For several years, I have been one of several co-editors nursing a book on Latter-day Saints, faith, and evolution through the production stage. I’m pleased to announce it’s now available. Free.

A number of us were concerned about past misinformation and disinformation, misunderstandings about the nature of science in general, and the state of evolution. In particular, I was convinced that the problems faith often has with evolution are not actually solvable with science… because science is not actually the primary issue, as I’ve addressed before. Any book that addressed evolution also needed to talk about history, scripture, and interpretation.  This book is the result, and is freely available as a PDF, with hardcover version coming in the near future. We have both LDS and non-LDS scientists, historians, and scriptural scholars, including some from BYU.

Here’s the Table of Contents.

The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and Evolution

  • Editors’ Introduction
    • Jamie L. Jensen, Steven L. Peck, Ugo A. Perego, and T. Benjamin Spackman
  • Accepting Evolution: Why Does It Matter?
    • Jamie L. Jensen
  • From Biology Major to Religion Professor: Personal Reflections on Evolution
    • Joshua M. Sears

What Do We Know from a Religious Epistemology?

  • When Worlds Collide: Scripture and Cosmology in Historical Perspective
    • Kyle R. Greenwood
  • The Genesis Creation Account in Its Ancient Context
    • Avram R. Shannon
  • The Seven Seals, the Age of the Earth, and Continuing Revelation
    • Nicholas J. Frederick
  • (No) Death before the Fall?: The Basis and Twentieth-Century History of Interpretation
    • T. Benjamin Spackman

What Do We Know from a Scientific Epistemology?

  • Why the Latter-­ day Saint Community Can Trust Science (in the Same Way Scientists Do)
    • Steven L. Peck
  • Accepting Evolution with Joy Is Possible
    • T. Heath Ogden
  • Wonderful Forms of Life Have Been and Are Being Evolved: A Brief Explanation of What Evolution Is and Is Not
    • Tyler A Kummer and Jamie L. Jensen
  • The Scientific Evidence for Human Evolution
    • Seth M. Bybee

Thoughts on Reconciliation

  • Should Evolution Be Taught at BYU?: A Certain “Yes” from an Uncertain Defender
    • James P. Porter
  • Evolutionary Biology as a Discipline at Brigham Young University: An Academic Success Story
    • Michael F. Whiting
  • From Seminary Teacher to Scientist to Institute Director: Learning by Study and Also by Faith
    • Ugo A. Perego
  • Living with Uncertainty Helps Us Reconcile Evolution and Faith
    • Jared Lee
  • Using a Reconciliation Approach to Teach Evolution May Help Religious Students Remain Faithful
    • Danny Ferguson, Ethan Tolman, Spencer Shumway, and Cassidy Shively
  • To the Latter-­ day Saint Audience . . . from Scientists Who Care
    • Jamie L. Jensen, with Constance M. Bertka and Lee Meadows

On the Official Position of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-­ day Saints on Evolution

  • The 1909 and 1925 First Presidency Statements in Historical and Scientific Contexts
    • T. Benjamin Spackman
  • Appendix A: Organic Evolution
  • Appendix B: The Origin of Man The First Presidency of the Church
  • Appendix C: “Mormon” View of Evolution The First Presidency of the Church
  • Appendix D: What Does the Church Believe about Evolution?
  • Appendix E: What Does the Church Believe about Dinosaurs?
  • Appendix F: Science and Our Search for Truth
    • Alison Stanton

The Church recently published several new short essays: race and the Church; women’s service and leadership in the Church; and religion and science. The Salt Lake Tribune asked me to write a short piece placing these new essays in historical context, which I did, here.

In short, I see these essays as swinging hard away from what I’ve termed the “fundamentalist turn” of the 1950s.  That turn moved us away from a period in which Church leaders showed a lot of intellectual humility and carefully considered the best information available. That attitude largely disappeared in the 1950s for a “we have infallible prophets, we don’t need human learning” with negative effects and significant historical, scientific, and scriptural overclaiming.  We are now returning to that intellectual humility of the earlier century. I’ve argued for this historical trajectory in popular and more formal settings (with slides and references), singling out Elder Ballard for modeling this approach.

I am optimistic about the future.