The Theology of an Evolutionist

Editor of the influential Christian progressive journal Outlook and intimate with Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Roosevelt Lymon Abbott (18351922) played a central role in religion and politics in the turn-of-the-century America. In The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897) Abbott shows his characteristic optimism in human moral development as he argues that the Christian faith can fully accommodate evolution as the means by which God changes and improves the world over time. Abbott writes ''not to disbelievers in evolution to prove that they are mistaken but to believers in evolution to show them that their belief is not inconsistent with the Christian faith.'' A companion to Abbott''s popular previous volumes The Evolution of Christianity and Christianity and Social Problems this text presents an innovative and often elegant reconciliation of the still-current debate concerning scientific empiricism and Christian belief.