Genes, genesis and God: values and their origins in natural and human history - review

Abstract

Book review of Holmes Rolston's Genes, Genesis and God. Lord Gifford, whose bequest founded the famous Gifford Lectures more than a century ago with a mandate to advance 'natural theology', would be proud of this book. It constitutes the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, 1997-1998; and, unlike many other recent Giffords, it really does fulfill the terms of the original bequest. This fulfillment is not expressed in the traditional language that Lord Gifford would have recognized (though underneath there are still classical arguments at work), but in this volume Holmes Rolston III brings together the best of current information about nature, especially the history of this planet, with the persistent depths of classical concerns about the character of the ultimate nature of things.