What Exactly Was Darwin's Religion?

At first glance, that question may appear to pose an enigma. For the position that Charles Darwin believed in God is completely untenable. Yet it is certainly also true that Darwin was no arch-atheist.

Somewhere in between is Karl Giberson's attempt to imagine a more sympathetic Darwin by admitting that he was "neither a deathbed convert [as Lady Hope had claimed] nor lifelong crusader against belief in God. He was, in fact," according to Giberson, "a sincere religious believer who...