EN
The study is part of a research project focused on Catholic theologians and scholars who either accepted the evolutionary origin of the human body in accordance with Mivart’s thesis or denied it in years 1871–1910. The author presents the Padernborn exegete Norbert Peters (1863–1938) and a critical analysis of his book Glauben und Wissen im ersten biblischen Schöpfungsbericht (Gen 1:1–2:3), Paderborn: Verlag von Ferdinand Schöning, 1907. The above-mentioned author reacts to both the academic and popular writing of E. Haeckel. He argues as a biblical scholar that the description of the creation of man, as it is found in the first chapters of Genesis, is not an obstacle to openness to an evolutionary origin – the creation of the human body. Being a specialist in the Bible, however, he does not dare state whether this hypothesis is actually viable. The issue of the means of creation of the human body is, in his view, only a marginal question in theology. A methodologically highly disciplined approach can be observed, however, which is in many respects similar to the approach of contemporary Catholic theologians.