The Great Turning Point by Dr. Terry Mortenson

The Great Turning Point: The Church's Catastrophic Mistake on Geology--Before Darwin by Dr. Terry Mortenson ISBN-13: 9780890514085 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Master Books Released: September 28, 2004

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Publisher's Website:
Many people in the Church today have the idea that “young-earth” creationism is a fairly recent invention, popularized by fundamentalist Christians in the mid-20th century. Is this view correct? In fact, scholar Terry Mortenson has done fascinating original research on this subject in England, and documents that several leading, pre-Darwin scholars and scientists, known as “scriptural geologists” did not believe in long ages for the earth. Mortenson sheds light on the following:

• Before Darwin, what did the Church believe about the age of the earth?
• Why did it believe this way?
• What was the controversy that rocked the Church in 19th-century England?
• Who were the “scriptural geologists”?
• What influences did the Church contend with even before Darwin’s book?
• What is the stance of the Church today?

This book is a thoroughly researched work. The history of the Church and evolution is fascinating, and it is interesting to see not only the tremendous influence that evolution has had on the Church, but on society as well.


My Review:
The Great Turning Point is a look at the historical background of an ongoing debate in geology relating to the age of the earth and the origin of the various rock layers. The author explained the intellectual, religious, and cultural context of the debate, including what Bible commentaries were saying about Genesis. He also explained the marks of geological competence in the early 1800s. Personally, I found this section the most interesting.

The second part took a closer look at Granville Penn, George Bugg, Andrew Ure, George Fairholme, John Murray, George Young, and William Rhind. The author gave a short biography for each person and talked about how knowledgeable they were in geology, what they said about geology, their attitude toward the study of geology, their view of the relationship between Scripture and geology, about their writing, and more.

The book contained quotes from the writings of the scriptural geologists and of those against them so you could hear their positions in their own words. The information was well-footnoted so you could see where the quotes and information came from. The language was formal, and a lot of information was covered (information-dense). It took concentration to absorb everything, but it wasn't difficult to follow. If you're interested in this subject, then this book contains some very good information.


Read excerpt from chapter one.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it?