Podcast Summary:

New Books Network
Episode: Daniel R. Langton, "Darwin in the Jewish Imagination: Jews' Engagement with Evolutionary Theory" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Date: February 10, 2026
Host: Rabbi Mark Katz
Guest: Professor Daniel R. Langton

Overview

This episode features a deep dive into Daniel R. Langton’s new book, Darwin in the Jewish Imagination: Jews’ Engagement with Evolutionary Theory. The conversation explores how Jews from various backgrounds—Orthodox, Reform, secular, Zionist, and more—responded to Darwin’s theory from its Victorian origins through World War II. Langton highlights the distinctively creative, flexible, and sometimes surprising Jewish theological and cultural adaptations to evolutionary science across modern history.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Professor Langton’s Background and Motivation

• Langton introduces himself, tracing his family’s Jewish and Austrian roots, his training as a historian, and long-standing interest in Jewish-Christian relations and the interface of religion and science. Notably, he is not religious but heads a department of religions and theology in the UK.
• On the book’s genesis:
  • Spent 15 years on it, seeking to understand what Jews did with Darwinism, not just the ideas of Darwinism itself.
  • Motivation rooted in “how Jews have thought about the modern world” and how modern science, especially evolution—the “key battleground”—posed both threats and questions for religious thought.

    “It’s not really so much about Darwinism as what Jews have done with Darwinism, how they've thought about and engaged with it.” (02:41)

2. Darwin’s Theory and Its Religious Challenges

• Explanation of Darwin’s ideas:
  • Emphasis on natural selection as the key innovation—organisms compete for resources; those with favorable traits survive and pass them on.
  • This runs counter to many religious intuitions: involves chance, cruelty, extinction, and lacks teleology (goal/purpose).
• Key challenge for Jews and Christians:

  “…the big thing is that humans are seen as part of [the evolutionary] story… the idea that humans have evolved is always going to be the challenge.” (08:12)

3. Comparative Jewish and Christian Theologies: The Rise of Panentheism

• Langton asserts Jews had an easier time adapting to Darwin, due in part to panentheistic tendencies—seeing the world as within God but God as more than the world—and a less literalist, more interpretive approach to scripture.
• Distinctive Jewish flexibility:

  “Jews have a disproportionate and early tendency towards panentheistic thinking… All of the world is seen as within the divinity.” (09:42)

• Less systematized theology and a tradition of “wrestling with the texts rather than using them as kind of proof texts” fostered this openness.

4. Spectrum of Jewish Responses & Rationalism as a Selling Point

• Langton identifies a remarkable range of reactions to evolution among Jewish thinkers—Orthodox, Reform, secular, “non-Jewish Jews”—spanning from outright rejection to enthusiastic synthesis.
• Rationalism and modernity became part of Jewish identity:

  “We… Judaism are more rational than the Christians and that’s an old idea… more interested in trying to reconcile Judaism with evolutionary theory.” (15:44)

5. Beyond Physical Evolution: Morality, Culture & Progress

• Discussion turns to how Jews didn’t only discuss bodily evolution (physical anthropology), but applied the evolutionary paradigm broadly—to morality, culture, law, and religion itself:
  • Reform Jews and mystics both utilized evolutionary ideas to explain religious change and development.

  “…ethics is seen to evolve. Religions seen to evolve. Culture, law is seen to evolve. Crucially, Judaism is seen to evolve.” (20:15)

6. Shifting Openness: From 19th- to 20th-Century Jewish Thought

• Initial optimism, rationalism, and modernist engagement marked 19th-century Jewish responses.
• Post-World War II brought trauma, increased defensiveness, rise of Zionism, and a backlash against secularism among the Orthodox, leading to more literalist, insular positions:

  “…there’s a kind of trauma… After the Holocaust… a defensive, a little bit more suspicious… late 19th century… there was a lot more openness.” (22:05)

7. Memorable Thinkers & Anecdotes

• Anonymous Writer (possibly Abraham Benisch, Jewish Chronicle, 1861):
  • Tried to “scientifically” justify Genesis with reference to cloning, jellyfish reproduction, male lactation, and “Adam breastfeeding Eve”—more creativity than concordance!

