Creation and Evolution

Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology, by Darrel R. Faulk. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004. 235 pp. $18.00. ISBN: 0-8308-2742-0.

This is the author's version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source:

Shaffett, J. E. Christian Librarian 51:101 no.2 2008.

Darrel R. Faulk is professor of biology and associate provost for research at Point Loma Nazarene University, Point Loma, California. He is an evangelical protestant Christian. He has been a professor of biology for over twenty-seven years. The intended audience for this book is evangelical Christians.

The book addresses the concern over the conflict between science and the Christian faith. Faulk book begins and ends with the author’s own journey in reconciling his evangelical Christian beliefs with modern science. Chapter two focuses on the first three chapters of Genesis and different ways of interpreting it. Chapters three through six presents the “evidence from cosmology, geology, paleontology and genetics to make a compelling case for an ancient earth and the relatedness of all life forms [p.10].” The final chapter answers concerns evangelical Christians have with accepting the conclusions of modern science.

Faulk believes that a loving Creator God used the “mechanism of evolution to create all living things [p.10].” He thinks that science and faith can be harmonized with each other. He believes it is possible to be an evangelical who believes in the trustworthiness of the Scriptures and hold a gradual creation view. His purpose for writing this book was to “explore the story of creation in light of what we know from science [p.228].”

Coming to Peace with Science is a well-informed, scientifically accurate, theologically sound, presentation of evolution from a biologist who is a committed evangelical Christian. It is written at a level that would be understandable to beginning college students. It is highly recommended.