Nature's Prophet

This book is elegantly constructed and astoundingly well researched.  [ . . . ] If you are a person who is interested in the reconciliation between science and theology, you will find this work as a most interesting and useful contribution.'
—Metascience

'This is a nicely written book with style. Well researched, too. You could do worse than start into Wallace studies here.'
—The Quarterly Review of Biology

'Nature's Prophet is an astute study of Wallace's path to natural theology and provides a cogent account of a crucial—and often underappreciated or dismissed—element of Wallace's profound evolutionary worldview.'
—Martin Fichman, author of An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace and Evolutionary Theory and Victorian Culture

'This eminently readable book offers a powerful and sympathetic account of Wallace’s thought that helps to demolish the idea that there were ‘two Wallaces’, one a hard scientist and the other a gentle fool.  In so doing, it makes a novel contribution to a growing body of literature that challenges the dominance of the neo-Darwinian modern synthesis on multiple grounds.' 
—Kathleen Bolling Lowrey, Associate Professor, Anthropology, University of Alberta

'Alfred Russel Wallace has always stood in the shadow of Darwin. He deserves more credit than he is usually given, and Michael Flannery’s careful intellectual history, addressing with unprecedented evenhandedness both his contribution to the discovery of evolution by natural selection and his many controversial ideas, will go a long way to enhancing Wallace’s reputation. Regarded today and in his own time as something of a maverick, Wallace emerges in Flannery’s study as a gifted thinker who poses a creditable alternative to Darwin’s vision'
—Gary Ferngren, professor of history, Oregon State University, editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction and coauthor of Essential Readings in Medicine and Religion

. . . Flannery has provided not only a significant and much needed reexamination of Wallace, but also a fresh and helpful perspective for understanding the theory of natural selection and the extraordinary period in which it arose.’
—Fides et Historía

‘This thoughtful and clearly-written study of Wallace is refreshing and timely. Flannery sheds a sympathetic light on Wallace’s work, and at the same time provides new insights into Charles Darwin’s thinking and behaviour. Most importantly, he shows how the evolutionary ideas of Wallace have an enduring relevance to debates about evolution today. I strongly recommend this book.’
—Rupert Sheldrake, author of A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance and Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery

'Michael Flannery's Nature's Prophet is today one of the leading authorities on Alfred Russell Wallace. The book is a scholarly tour de force providing a detailed, comprehensive and sympathetic account of his scientific achievements and the development of his teleological world view over the span of his long life time.’
—Michael Denton, medical geneticist and author of Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe and Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis