Book Review: The Wisdom of the Liminal: Evolution and Other Animals in Human Becoming

Abstract

The Wisdom of Liminal: Evolution and Other Animals in Human Becoming. By Celia Deane-Drummond. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Publishing, xii + 346 pp. $35.00 (paper).This is a remarkably comprehensive journey by one of major scholars of contemporary science-religion debate. Celia Deane-Drummond is currently Professor of Theology at Notre Dame, though some of this work can be traced back to her work at University of Chester (where she collaborated with David Clough) and to her leadership of a year's program at Princeton Center for Theological Inquiry (where she was influenced by Agustin Fuentes). The book is a mine of information for classes of final-year undergraduates and above, and for all researchers in theological anthropology, animal theology, and interface between evolution and theology.Deane-Drummond's interest is in liminal space between ourselves and other animals, and she brings to exploration of this space many compelling ingredients: her own scientific understandings, augmented by those of others, especially Fuentes; her (impressive) grasp of Aquinas and secondary literature on him; and her interest in theo-drama as a way of doing justice to dynamic, particular, intimate, more than a grandnarrative approach will tend to do. The latter, of course, goes back to her work on von Balthasar.On her way Deane-Drummond covers very important and muchcontested subject of evolutionary psychology of religion. Then comes a series of chapters on reason and cognition, freedom and agency, morality and virtue, and language and communication, together with work on niche construction and the drama of kinship. Each one of these chapters is a feast of learning and insight. Deane-Drummond s ability to enter into critical dialogue with such a range of thinkers is remarkable. In each chapter, Aquinas's thought is used as a kind of ground bass from which Deane-Drummond improvises. It is not at first evident why Aquinas is asked to serve this role, but I became persuaded that a pre-modem thinker of his stature can indeed be a very helpful starting point from which to consider contemporary contestations, especially given Aquinas's willingness to see traces of Trinity, and even a likeness of God, in creatures other than humans.Deane-Drummond's desire for an expansive account of what it means to bear image of God, understood in terms of performance in a drama shared with other creatures, seems absolutely right. …