Evolutionism(s) and creationism(s)

Abstract

Contemporary creationisms, opposed to the Darwinian theory of evolution, are characterized by a rhetoric diversity (literalist creationisms, “scientifi c” creationisms, evolutionist creationisms) that should not conceal their doctrinal unity. Any attempt to explain the natural world int terms of a willing and surpernatural force driving it is, in the broad sense [of the term], a creationism. This chapter deals with the diversity of creationisms, and more specifi cally with the approaches labeled “evolutionist creationism” (or “theist evolutionism”) – to which intelligent design belongs. The suggested typology is illustrated by an analysis of the Vatican’s current positions on the Darwinian theory of evolution since the famous 1996 speech of Jean-Paul II before the Pontifi cal academy of sciences.