As well as an evangelist and missionary, Henry Drummond was a naturalist. After
Darwin published his monumental On the Origin of Species, controversy
exploded across Christendom, and Drummond was one of the first to address it
effectively. Fiercely dedicated to both Christian faith and scientific progress, he sought
to reconcile Darwin’s theory of evolution with the teachings of the Bible. In 1893,
Drummond delivered a series of lectures on perhaps the most controversial suggestion
of Darwin’s theory—that humans shared a common ancestor with apes. Today,
Drummond’s words remain just as controversial as they were a century ago, and human
evolution remains hotly debated throughout the church.