Below are a number of books that help us set the relationship of religion (especially Christianity) and science (especially biological evolution) in their proper historical framework. Sections include:
- Science and Religion
- Evolutionary Theory
- Charles Darwin
- Works by Darwin
- Works about Darwin
- The Response to Darwinism
Science and Religion
Description
Written by distinguished historians of science and religion, the thirty essays in this volume survey the relationship of Western religious traditions to science from the beginning of the Christian era to the late twentieth century. This wide-ranging collection also introduces a variety of approaches to understanding their intersection, suggesting a model not of inalterable conflict, but of complex interaction. Tracing the rise of science from its birth in the medieval West through the scientific revolution, the contributors describe major shifts that were marked by discoveries such as those of Copernicus, Galileo, and Isaac Newton and the Catholic and Protestant reactions to them. They assess changes in scientific understanding brought about by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transformations in geology, cosmology, and biology, together with the responses of both mainstream religious groups and such newer movements as evangelicalism and fundamentalism. The book also treats the theological implications of contemporary science and evaluates recent approaches such as environmentalism, gender studies, social construction, and postmodernism, which are at the center of current debates in the historiography, understanding, and application of science. Contributors: Colin A. Russell, David B. Wilson, Edward Grant, David C. Lindberg, Alnoor Dhanani, Owen Gingerich, Richard J. Blackwell, Edward B. Davis, Michael P. Winship, John Henry, Margaret J. Osler, Richard S. Westfall, John Hedley Brooke, Nicolaas A. Rupke, Peter M. Hess, James Moore, Peter J. Bowler, Ronald L. Numbers, Steven J. Harris, Mark A. Noll, Edward J. Larson, Richard Olson, Craig Sean McConnell, Robin Collins, William A. Dembski, David N. Livingstone, Sara Miles, and Stephen P. Weldon.
Reviews
"An essential purchase for any library that does not have the larger volume."—Library Journal
"This work is both accessible and authoritative. Editors have taken pains to make sure the writing is consistently approachable and the scholarly depth of the individual contributors in certainly more than adequate to label this volume authoritative."—Research News and Opportunities in Science and Technology
"Ferngren is to be commended for conveying the vitality and influence of science and religion through this series of excellent contributions from leading authors in the field."—Fraser F. Fleming, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith
"Ferngren offers us a selection of essays by leading specialists on the most important issues in the history of science and religion. I know of no other book that so gracefully introduces the reader to this burgeoning field."—Ann Blair, Harvard University
Evolutionary Theory
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (New York: The Modern Library, 2004; with a new afterword, 2006).
Edward J. Larson (JD, Harvard University; PhD, University of Wisconsin) is an American historian and legal scholar. He is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University and was formerly Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia. Professor Larson specializes in law, science and technology, and health care law. The author of five books and over forty published articles, Professor Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine, and law from an historical perspective. He received the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History his work on the “Monkey Trial” of 1925 (see below).
Description
“I often said before starting, that I had no doubt I should frequently repent of the whole undertaking.” So wrote Charles Darwin aboard The Beagle, bound for the Galapagos Islands and what would arguably become the greatest and most controversial discovery in scientific history. But the theory of evolution did not spring full-blown from the head of Darwin. Since the dawn of humanity, priests, philosophers, and scientists have debated the origin and development of life on earth, and with modern science, that debate shifted into high gear.
In this lively, deeply erudite work, Pulitzer Prize–winning science historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin’s “dangerous idea,” from its theoretical antecedents in the early nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and Wallace, to Watson and Crick’s stunning discovery of the DNA double helix, and to the triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising sociobiology today.
Along the way, Larson expertly places the scientific upheaval of evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian ethos of “survival of the fittest”; the emergence of Social Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to today’s world, where religious fundamentalists litigate for the right to teach “creation science” alongside evolution in U.S. public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in new and surprising directions.
