Dawn: A Proton's Tale of All That Came to Be

DAWN: A Proton's Tale of All That Came to Be by Cees Dekker, Corien Oranje, and Gijsbert van den Brink. Translated by Harry Cook. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2022. 166 pages, discussion questions. Paperback; $22.00. ISBN: 9781514005668. *Imagine that you could witness the entire history of the universe first-hand, from the big bang to the end of time. Perhaps, if you were a sentient yet patient proton, you would have the necessary longevity and attention span, and this idea could become your reality. Such is the premise of Dawn: A Proton's Tale of All That Came to Be. "Pro," as the proton protagonist is known to his chatty neighboring subatomic particles, is born from quarks in the first second after the big bang, blind and knowing nothing, but with an insatiable curiosity about what is happening, and why. Conversations with other particles born a split-second earlier soon produce in Proton a deep admiration for a skilled Creator, and a sense of wonder and anticipation about what they have seen and what will happen next. *Throughout several chapters, Pro confusedly and vividly experiences the onset of light, nuclear fusion, a supernova, and incorporation into a molecule as part of a carbon nucleus. Pro ends up in the dust cloud that forms Earth, eventually witnessing the origin of terrestrial life as part of an RNA molecule. A rumor among the subatomic particles that the Creator wants to make personal contact with one of the creatures generates a guessing game as they witness the progress of evolution. Which lifeform will it be? *When Homo sapiens arrive on the scene, the story shifts to tracking biblical narratives, and the subatomic particles begin asking each other more theological questions. The Creator makes contact with two humans, a chieftain couple in Africa. The Fall ensues when the couple and their tribe reject the Creator's instructions, much to the subatomic particles' surprise and horror. Pro and his neighbors are then able to witness key moments in the progress of redemption, becoming fly-on-the-wall observers to events in the lives of several important biblical characters. "How is the Creator going to fix things?" the particles ask each other. *At this point it becomes apparent what a colossal challenge the three authors (a nano scientist, a novelist, and a theologian)1 have taken upon themselves. They have tried to produce a gripping narrative in which the protagonist does not know the outcome, but Christian readers will. They have set out to tell an entertaining story of the history of the universe from a Christ-centered perspective, filled with imaginative details that are consistent with modern science but also with the biblical witness. They have charged into a literary no man's land between fiction and nonfiction. *Do they succeed? In many ways, admirably so. The merging of science and biblical witness is skillfully accomplished, respecting the integrity of each source of knowledge. To readers of this journal, the idea of a Creator patiently guiding the evolution of the universe and of life over billions of years in order to generate Earth and its humanity, followed by the increasingly intimate involvement of that Creator in redeeming humanity, is familiar. To many others, this idea will be revelatory. *If evaluated as a work of fiction, it would be safe to say that Dawn is wildly imaginative, yet it is also strangely hindered by the passivity of the narrating subatomic particles. "Imagine that you yourself could determine where you would like to go" (p. 28), they muse just before the first protocell develops. Pro witnesses and experiences history but cannot intervene. The subatomic particles can react, but they have no agency in the macroscopic world. They do not embark on a quest or a voyage of self-discovery. "Just go with the flow" (p. 29), one advises. The tropes of fiction, however, are probably the wrong standards for evaluating this book. *Dawn succeeds, in the end, as creative nonfiction--the memoir of a proton. Along the way, it retells the old, old story in an imaginative way. The authors have created one of the most accessible books on science and Christianity to come out in recent years. Even young adults will be able to enjoy it. *Note *1Cees Dekker, distinguished nano-scientist at Delft University of Technology; Corien Oranje, novelist/theologian and author of Christian children's literature; and Gijsbert van den Brink, theologian and holder of the Chair of Theology and Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. *Reviewed by David O. De Haan, Professor of Chemistry, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA 92110.