"Chance or Purpose?": Schönborn's new book arrives

My copy of Cardinal Schönborn's new book "Chance or Purpose: Creation, Evolution, and a Rational Faith" has just arrived from the Central Catholic Bookshop. As I supposed, it is an english translation of his catecheses on the subject which he gave in St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna some time ago. Only the first six were ever translated into English on the website--I guess then they suddenly thought that there might be some money in this and decided to hold off the rest until publication.

Anyway, the next three (makes a total of nine chapters) are in the book:

7. All Things were created for him (Col 1:16 -- Christ -- The Goal of Creation)
8. Subdue the Earth (Gen 1:28 -- Responsibility for Creation)
9. Summary and Prospect

Its a short little book. Only 180 pages or so. Good stuff though. Sorts out a lot of nonsense. If you find yourself getting into a debate with anyone on the topic of Creation and Evolution, give them this book to read first, and tell them to come back and discuss anything that this book didn't address. It will save a lot of mucking about with first principles.

An after thought: Is it significant that Schönborn called his book "Chance or Purpose?" rather than "Creation or Evolution?" Methinks yes. Does Purpose equal Intelligetn Design? Methinks no, for a given definition of both.