    “I think once you’ve heard about the idea of Adam breastfeeding Eve, that does kind of stick in your head for a while.” (28:20)

• Naftali Levy:
  • A Maskil (Jewish Enlightenment figure), first to translate Darwin into Hebrew (1870s).
  • Interpreted Jewish tradition as hinting at evolution, e.g., equating nature and divine law (“nature said, let there be light”), demonstrating early panentheism.
  • Reflects openness within segments of the Orthodox community at the time.

8. Religion and Science: Synthesis vs. Separate Domains

• The “non-overlapping magisteria” model (Gould): Religion and science occupy separate domains.
• However, Jewish thinkers usually sought synthesis:

  “…most Jewish thinkers have aimed for some kind of synthesis, some kind of… way to reconcile or harmonize these ideas.” (35:32)

• Modern hardening of lines (e.g., the case of Nathan Slifkin, banned for reconciling evolution and Torah among Haredi Jews).

9. Race, Eugenics, and Zionist Modernity

• Jewish engagement with evolutionary theory intersected with eugenics and race science before WWII:

  “…people were saying… many types of Jews from all over the world are coming back [to Israel]… and this may shift us from a kind of scholarly, feeble, crouching European Jew toward this more muscular Jew…” (39:10)

• Langton was surprised to find evidence of Jewish eugenic thinking (distinct from Nazi eliminationism)—focused on “improving” Jews in body and mind.

10. Evolutionary Theory and the Problem of Evil

• Some thinkers, confronted by the Holocaust and the classic question of why bad things happen, found panentheism or process theology offered alternatives:
  • Mordecai Kaplan: God as a process, not a person. Evil stems from human moral evolution, not divine will.
  • Hans Jonas: God begins the process, then steps back; evil is a risk taken in creation.

  “So both of those thinkers end up saying the Holocaust and the problem of evil is due to humanity. Human decision-making, poor decision-making.” (46:05)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Jewish scriptural flexibility:

  “I describe it as wrestling with the texts rather than using them as kind of proof texts… There's less interest in reading literally.” — Langton (12:00)

• On 19th-century optimism:

  “…there’s a confidence in reason and progress. You could see evolution and engagement with science and modern philosophy as a way, a way for Jews to become part of wider society.” — Langton (22:15)

• On panentheism as a Jewish strength:

  “You’re less likely to say that God has a personality… You’re more likely to say that the laws of nature… are divine in some sense.” — Langton (10:34)

• On memorably creative exegesis:

  “Adam breastfeeding Eve… once you’ve heard about the idea of Adam breastfeeding Eve, that does kind of stick in your head for a while.” — Langton (28:20)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:47–03:05 | Langton’s bio, professional background, and research motivations
• 04:50–08:32 | Explanation of Darwin’s theory and theological implications
• 08:32–11:23 | Flexibility of Jewish theology; panentheism introduced
• 11:23–13:36 | Reasons for prevalence of panentheism and scriptural creativity in Judaism
• 14:20–16:26 | Jewish responses to Darwin across denominations
• 18:52–21:25 | Application of evolution to morality, religion, and culture
• 22:02–24:33 | Shift from optimism to defensiveness post-Holocaust, Zionism’s role
• 24:55–31:46 | Vivid examples: Adam breastfeeding Eve, Naftali Levy’s translations
• 32:29–37:23 | Synthesis versus separation of science and religion in Jewish thought
• 38:02–41:53 | Eugenics, Zionism, and the “new Jew”
• 42:29–46:23 | Evolutionary theory and the problem of evil, responses to the Holocaust
• 46:34–49:24 | Langton’s new research on antisemitism and its similarities to religion

Closing

The episode ends with Langton previewing his next project, analyzing antisemitism as a cluster of evolving ideas comparable to religion in its complexity and adaptability.

Recommended for listeners interested in:

• Religion and science dialogue
• Jewish intellectual and cultural history
• Modern interpretations of ancient texts
• The intersection of theology, philosophy, and societal change