Theistic Evolution Contra Thomas Aquinas: A Response to Mariusz Tabaczek's Account of "Evolutionary Transitions"

This paper is a response to several claims made by Mariusz Tabaczek in his book Theistic Evolution (Cambridge 2024). It begins with a reiteration of the arguments by Michael Chaberek against the “Thomistic” version of theistic evolution. Then, the response by Tabaczek is presented. It is shown that the response is fragmentary and that it does not address some of the core issues raised by Chaberek. Next, the metaphysical concept of evolutionary changes as conceived by Tabaczek is presented. The remainder of the article concerns the problems of the presented concept. Among them there is lack of explanation of the origin of new substantial forms in biological macroevolution. Besides Tabaczek’s explanation contradicts Aristotelian-Thomistic account of animal generation as well as classic doctrine on hylemorphism. At the end some problems with logical consistency of Tabaczek’s explanation are indicated. The paper concludes that Tabaczek’s explanation of biological macroevolution cannot be called Thomistic by any reasonable standards.