Review
Survival of the Thomist
Aquinas and Evolution: Why St. Thomas' Teaching on the Origins Is Incompatible with Evolutionary Theory
by Michael Chaberek, O.P.
The Chartwell Press, 2017
(272 pages, $16.95, paperback)
reviewed by D. Q. McInerny
Father Michael Chaberek, having given us, in his Catholicism and Evolution (2015), a richly informative history of the Church's response to evolutionary theory from the late nineteenth century to the present, now gives us Aquinas and Evolution, which can be regarded as an appropriate sequel to the earlier volume. Together, these books can be fittingly regarded as the two most important philosophical works on evolution to date, written from a deeply learned and engagingly expressed Thomistic point of view.
Aquinas and Evolution is a direct response to the position taken by a number of self-identified Thomist philosophers and theologians who are committed to what they regard as the soundness of theistic evolution, and who maintain that they have support for their commitment in the thought of the Angelic Doctor. It is Fr. Chaberek's contention, which he convincingly supports, that in this they are egregiously mistaken. He informs us that his intention in this work is to "show that the teachings of Thomas Aquinas—and indeed of any sound philosophy (sana philosophia or philosophia perennis)—are not just incompatible with the Darwinian theory, but exclude it in principle" (12). His success in fulfilling this intention is complete and unmitigated.
Issues & Arguments
The book is composed of six chapters, the first of which, Status Quaestionis, introduces the various issues to be dealt with and the arguments to be made in the subsequent pages.
The argument to which Chapter II is devoted is presented in an especially effective way: it is cast in the form of an article in the Summa Theologiae. Accordingly, it begins by stating a thesis that is going to be contested rather than defended: "It seems that Aquinas's teaching does not exclude theistic evolution." This is followed by eighteen "objections" supporting that assertion, taking up thirteen pages; then comes the sed contra, contesting the thesis (three pages), followed by the "reply," which argues for the contrary of the stated thesis (twelve pages). Finally, there are the responses to the objections, effectively continuing that argument, which cover no fewer than 38 pages. The entire text of the chapter is accompanied by ample and informative footnotes.
I provide these details of the structure of this chapter because they serve to illustrate the meticulous thoroughness with which Fr. Chaberek treats the issues he broaches, not only in this chapter, but throughout the rest of the book as well. One is hard-pressed to come up with any pertinent aspect of any issue he deals with that he has not taken into account and addressed in a satisfactory if not definitive fashion.
Chapter III compares and contrasts the thought of Aquinas with that of Augustine regarding the interpretation of Genesis. Here he shows that the Augustinian position, however much it may differ from that of the majority of the saints (St. Ambrose, for example), is, for all that, in no wise compatible with modern evolutionary theory, a point that Étienne Gilson was among the first to call attention to.
Chapter IV, entitled "Aquinas and the Origin of Man," argues compellingly that, contrary to the position entertained by theistic evolutionists, Aquinas unequivocally teaches that the human body was created directly by God; it was not the end-product of an eons-long process of gradual transformative development.
Chapter V, which follows the same format as Chapter II, and just as effectively, introduces the subject of intelligent design (ID). The thesis to be contested here is stated thus: "It seems that Aquinas's teaching excludes intelligent design." In its lucidity and comprehensiveness, this chapter provides one of the best accounts of the intelligent design position that I have come across, as well as one of the best defenses of that position. If something bears all the marks of having been designed, the attempt to cite chance as the explanation for its genesis is a sign of desperation. Particularly arresting is Fr. Chaberek's view that "intelligent design may be seen as the preamble to the preambles of faith. ID relates to the preambles of faith as the preambles of faith relate to the articles of faith" (180).
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