Special Issue of Scientia et Fides on Evolution – Introduction

Abstract

The ongoing debate on the Christian philosophical and theological approach to the theory of biological evolution is multifaceted. It refers to the biblical notion of creation, as well as to some strictly philosophical issues such as the difficulty in defining species and units of evolutionary transitions, the nature of chance, and the classical principle of proportionate causation (saying that an effect cannot exceed its own cause). Moving toward theology, it refers to the distinction between creation ( creatio ) and production ( productio ), and to the notion of secondary causation of creatures in the origin of new forms of organisms – contrasted with the classical assertion that creatures cannot create (even instrumentally).