Pietro Caterini (1847–?), an Exemplary Opponent of the Evolutionary Origin of Man

In this paper, the author presents Pietro Caterini, who ranked among the important opponents of Mivert´s thesis among Catholic theologians in the 1870s and 1880s in Italy. He published 37 anti-darwinian studies in La Civiltà Cattolica and then a nearly 400 page long book with the same content. The author analyses in detail the above-mentioned book and discovers that not everything in Catherini´s argumentation can be viewed as unacceptable. We encounter bright places, e.g. the resolute refusal of racism, but also dark places, e.g. the unacceptable extent of the competence of the biblical message, which is sometimes understood in a nearly fundamentalist way.

Keywords: Evolution; Origin of Man; Darwinism; Theology of Creation; History of Theology; Exegesis; Old Testament; the Book of Genesis