Over the past generation, considerable historical attention has been given to evangelical Christians who attacked modern evolutionary theories. This book, by contrast, sheds light on the under-studied story of twentieth-century Christians who remained theologically conservative, but refused to take up arms against modern science—those who sought to show the compatibility of biblical Christianity and the conclusions of mainstream science, including evolution. It focuses on the middle decades of the twentieth century, the same period in which creationism became a movement within evangelicalism ... More

Over the past generation, considerable historical attention has been given to evangelical Christians who attacked modern evolutionary theories. This book, by contrast, sheds light on the under-studied story of twentieth-century Christians who remained theologically conservative, but refused to take up arms against modern science—those who sought to show the compatibility of biblical Christianity and the conclusions of mainstream science, including evolution. It focuses on the middle decades of the twentieth century, the same period in which creationism became a movement within evangelicalism, and on two groups of evangelical scientists, the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) and the UK-based Research Scientists’ Christian Fellowship (RSCF, today Christians in Science). Drawing on published and unpublished sources, including conference papers, interviews, and private correspondence, this book shows how these organizations pursued a reconciliation of science and theology that contradicted the fundamentalist ethos of the period and denied the claims that creationism entailed antievolutionism.