Throughout, Larson trains his spotlight on the lives and careers of the scientists, explorers, and eccentrics whose collaborations and competitions have driven the theory of evolution forward. Here are portraits of Cuvier, Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Galton, Huxley, Mendel, Morgan, Fisher, Dobzhansky, Watson and Crick, W. D. Hamilton, E. O. Wilson, and many others. Celebrated as one of mankind’s crowning scientific achievements and reviled as a threat to our deepest values, the theory of evolution has utterly transformed our view of life, religion, origins, and the theory itself, and remains controversial, especially in the United States (where 90% of adults do not subscribe to the full Darwinian vision). Replete with fresh material and new insights, Evolution will educate and inform while taking readers on a fascinating journey of discovery.
Reviews
"Larson masterfully takes us from the 18th century French enlightenment to the 21st century evolution wars. From Buffon and Cuvier, through Darwin and Wallace, to Dawkins, Gould, and Wilson, he provides a scholarly, readable history of the ups and downs of the theory of evolution. Larson shows us how firmly this theory is established, as firmly as Einstein's theory of relativity."
—Duncan M. Porter, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project
"Larson has written a brilliant introduction to the history of evolution, equally sensitive to scientific, religious, and social factors. It is, hands down, the most readable and reliable account available."
—Ronald L. Numbers, Hilldale and William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. Department of Medical History and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin
"Ed Larson is both a historian and a writer who knows how to bring his subject alive. In Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory he combines the latest historical scholarship with an understanding of recent issues in science, religion and social debate. This powerful book will help everyone understand the foundations of modern evolutionary ideas and the origins of the latest controversies."
—Peter J. Bowler, Queens University Belfast
"An indispensable guide to the sometimes weird, but always wonderful, world of Evolution. Every species inhabiting this contested territory is here: Darwinian materialists, Lamarckian progressivists, hopeful-monster mutationists, theistic evolutionists, neo-vitalists, six-day creationists, mathematical geneticists, intelligent designers, molecular reductionists and on and on. Yet this is no monochrome chronicle of disengaged scientific ideas. It is a rich and compelling narrative portrayed in glorious technicolour, as grand and sweeping in scope as the theory of evolution itself. In the struggle for shelf-life among publications on evolution, Edward Larson?s book is superbly fitted for long-term survival."
—David N. Livingstone, author of Darwin's Forgotten Defenders: The Encounter Between Evangelical Theology and Evolutionary Thought
“Larson’s acclaimed gifts as a writer who can make the history of science exciting to a wide audience are visible again. The story, which takes seriously the cultural meanings of new science, has many twists and turns and is told with humor and vivacity.”
—John Hedley Brooke, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion, University of Oxford
Read an Excerpt from Larson's Evolution CHAPTER 1, Bursting the Limits of Time
Courses from The Teaching Company on the History of Evolutionary Theory
The Teaching Company brings engaging professors into your home or car through courses on DVD, audio CD, and other formats. Since 1990, great teachers from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted over 250 courses for lifelong learners like you. It's the adventure of learning without the homework or exams. (Editor's note: all courses go on sale periodically throughout the year. The sale price is significantly reduced and worth waiting for.)
The Darwinian Revolution
The Darwinian Revolution—24 absorbing lectures by award-winning Professor Frederick Gregory of the University of Florida—introduces you to the remarkable story of Darwin's ideas, how scientists and religious leaders reacted to them, and the sea of change in human thought that resulted.
Course information
The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy
What makes evolution such a profoundly provocative concept, so convincing to most scientists, yet so socially and politically divisive? The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy is an examination of the varied elements that so often make this science the object of strong sentiments and heated debate.
Professor Edward J. Larson leads you through the "evolution" of evolution, with an eye toward enhancing your understanding of the development of the theory itself and the roots of the controversies that surround it.
Course information
Charles Darwin
Works by Darwin
The Origin of Species by Natural Selection
Read this classic with expert commentary at your side, either in book form (Browne, Richards and Ruse, Peters and Hewlett), blog form (John Whitfield), or lecture (Robert Richards).
