Gloria Schaab, associate professor of theology at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida, offers in this book a trinitarian understanding of the God-world relationship based on contemporary evolutionary theory. Her assumption is that classical Aristotelian metaphysics based on the notion of substance is not flexible enough to accommodate an evolutionary understanding of physical reality. So she appeals to Aquinas's understanding of the divine persons as subsistent relations in his Summa Theologiae for her own claim that relationality governs the world of creation.

In part 1 Schaab sets out three different kinds of relations: relations of origin, of emergence, and of effect. The relation of origin “stems from the fact that various entities share a common source of being that inextricably binds them together ontologically and existentially” (49). The relation of emergence “refers to the reality that certain novel forms of life that emerge from more elemental forms of life are not reducible or explainable in terms of the forms or elements that preceded them” (50). The relation of effect “suggests that the entity is a unique outcome or effect of the relationship among the elements that constitute it, such that, without the relationship of the elements, the effect or outcome would not exist” (50). She then explains how each of these relations functions first within the cosmos as a whole, then in the nature, nurture, and progressive stages of human personhood, within the Christian understanding of the Trinity, and finally within the God-world relationship as a whole understood as panentheism instead of dualism (classical metaphysics) or monism (pantheism).

In part 2 of the book, Schaab shows how these closely connected forms of relationality are operative in an evolutionary understanding of the doctrines of creation, incarnation, and grace. The doctrine of creation, for example, clearly exhibits a relationship of origin in that the cosmic process comes from God as source of being, a relationship of emergence in that the whole of creation is more than the sum of its parts, and a relationship of effect in the indispensability of atoms and molecules for the gradual buildup of the cosmos through a combination of chance and law (necessity) in the cosmic process (222–23). The doctrines of incarnation and grace likewise reflect the interplay of these different forms of relationality.

Before any critique, one should first acknowledge the amount of work required to write a book of this nature. Relatively few books on religion and science contain as much detailed information on contemporary science, philosophy, and theology as this book. At the same time, one can ask whether Schaab has thought through the full implications of her basic thesis that relationality rather than substance is the key to her new cosmological scheme. For example, if relationships are more important than the entities thus related, do “things” still exist, or are all entities necessarily interdependent subjects-in-relation? Furthermore, if subjects-in-relation slowly change character as a result of their continuous being-in-relation, are subjects themselves still entities in the conventional sense or are they, like the divine persons, subsistent relations, that is, stable patterns of existence and activity within an evolving world? That being said, this book should be a “winner” in the undergraduate classroom, if only because science majors, philosophy majors, and theology majors should all find something attractive in it to think about and talk about with one another.