Scientific creationism and its associates such as “Intelligent Design” seem to be an American phenomenon. However, in a globalizing world, not only Hollywood movies are exported, but so too is creationism as a shibboleth for a particular variety of Christianity. Adherents consider creationist varieties of Christianity genuinely biblical or evangelical, though it is a modern phenomenon, with its roots in controversies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and not in the early phase of Christianity.

The book reviewed here presents creationism in Europe. Chapters deal with France, Spain and Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands), Scandinavia (in particular Denmark, Sweden, and Norway), Germany, Poland, Greece, Russia and its neighbors, and Turkey. The need for a chapter on Catholicism underlines that mostly it is a Protestant phenomenon. “Intelligent Design” is deemed worthy of a separate chapter, while the final chapter, by Peter Kjærgaard, deals with the rise of anticreationism in Europe. Nicolas Rupke, historian of science, contributes an “Afterword: Reclaiming Science for Creationism.” The Foreword is written by Ronald Numbers, the American scholar of creationism. The “Introduction: Creationism in Europe or European Creationism?” raises an important question, namely whether there is a distinct European form of creationism. If contrasted with the United States, the European scene is different. If considered more closely, the variety of voices in Europe is overwhelming—as the chapters document, the title could have been Creationisms in Europe.

I found this volume a valuable, very well‐documented survey of the field. Personally, I would have enjoyed more consideration of “why” questions. Why is it different in Europe, compared to the United States? What makes for all those intra‐European differences? The main frame here remains the question whether one accepts or rejects evolution, but there may well be other issues involved. Such an analysis would probably need to bring in issues of sociology of religion and secularization, but also an analysis of the consequences of safety nets in welfare states, the variety in models of neutrality of the state, and much else. The diversity in local contexts deserves closer scrutiny. With this book, I take the liberty to signal some publications in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science in recent years, on religion and science in Europe (Blancke ; Evers ; Kjærgaard ; Southgate ); the first and the third one are by editors of this helpful volume.