Books on "The Origin"
Janet Browne, Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography (Books That Changed the World) (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006). Amazon
Browne (PhD, Imperial College London) is a zoologist and historian of science. She had taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London, before moving to Harvard University, where she serves as Aramont Professor of the History of Science. She is a renowned biographer of Darwin. Biosketch
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It may seem peculiar to write a biography of a book, but Darwin's Origin of Species is certainly a worthy subject. A foremost Darwin biographer, Browne takes a straightforward approach to the life and times of this famous tome, beginning with Darwin's early years and journey around the world. She then explains how he developed his theory of evolution (a word that doesn't appear in the first edition) during his years as a country scientist. Darwin included an unusual chapter on things he couldn't yet explain with his theory. On publication, the book gained instant celebrity around the globe—even Queen Victoria took notice of it, though she mused that the book would be too difficult for her to understand. In her discussion of the storm the book aroused, Browne makes the fascinating point that Darwin highly respected his American friend Asa Gray, whose views were very similar to those of today's advocates of intelligent design. Browne's final chapter on the book's legacy isn't comprehensive, but it's a good summary of subsequent modifications to Darwin's theory. This excellent introduction is highly recommended for all readers who want to better understand the heated debates that this book still causes today. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Browne is probably the most knowledgeable living Charles Darwin expert. Author of a two-volume biography detailing his remarkable and influential life, she now presents a biography of the book that made Darwin a household name, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859). Browne's contribution to the Books That Changed the World series is written with verve as she emphasizes the immediacy of the book's impact as Darwin shattered the biblical Creation story with a theory elegant in its simplicity. Naturally, religious leaders and other believers in faith over facts challenged the book's evolutionary vision. But Darwin's logic withstood all scrutiny. A mild man with a relentlessly curious, profoundly scientific mind, Darwin never intended to upset his world's moral values, nor could he have imagined that his book would transform Western thought. Steve Weinberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Robert Richards and Michael Ruse, eds, The Cambridge Companion to the 'Origin of Species' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Amazon
Product Description
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is universally recognized as one of the most important science books ever written. Published in 1859, it was here that Darwin argued for both the fact of evolution and the mechanism of natural section. The Origin of Species is also a work of great cultural and religious significance, in that Darwin maintained that all organisms, including humans, are part of a natural process of growth from simple forms. This Companion commemorates the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species and examines its main arguments. Drawing on the expertise of leading authorities in the field, it also provides the contexts - religious, social, political, literary, and philosophical - in which the Origin was composed. Written in a clear and friendly yet authoritative manner, this volume will be essential reading for both scholars and students More broadly, it will appeal to general readers who want to learn more about one of the most important and controversial books of modern times.
Robert Richard (PhD, University of Chicago) is Professor of History, Philosophy and Psychology at University of Chicago Biosketch
Michael Ruse (PhD, University of Bristol), is Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, Florida State University. He is a philosopher of science, specializing on the philosophy of biology, and is well known for his work on the argument between creationism and evolutionary biology. He has published extensive on the topic. He has published and edited over 20 books and numerous articles. See CV here. Wiki Biosketch
Ted Peters and Martinez Hewlett, Theological and Scientific Commentary on Darwin's Origin of Species (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008). Amazon
2009 marks the 150th anniversary of the first edition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Natural Selection. Upon the publication of the first edition of Charles Darwin's work, science woke up to startling possibilities and religion woke up to a frightening challenge to its very existence. Because of Darwin's book, petulant scientists rewrote history to depict an ongoing "warfare" between science and religion, representing themselves as the victors. Religious leaders fought and continue to fight back.
Within the world of scientific research, Darwin's theory of evolution did win. Although itself modified and adapted, evolution's basic principles of natural selection and variation in inheritance remain firmly in place. However, the implications for religious belief are still being sorted. Beginning in the late 19th century, a vigorous brand of atheism has used Darwin's model as ammunition in its attack of religious faith. Theologians and church leaders have had to clear away the debris of Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Atheistic Materialism. Yet, the question remains, does Darwin's theory undermine religion? In order to get at a precise assessment, we need to distinguish the essential science of Darwin from ideological overlays.
Dr. Hewlett reviews the scientific milieu in which Darwin wrote, the scientific acceptance of the work and its continued importance and fruitfulness. He also addresses the philosophical implications of the theory that continue to reverberate.
Dr. Peters gives an overview of the conflict between the various interpreters of Darwin that culminates in today's versions of Creationism, Intelligent Design, Theistic Evolution, Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Atheistic Materialism. He also highlights theological implications of Darwin's text.
