The work of the previous chapters has been to consider how the findings of evolutionary biology fit with key commitments of traditional Christology. Thus far, we think the findings fit quite well. In this final chapter, we widen our scope all the way, asking not whether this finding of biology is problematic for that claim of Christianity but instead asking how biology and its total set of data fit with a Christian worldview compared to a naturalist worldview. Our main concern, then, will be to evaluate Christianity and naturalism in terms of their respective worldview explanations of the very existence of the biological world and the phenomena within it.

Although our developing discussion focuses on Christology and genetics, it inevitably connects with two larger bodies of information: all major Christian doctrines and the whole array of life sciences. Classical Christology is central in the entire web of orthodox Christian doctrine, while evolutionary genetics is now fundamental to all the sciences that study life. At relevant points, then, essential orthodox Christian doctrines and key findings of the biological sciences will come into play. Furthermore, the interaction of Christology and genetics we seek depends on how we understand the broader Christianity–science relationship. Of course, various ways of looking at the Christianity–science relationship have developed over the centuries since the birth of modern science.

Why would anyone ask such an odd question about a possible connection between Christology and biology? Of course, here we mean the classic Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, as formulated by the Great Councils of the historic church, and the best information in contemporary biology, as presented in the best peer-reviewed scientific journals and texts. But, again, why would anyone be interested in pursuing answers to this very specific question? One reason is that both important areas, Christology and biology, have much to say about the nature of humanity. We must see if the respective narratives are compatible or incompatible. Another reason is that we seek a comprehensive worldview and must explore how Christology and evolutionary biology might fit in that overall conceptual framework.

We have come a long way to arrive at this point. It all began with a question regarding what Christology and biology might have in common. The question immediately prompted the observation that Christology and biology together entail a central proposition: that God became incarnate as a human being, a particular rational–moral biological organism shaped by evolution. Although the connection between Christianity’s claim to Incarnation and contemporary biology had never been explored in the science–religion literature, we sought to remedy that deficiency in this book. From this starting point – the relation of Christology and biology – we explored a range of important topics familiar to the science–religion discussion. In the process, we hoped to discover much about our own humanity from theological and scientific perspectives, and therefore much about the humanity that Jesus Christ took on.

new topic in the already extensive discussion between science and religion that is worthy of yet another book? Have the major camps settled for repeating their familiar refrains that simply appeal to their committed constituencies? Despite some indications that our culture is experiencing science–religion fatigue, we contend that there is still exciting virgin territory to explore at a particular overlap between Christianity and science – namely, where the doctrine of the Incarnation intersects with modern evolutionary biology. Specifically, this intriguing overlap occurs where the belief that God became human in Jesus Christ meets evolutionary genetics and the relatively new field of genomics, the study of genomes, an organism’s complete set of DNA. That exploration is the purpose of this book.

Our realist commitment to both Christology and biology entails that the God–Human, Jesus Christ, came into an evolutionary world. Christology and biology further entail that Jesus, who was fully human, had to have a fully human genome as understood by contemporary genetics – which is a logically necessary condition for the truth of the Chalcedonian assertion of his humanity. In this chapter, we build our discussion around issues raised by this entailment in relation to the initial event of Jesus’s coming, his Virgin Birth. In Chapters 3 and 4, we laid the groundwork for our discussion by presenting orthodox Christology and mainline biology on their own independent terms, but on this rich topic of the Virgin Birth, we put them together for the first time.

Our realist commitment to both Christology and biology entails that the Theandric One, the God–Human, Jesus Christ, came into an evolutionary world. This entailment drives us to seek a way that preserves both essential theological doctrines and foundational facts of evolutionary biology. After showing in Chapters 5 and 6 how this might be done regarding the Incarnational doctrines of Jesus’s life and resurrection, we must now broaden our inquiry to analyze several important features of this evolutionary world that provide larger context for understanding the intersection of the Incarnation with evolutionary theory.

While the virginal conception of Jesus might be the most obvious Incarnational claim to investigate in light of biological science, there are many others. After all, the Incarnation is not simply a miraculous pregnancy and birth: it is the whole Christ event – the life, teachings, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus – a whole that we call the Grand Miracle. Woven into the larger Christian understanding of the Incarnation is a variety of topics – such as its own objective truth, our ability to know its truth, and its display of self-sacrificial love. Interestingly, some thinkers have tried to apply evolutionary theory to these sorts of topics, which ensures that our exploration of the relationship between Christology and biology must press on.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Darwin articulated his theory of evolution and thereby crystallized growing scientific suspicions that the diversity of organic forms – including humans – was produced by natural processes. Although tensions between science and religion since the dawn of modernity had been forcing thinkers in both disciplines to reassess their view of the status and meaning of being human, this new theory made our biological origins and development yet another occasion for religious response. Particularly orthodox Christians had to ponder whether humble animal origins were consistent with the high view of humanity as made in God’s image – and indeed what it would mean for God to have become a human being in the Incarnation. Darwinian theory was a seismic shift in our concept of the living world, one that has been augmented and confirmed many times over by advances in science. These matters are the subject of this chapter.

In Chapters 1 and 2, we described how we will approach the intersection of Christology and biology. We located our exploration within the larger theology–science debate, indicating our realist assumptions about both theology and science. We also examined different models of the theology–science relationship, ahead of exploring the prospect of integration between Christology and biology. In this chapter and the next (Chapter 4), we review the relevant claims in these two areas, respectively: the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation and the findings of evolutionary biology.