Chapel Talks with Rev. William Falla

Charles Darwin, failed doctor and church parson turned naturalist, has traditionally been seen as a “bête noir” by the Judeo-Christian tradition. As such, he and his work have certainly been something to be countered if not defeated in an effort to preserve the faith. In this series of Chapel talks, I plan to take a different approach. I take my inspiration for these meditations from Merold Wesphal’s book, Suspicion & Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism. In the Preface, he states;” My central thesis is that from a religious point of view the atheism of Freud, Marx and Nietzche should be taken seriously as a stimulus for self-examination rather than refuted as an error.” (Wesphal,x)

In these six morning meditations, I plan to reflect on the idea that Darwin and the later Darwinians/neo-Darwinians really present a golden opportunity and challenge for the self-examination and transformation of the faith. In particular, I want to focus on Darwin’s challenge for the faithful around commonly held beliefs about: creation and our knowledge of it; who we are as human beings and what our place is in creation and what our destiny might be. In all this, how might Darwin’s thought challenge us to rethink the traditional tenets of our faith with respect to these beliefs?

I must warn you that all this is, in the spirit of Darwinian Theory, very organic in nature and may transmute into something slightly different.

- Rev. William Falla

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