Today, theistic evolution and an unexpected connection to Lafferty's unpolished “Claudius and Charles.” By the time I was growing up, most Catholics had made their peace with theistic evolution, an ongoing attempt to bring Christian theology into harmony with the modern synthesis . That effort is not new, and it long predates Darwin. Early Church Fathers like St. Augustine of Hippo spoke of rationes seminales , or “seminal reasons.” He believed that God had placed hidden pote