Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 19:56 (Spring 2015)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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JODT 19:56 (Spring 2015) p. 87

Book Reviews

After the Monkey Trial by Christopher M. Rios. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014. 260 pp., cloth, $45.00.

The subtitle for this book is Evangelical Scientists and a New Creationism. Rios is Assistant Dean in the Baylor University Graduate School and a part-time lecturer in Baylor’s Department of Religion (inside back flap). The work focuses upon the history of two significant associations, the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) and the Research Scientists’ Christian Fellowship (RSCF; now known as Christians in Science). Both organizations deal with the relationship between science and faith.

“During the second half of the twentieth century the ASA and RSCF developed a view of creation that countered the claims of the young-earth creationists, recalled the reconciling efforts of an earlier generation, and affirmed the importance of science for the church and its interpretation of Scripture” (p. 11). Furthermore, young-earth creationists are labeled as “notorious” (p. 13; cf. 140). The RSCF, in particular, allowed creationist views to be expressed, but that was never the official position of the group. The ASA began as an organization to demonstrate the harmony between “true science” and the Bible (p. 43), which is a concept reaffirmed again in the work (cf. p. 64). There is a quote from Philip B. Marquart writing for the Journal of the ASA (p. 64):

The evolution you [the officers of the ASA] now advocate is definitely not Christian. . . . We remember the days when the A.S.A. first organized. We were all against evolution then. Satan has thus worked fast to bring us to such a compromise. . . . Fundamentalism seems to have departed from our deliberations, and Neo-evangelicalism, that curse of compromise, has taken its place.

The title of this book speaks of “a New Creationism.” Perhaps this reviewer missed it, but there does not seem to be a definition expressed by Rios. Possibly it is akin to theistic evolution, yet the brief index does not have an entry for such. The work has no charts or illustrations but does have 38 pages of endnotes and 25 pages of bibliography. Rios’ book is not very useful other than for the purpose of recalling the history of the ASA and the RSCF.

— Charles Ray
Bible Teacher (Coppell, TX)

JODT 19:56 (Spring 2015) p. 88

Interpreting the Prophetic Books: An Exegetical Handbook by Gary V. Smith. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2014. 214 pp., paper, $22.99.

Smith’s evangelical and premillennial study is the fourth of six volumes to be printed in the series, Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis, edited by David M. Howard Jr. The author ...

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