Mini-Blog Extra – Book Review.

Neils Arboel
 
The Wonder of Creation: the Most Famous Christian Biologists in History,  Copenhagen, Queenswood, 2025, 507 pages, hardback.
 
John writes …

Let me go back a few months, to early October 2025. With my friend Graham Swinerd, I was at Lee Abbey in North Devon, leading a course on Science and Faith (see October 2025 blog post). Jane Goodall had died just a few days earlier; I thought it appropriate to briefly mention her and to tell our audience that she regarded her work, both with chimpanzees and in environmental campaigning, as fulfilling God’s calling on her life. Here was a devoted biologist who’s work and faith were completely integrated.

This then leads me to talk specifically about the book. The title and subtitle make it look, at a cursory reading, as if Christian Biologists are wonders of creation – well, perhaps we are, along with all other living things, but I presume that the title means that the Christian Biologists work or have worked on the Wonders of Creation. The twenty biologists whom the author selected, range from Francesco Redi in the 17th Century to several 20th and 21st Century scientists, including Jane Goodall and, of especial interest to readers of this journal, Francis Collins and Simon Conway Morris. And, although the author regards his selection as being the most famous, I must confess that I had not previously heard of Redi, who is credited with carrying out the first controlled experiments in biology.

In essence, the book is a series of short biographies each of which describes and discusses the scientific work and the faith of a particular scientist and goes on to show how each of them integrated their faith with their science. The main text is preceded by an Introduction on Science and Religion and is followed by an epilogue on overcoming the conflicts of the past. I need to say that for some of the subjects, such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Alister Hardy, their faith was far from ‘orthodox’ but nevertheless was a driving force in their lives. So, let me pick a few examples from what is overall, a very interesting and informative book. My first example is Alister Hardy, whose two-volume The Open Sea I read in my last year at school. I did not know then that he had a religious belief, although that fact became much more publicly known later in his career. Thus, it was especially interesting to read that, early in his career, he had made a vow to God to show that science and faith were completely compatible, a vow partially fulfilled by his work on the evolution of religion. Another book I read while still at school was the then-current edition of David Lack’s The Life of the Robin and, although my career has been in biochemistry/molecular biology, I continued to take an interest in his work. However, at no point had I realised that he was a Christian and thus his chapter in this book added something to my appreciation of that work. The same is true for me of Alexander Fleming who, like Jane Goodall (see above), stated that in his work he was following God’s will for his life. 

I hope those brief examples give something of the ‘flavour’ of this book of which I am very pleased to own a copy. Every chapter is interesting, informative, helpful  and even encouraging. I am very happy to recommend it to readers of this blog.
 
John Bryant
 
Topsham, Devon
May 2026

Please note that this review is 'in press' in the journal of Science & Christian Belief and is due to appear in print later in the year.