Erich Wasmann, S.J.: Natural Species and Catholic Polyphyletic Evolution during the Modernist Crisis

Abstract

During the first half of the twentieth century, “natural species” played a prominent role in Catholic efforts to accommodate evolutionary biology within the neo-Scholastic theology of the age. Particularly during the modernist crisis early in the century, the most influential figure in this development was the Jesuit entomologist and evolutionary theorist Erich Wasmann (1859–1931). The anti-modernist context in which Wasmann worked included two cases involving evolution that were decided by the Congregation of the Index while Franz Xaver Wernz (1842–1914), Wasmann’s future Jesuit superior general (1906–14), served as a consultor. I describe Wasmann’s introduction of the natural species concept against this background and analyze his decision to abide by Wernz’s warning with respect to human evolution. I then provide examples of how Wasmann’s reliance upon natural species and polyphyletic evolution was adopted in subsequent Catholic efforts to reach a synthesis of theology and evolutionary biology. 1