Our friend Barbara King, an anthropologist at The College of William & Mary, has just published her newest book, Being With Animals, looking at the complex and deep connection we have with the animal kingdom. King traces the evolutionary and spiritual history of the way we relate to animals—expressed through cave art and hunting, domestication (described as a process of mutual engagement), and various religious traditions—and shares some of her own personal history with monkeys, apes, and cats.
As she sums up the book:

The idea is WHY are we so obsessed with animals, HOW did that come about in evolutionary and religious contexts, and WHAT does it all mean for the ethics of our relating with animals?

At BioLogos, evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala has reviewed Discovery Institute fellow Stephen Meyer’s “intelligent design” book Signature in the Cell.
Here’s a snippet:

Meyer asserts that the theory of intelligent design has religious implications. “Those who believe in a transcendent God may, therefore, find support for their belief from the biological evidence that supports the theory of intelligent design” (p. 444). I do think that people of faith may find in the world many reasons that support their belief in God. But I don’t think that intelligent design is one of them. Quite the contrary. Indeed, there are good reasons to reject ID on religious grounds, in addition to scientific grounds. The biological information encased in the genome determines the traits that the developing organism will have, in humans as well as in other organisms. But humans are chock-full of design defects. We have a jaw that is not sufficiently large to accommodate all of our teeth, so that wisdom teeth have to be removed and other teeth straightened by an orthodontist. Our backbone is less than well designed for our bipedal gait, resulting in back pain and other problems in late life. The birth canal is too narrow for the head of the newborn to pass easily through it, so that millions of innocent babies—and their mothers—have died in childbirth throughout human history.
I could go on about human features that betray a design that certainly is not intelligent.

Craig Detweiler, director of the Center for Entertainment, Media, and Culture at Pepperdine University, has edited a new collection of essays that explore the theological implications of popular video games like Halo 3 and Resident Evil.
As he explains in the introduction to the book, Halos and Avatars:

With the arrival of James Cameron’s all-digital Avatar, more people have begun wondering how to navigate virtual worlds and video games. … Those searching for a cautionary tale will be disappointed by this book. Halos and Avatars aims to demystify the gaming universe and dignify the passions of the most active gamers. We believe in the theological possibilities contained within even the most debased pop culture.

Take a peek inside Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation by Michael Keller and illustrated by Nicolle Rager Fuller.