Darwin provoked Jewish as well as Christian thinkers so that many felt obliged to establish
oppositional alternative synthetic or complimentary models relating Jewish religion to his
theory of natural selection. This book examines a range of leading nineteenth- and early
twentieth-century American progressive Jewish thinkers with the primary focus being rabbis
Kohler Wise Hirsch Krauskopf and Hahn although many others are covered. Key themes include
the widespread commitment to universal evolutionism that is the application of biological
evolutionary theory to other realms (e.g. history religion cosmic) and the particular
fascination with the evolution of ethical systems within human societies bearing in mind
mankind's bestial origins and the new challenges for understanding religious authority and
revelation. It is argued that Reform Jewish discussions about the nature of God have been more
profoundly shaped by engagement with evolutionary theory than has been recognized before and
that evolutionary thought provides the key framework for understanding Reform Judaism itself.
The precise nature of Jewish Reform engagement with Christian proponents of theistic evolution
are important as are their interest in alternative evolutionists to Darwin such as Spencer
and Haeckel.
