Catholic Church, Cosmology, Dogmatic Theology, Modernism 

Darwin. Dawkins. Dennett. - This voluble triumvirate has gained oracular status for many scientists and laypersons in the contemporary world. But though the edifice of thought they have erected over and against tradition and faith has gained currency in today's nihilistic mind, it is now rapidly eroding in the serious world of ideas; and the criticism coming from traditional corners is being echoed by many scientists themselves.

But what of that heady amalgam of Science and Christianity first put together by Teilhard de Chardin, which struck the Catholic world like a whirlwind around the time of the Second Vatican Council and continues to the present day in the work of such Catholic evolutionists as John Haught and Kenneth R Miller? For under the influence of the exiled French Jesuit, what has gained well-nigh universal acceptance are two critical notions: first, that "God creates" by means of Darwinian evolution; and secondly, that the Church itself "evolves" in that it proceeds from a primitive to an enlightened understanding of truth. It is crucial to note, however, that for a Catholic - that is, according to the traditional teachings of the Church, as Wolfgang Smith points out - "theistic evolution" is in fact a heresy.

What as a rule has rendered theologians and average Catholics alike vulnerable to Teilhardian tenets - apart from the fact that these conform to the neo-humanist tendencies of our age - is that the theory is clad in scientific garb: in the modern world, where Science speaks, it appears even angels will listen. It therefore takes someone thoroughly grounded in both science and theology to point to the decisive foundational errors of such a teaching. Wolfgang Smith is that rare person who does possess such double credentials; and what he proves through detailed and rigorous argument is that Teilhard de Chardin has in fact sold us a veritable science-fiction theology.

This book, however, is much more than a masterful and indeed definitive refutation of theistic evolutionism: it is at the same time an incomparable introduction to the long-forgotten metaphysical and theological truths, such as the omnia simul of Creation, and the fundamental distinctions between time and eternity, or mind and spirit, and the fundamental conception of the ontological Center. In language at once precise and lucid the author recalls teachings going back to the Greek and Latin Fathers, and explains their bearing on questions about the nature of God and man bungled at the hands of many contemporary scientists and theologians.

"Wolfgang Smith broaches a vast range of subjects with a mastery that bespeaks an immense culture." - Jean Borella

"Here is that rare person who is equally at home with Eckhart and Einstein, Heraclitus and Heisenberg!" - Harry Oldmeadow

"Wolfgang Smith is as important a thinker as our times can boast." - Huston Smith

About the Author

After graduating from Cornell University at age eighteen with majors in physics, mathematics and philosophy, Wolfgang Smith took an MS from Purdue, following which he spent three years at Bell Aircraft Corporation as an aerodynamicist. During this period he gained recognition for his pioneering papers on the effect of diffusion fields, which provided a theoretical solution to the re-entry problem for space flight. After receiving a PhD in mathematics from Columbia University, Dr. Smith pursued a professorial career in that field. Soon however his center of interest shifted form the pursuit of science to the critique of scientism and the rediscovery of metaphysics as a theological discipline. He has authored six books and numerous articles, and is today widely recognized as a leading authority in these twin fields.

Taken from the back cover.