Rethinking Human Nature: A Multidisciplinary Approach  . By MalcolmJeeves. GrandRapids , MI : William B. Eerdman's , 2011 . 337 pages. Softcover $38.00 .

Malcolm Jeeves, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of St. Andrews, has been a long‐time contributor to the theology‐science dialogue and continues his work here with a collection of essays on scientific and theological perspectives on human nature, the result of a 2006 symposium at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Although there are now a number of works that touch on questions of human nature in the field of theology and science, this volume is valuable for bringing to the table some fresh perspectives and disciplines not usually included in the discussion. In addition, the focus of many of the essays is the basic question of what makes us human and what separates us, both scientifically and theologically, from other animals and our evolutionary ancestors.

Two historical essays by Felipe Fernández‐Armesto and Fernando Vidal chart some of the history of thinking about human uniqueness. Fernándo‐Armesto indicates how the expansion of definitions of the human community to include ethnic others coincided with a progressive exclusion of nonhuman animals from moral consideration, while Vidal suggests that modernist separations of mind and body were not driven so much by Cartesianism as by ongoing debates concerning the doctrine of the resurrection during the scientific revolution and early modern period. These are followed by a collection of three essays on philosophical approaches by Jürgen Mittelstrass, Evandro Agazzi, and Franco Chiereghin. These share a common wariness of the influence and relevance of the sciences for addressing philosophical questions of human nature, drawing on Kantian perspectives, and raising issues of reductionism. A third section on human distinctiveness includes essays by Graeme Finlay, R. J. Berry, Malcolm Jeeves, and David G. Myers, and emphasizes insights from genetics, psychology, and (in Berry's article) the history of reception and current interpretation of Darwinian natural selection. The collection is rounded out by a single essay on archeology and paleoanthropology by Alison Brooks, two theological essays by Joel Green and Janet Martin Soskice, and an afterword by Malcolm Jeeves.

The essays that I found most valuable were those at the beginning and end of the collection. The historical essays develop novel interpretations (to this author anyway) of the history of psychology and thinking about human uniqueness, while also exploring resources, such as Robert Boyle's reflections on the resurrection and his critique of nature as a concept that deserves wider attention. Alison Brooks’s essay, while not breaking much new ground conceptually, nevertheless gives a very useful overview of the rapidly changing field of paleoanthropology. Joel Green's essay provides a minisystematic theology that takes into account the frameworks found in contemporary neuroscience and psychology, and connects them interestingly and provocatively to understandings of conversion and personhood as found in the Gospel of Luke and Paul's writings.

Emphasizing these works is not to disparage the others, which are themselves fine contributions and provide useful guides to the relevant areas of expertise. In addition, the volume has a clear developmental flow to it that suggests its appropriateness for college courses, and the clear prose should make the work accessible in an undergraduate course.

What, then, is missing? In a collection as ambitious as this one, it is easy to envision further contributions to provide greater breadth and depth. In terms of scientific fields, a contribution from primatology specifically would be useful, and a contribution that addresses more specifically the recent history of thinking in Anglo‐American philosophy would help to round out the philosophy contributions. In addition, there exists a more general question of whether the category of “human nature” is even useful. The question is addressed in a limited fashion by Soskice, who argues that sexual differences do in fact make a difference, questioning to what extent one can talk about a universal human nature. But Soskice's line of argumentation is relatively modest, and given the fairly robust suspicion of human nature claims in portions of the philosophical and religious academy, a more vigorous defense could be made. In some respects, one might argue that the collection as a whole suggests that argument, for although human nature is not itself a scientific concept, the question of defining a human nature is implicit in much of the scientific work that engages human being as a subject.

These are modest criticisms, however, and Jeeves has brought together a fine set of essays, defying the common wisdom that edited volumes do not sell. This one should, and it ought to provide a ready entry for those new to this area of theology‐science dialogue as well as some insights for those already working in the area.