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If Darwin Prayed


If Darwin Prayed appears to be a resource book. I'm not sure it's one I will use. Written by Bruce Sanguin, it is subtitled Prayers for Evolutionary Mystics.

Bruce offers prayers for every season in Church life. Are you looking for something that hasn't been overused for Christmas, Easter and everything in between? You'll find that here. But you may not like what you find.

Bruce begins by offering an explanation for what he has offered. He's just a pastor trying to ensure that prayers and liturgy offered up match what he believes to be true. But he's done a lot more than change 'thee' and 'thou' to 'you'. Convinced that Darwin was on to something and offered theology a gift when he made Christians consider how science and theology match up, Bruce decries that it's taken too long for our worship to catch up. Thus, the new prayers.

I'm sensing that my own bias is starting to come through. Yes, I believe I may have to differ with Bruce on his conclusions for what Darwin has offered as well as the veracity of evolution. But that's not my problem with this book.

The idea that other Christians may not believe exactly as I believe or live exactly as I live is not a scary thought. After all, if God can be creative enough to make all this diversity, I am small enough to celebrate it and not decry it.

My problem is that the focus of these prayers may not be on God.

It would seem that a resource like this that offers itself as beneficial to evolutionary mystics is more focused on the evolutionists and the mystics than it is God. What I mean is that, when we pray, if our prayers only remind us of what we already believe to be true, then it makes me wonder if that prayer is really a prayer. Perhaps it is. But maybe it is another manifesto of what we think.

It might be like the Calvinist who thanks God for being predestined or the Wesleyan who thanks God for potlucks. While those both may be true, should we pray details about us...or God?

Ever so slightly, the focus turns inward rather than God-ward. After reading several of the prayers, I couldn't shake the word agenda from my mind. The prayers themselves, if I heard them without the commentary of this book, might seem harmless. Having the author's purpose clearly in mind, however, it was hard to get past phrases like evolutionary grace, oneness with the Universe, and the constant pushing of a billion-year universe that has evolved over time.

While I enjoyed reading of a different perspective, I would have to search carefully before using anything in a worship service I was leading.

I received this book from my good friends over at SpeakEasy. They give me books and I say things about it. That's just what friends do.

Bruce's helpful companion site: http://ifdarwinprayed.com/

A YouTube introduction to the site, and book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGV1ZEZBd_I

#SpeakEasyDarwinPrayer
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