The year 2004 was the 120th anniversary of Lord Gifford's death. Exactly thirty years before his death Karl Barth held his Gifford lectures in Aberdeen. He confessed apologetically that he could not fulfil Adam Gifford's last will according to which natural theology should be propagated. Wentzel van Huyssteen was in a similar situation in 2004, because he also had to clarify how he interpreted Lord Gifford's original intention. Lord Gifford thought that the true knowledge of God arose in the same manner as scientific cognition. According to Wentzel van Huyssteen, though, in our age we can fulfil this good intention if we discuss the relationship of science and theology. This approach serves as a clear introduction to Wentzel van Huyssteen's lecture series.

It is worth starting the introduction to Wentzel van Huyssteen's book by recommending it to both natural scientists and theologians. If Lord Gifford were alive today, he would probably do the same, so we pay homage to his memory. Professor van Huyssteen of Princeton held his lectures at the University of Edinburgh, in the capital of Scotland, where science knew a great deal about the human being. The anthropology of today also asks itself the questions: where, when, how and why did humans come into existence? Natural science is able to provide serious answers to the first three questions. In this high level of scientific milieu something valid and authentic has to be said about human beings from the point of view of Christian theology. Since theology also asks: who or what is mankind, could theology say something which facilitates the progress of scientific anthropological knowledge? Van Huyssteen's book gives an affirmative answer to this question. It also asks in an implicit way as to whether modern anthropological knowledge can help theology in interpreting human beings. We get a positive answer to this question as well. Therefore I recommend the book to all.

In six chapters the book deals with the question of how we should understand the uniqueness of the human being. This unique character of mankind constitutes a formidable challenge for both natural science and theology. From here the chapters take us closer to the secret of humans step-by-step. The topic becomes more and more interesting and exciting, while the interdisciplinary dialogue also shows that both fields may benefit from mutually helping each other in their own advancement.

‘Human Uniqueness as an Interdisciplinary Problem?’ is a very important introductory chapter. Van Huyssteen grasps Lord Gifford's original intention with what we translate today as interdisciplinarity. We should approve of this. Thus human uniqueness appears as a topic of interdisciplinary dialogue both in the scientific approach and in Christian thinking. This is ensured by the concept of transversality as a heuristic device. The second chapter, ‘Human Uniqueness and Cognitive Evolution’, examines the problem of human uniqueness from the perspective of evolutionary epistemology. Darwin's theory of evolution is much more valued today by the world of science than ever before. Thus the theory of evolution also draws attention to the fact that with evolution not only humanity's self-comprehension has also developed, but that this development in itself has become a link between biology and culture. As evolution assigns a principal role to mankind, similarly mankind's metaphysical and religious inclination has a significant role. In that case, however, in the third chapter, entitled ‘Human Uniqueness and the Image of God’, we sense the proposition that Christianity also sharply emphasises the prominent position of the human being in the world with the teaching of ‘Imago Dei’ to be justified. This is very old biblical teaching. At this point we feel a convergence with the explanation of Homo Sapiens in biology. Both support the notion of human uniqueness. This prompts theology to rethink its extensive and elaborate teachings about ‘Imago Dei’, accumulated during the long history of Christian philosophy. In many cases these do not address the relationship of the human being with the created world. The fourth chapter, ‘Human Uniqueness and Human Origins’, which points to the features of the prehistoric human mind, further enhances our interest. The author presents the evolution of human consciousness or self-awareness from a palaeoanthropological point of view. If comprehension of humanity is inherent in the origin of mankind, then human uniqueness manifests itself in prehistoric man's self-awareness. Based on the cave findings in the Basque country and France, this self-awareness seems fluid, meaning that it must have carried within the option of transformation. This is the conclusion which could be drawn from the artistic imagery. We could state that the human mind has been creative since its earliest stages. It is no wonder that relatively early religion, art and science appear with their respective symbolic paraphernalia. The reader is presented with all this in beautiful, colourful cave drawings. But curiosity and the fifth chapter take us further. ‘Human Uniqueness and Symbolization’ leads us anew to an exciting topic: the cognitive activity of the human being comes into existence with the help of language. Language is the most expressive peculiarity of human existence. It is in connection with the scientific, artistic, religious activities, with its symbolic expressions, as well as the human being's intelligence and emotional world. This linguistic topic takes us further towards neuroscience and neuropsychology, which in turn provides us with even more knowledge about the justification of human uniqueness. In the last chapter, ‘Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology’, we reach the peak. Here we get to know the identity of the human being, named by Christian theology as ‘Imago Dei’ and by science as Homo Sapiens. The first chapter only asks whether human uniqueness is an interdisciplinary problem. Now, when we see the human being in his complexity we can ascertain that human uniqueness really is an interdisciplinary problem involving different sciences, although the human being still remains a secret! Moreover, as far as humankind is concerned, there are heaps of secrets ahead of us. For this reason Wentzel van Huyssteen's book, titled Alone in the World?, is an excellent book.