DALLAS, Texas - U.S. author Robert Wright traces the history of God and suggests that it might point to the unfolding of something divine, though perhaps not in the sense that most people of faith would envision. In his new book The Evolution of God, he takes his readers on a journey through the spiritual beliefs of our ancestors to the development of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
The book has two convergent paths. One traces the material history of faith looking among other things at how "scriptural interpretation is obedient to facts on the ground." The other path is a more speculative one that Wright compares to Darwinian evolution and leads to the notion that our history has been one of moral progress, which suggests that something divine may be afoot. More>>
BOOK REVIEW
The idea that God has evolved may be off-putting to some and welcomed by others. How one responds to this idea may depend both on what is meant by the phrase and where one stands in regards to the idea of God.
A believer may take this idea differently than will an unbe-liever. Philip Clayton, in his book Adventures in the Spirit (Fortress, 2008) encourages believers in God to welcome dialog with science and philosophy and not to fear any challenging implications to faith.
It is with that sense of openness that I came to Robert Wright’s fascinating study of the evolution of the idea of God, from its origins in hunter-gather societies to the development of the great religions – especially the three Abrahamic religions. Wright admits that he approached this study with an agnostic sensibility.
Indeed, the focus here is not on whether God exists, but how humans have envisioned and approached the idea of God. His is a materialist description, assuming that ideas of faith have evolved because they fulfill a role in society.
Indeed, when he speaks of specific religious expressions he takes a rather minimalist view – that is Jesus said and did little of what has been ascribed to him, and the stories of early Judaism, from Abraham to Moses, likely did not happen" (a Disciples Of Christ minister in Troy, Michigan).
