Thomistica has published recently my review of Prof. Andrew Davison’s Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine. An excerpt:
Davison’s book is divided into five parts: on creation, revelation and theological knowledge, the imago Dei, soteriology, and eschatology. Part I discusses the possibility of life—intelligent or otherwise—on worlds other than our own, all within the modality of the theology of creation. Are there other such worlds to begin with? The first chapter reviews theological perspectives on the answer to this question, from the ancient Greeks to pre-Big Bang astronomy. That Christian thinkers countenance intelligent life other than our own is explored in the second chapter’s discussion of angels. The third chapter treat of the nature of life, in particular how the term is used analogously. The fourth and final chapter of the first part of the book considers arguments from fittingness that the cosmos is not empty of biological life. The theme of what befits or what is “behovely” (204–205) recurs throughout the book.
John G. Brungardt 