoney with the key to his constructive proposal. Drawing on recent scientific work on the evolution of cooperative and prosocial behaviours, he argues that natural selection has provided humans with a set of dispositions which range widely from selfish to altruistic. On one end of this scale we find human sin, our yielding to selfishness and refusing the invitation to self-transcendence. On the other end we find humans created in the image of God, a trinitarian God of inherent and thoroughgoing altruism who creates for the sake of others. Our eternal destiny is to escape death and share in the offering of divine life, a destiny made possible by the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Rather than saving us from original sin through sacrificial death, Jesus came to model supreme altruism, vividly enacted on the cross, to usher humanity into its final stage of evolutionary development. Death, not sin, is our fundamental problem, although sin certainly keeps us from embracing God's gracious solution made possible by the resurrection. Mahoney concludes by reinterpreting the Catholic eucharist as a ritual recalling and celebration of Christ's freely accepted suffering and death.

This book is remarkably concise given the range and depth of topics covered, yet it still manages to pay attention to both historical and hermeneutical concerns. However, there are two issues to which I wished Mahoney had paid more attention. The first is the problem of evil, for which original sin has been the traditional, albeit never wholly satisfactory answer. Mahoney instead appeals to a view of kenotic creation whereby God adopts self-imposed limitations required by the creation of non-divine being. This is an attractive alternative, provided one is willing to accept the implication that God's freedom in the act of creation is a freedom of choice but not a freedom of product. In other words, the free choice to create something non-divine automatically limited God's creative options. As such, the potential for evil, suffering and death was apparently unavoidable (even, I take it, the suffering implied by evolutionary history). This leads to the second issue that I wish Mahoney had addressed, which is how this creation can still be affirmed as being good. Original sin, after all, was not merely based on Augustine's reading of Genesis 2–3, but was also his answer to the error of Manichaeism. Nevertheless, Mahoney has crafted a readable and provocative treatment which deserves careful attention by systematic theologians who recognise the importance of ongoing dialogue with evolutionary science.