The ‘Scientific’ Interpretation of the Bible and the Victorian Conflict between Science and Religion
Historians of science and religion need to pay more attention to how historical-critical scholarship influenced perceptions of the relationship between science and religion in the Victorian era. In this paper, I would like to begin redressing this problem by examining how the rise of biblical critic...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Paternoster Press
2024
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| In: |
Science & Christian belief
Year: 2024, Volume: 36, Issue: 1, Pages: 7-30 |
| Further subjects: | B
Historiography
B Victorian Britain B Nineteenth Century B Sons B Science and religion B Bible B Biblical Criticism B SPENCER, Herbert, 1820-1903 B scientifical naturalism B Historical Jesus B Naturalism B VICTORIAN Period, Great Britain, 1837-1901 |
| Summary: | Historians of science and religion need to pay more attention to how historical-critical scholarship influenced perceptions of the relationship between science and religion in the Victorian era. In this paper, I would like to begin redressing this problem by examining how the rise of biblical criticism in general, and the issues of Christology in particular, had influenced views of the relationship between science and religion at the end of the nineteenth century. Indeed, almost all members and promoters of ‘scientific naturalism,’ including the Victorian coterie of the X-Club, Thomas H. Huxley, John Tyndall, and Herbert Spencer, among others, constructed their views on sciencereligion relations in response to historical-critical scholarship. Moreover, even the so-called ‘cofounders’ of the ‘conflict thesis,’ John W. Draper and Andrew D. White, were significantly affected by this literature. That is, developments in biblical criticism directly impacted how White, Draper, and others of their ilk understood the relationship between science and religion. By examining more carefully how historical criticism played a significant role in the thought of these writers during the Victorian period, I hope to relocate the origins, development, and meaning of the science-religion debate at the end of the nineteenth century |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Science & Christian belief
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