The CD-ROM will contain the complete text of the 6th edition of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Natural Selection.
Peters (PhD, University of Chicago) is Professor of Systematic Theology, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, UC Berkeley. A former Parish pastor, Rev. Peters is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). He directed the Science and Religion Course Program at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences and has authored numerous books and articles. Dr. Peters is Co-editor of Theology and Science.
Hewlett (PhD, University of Arizona) is Professor Emeritus, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Arizona. He is also an adjunct professor at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology of the Graduate Theological Union. He is interested in the philosophy of science as well as the interface between science and theology. Homepage.
Summary of Darwin's Origin in the New Scientist
Darwin's masterpiece revisited
11 November 2009 by Steve Jones
This month marks the 150th anniversary of the most influential piece of popular science writing ever published. A few years ago, New Scientist listed reading On The Origin of Species as one of the 100 things to do before you die. To do so is to experience the extraordinary sensation of having a scientific genius enter your mind to guide you through his most important theory. Now we have asked the geneticist, evolutionary thinker and author Steve Jones to summarise and update the book for the 21st century - and, we hope, to inspire readers to experience Darwin's astounding, world-changing writing first-hand
UNIQUE among scientific theories, evolutionary biology finds its roots in a popular book by a single author. The grey-bearded genius presented a new and radical view of existence: that life has changed over time and space, in part through a simple process called natural selection.
Charles Darwin called his work "one long argument". To a 21st-century reader it seems lengthy indeed, with only a single illustration to enliven its 150,000 words. But Darwin was a clear thinker and the book is an impressive piece of advocacy, moving from the familiar - how animals on farms have changed - to the less so, embryos and instinct included.
Darwin also shows how what might seem to be problems for his argument, such as the uncanny perfection of complex structures like the eye, are in fact part of the solution, and how apparent weaknesses in his case - the incomplete nature of the fossil record included - can easily be explained. Now and again he was wrong, as when, unaware of Gregor Mendel's work on genetics, he claimed that inheritance is based on the mixing of bloods, but mostly he was right.
Darwin described the process of evolution as "descent with modification". Today that might be rephrased as "genetics plus time". Offspring resemble their parents because they inherit DNA from them, but the copying process is not precise. Every round has errors, or mutations, and although they are individually rare - with perhaps one or two mutations in working genes each generation in humans - they can soon build up vast diversity. A copy of a copy is always imperfect, and for that reason alone, evolution is inevitable.
Darwin had a second insight. He saw that if a certain variant allows its carriers to survive, to mate and to pass on their heritage more successfully than others, in later generations it will spread. Such inherited differences in the chances of reproduction allow creatures to adapt to changing circumstances and can, in time, give rise to new forms of life. Natural selection, as he termed it, is a factory for making almost impossible things.
Full-text here at the New Scientist
Blog on Darwin's Origin by John Whitfield
John Whitfield has a PhD in evolutionary biology and is a London-based free-lance science writer whose works have appeared in Nature, Science, Scientific American, Seed, New Scientist and others. Below is the opening of his first "virtual book club" post.
Hi! My name is John. I've got a PhD in evolutionary biology, and I've spent much of the past decade writing about evolutionary ideas, as applied to everything from literary criticism, to language, to anti-terror policy, and even on occasion to biology. And I've got a confession - I've never read the Origin of Species.
Do I shock you? Good.
I am not proud of this (really, I'm not), but if my professional life has been less stellar than it might have been, it's not for want of reading Darwin. Here's why. Darwin was working at the dawn of biology. He had none of the specialist knowledge and techniques that have come to dominate the study of evolution, such as genetic and mathematical analyses. And the specialist knowledge he did deploy -- such as about animal breeding -- is little used by today's professional scientists. More generally, biology erases its past more effectively than any other science. E still equals mc2, and is likely to do so for some time, likewise F=ma, or any other physical law or mathematical proof you could name. But biology, with the exception of Darwin's theory, has always been more about the data, and data are temporary.
Another factor/excuse I could point to is that the essence of the theory of evolution by natural selection is so gloriously simple -- inheritance, plus mutation, plus selection, equals evolution -- that I've never felt compelled to tackle 400-plus pages of what I fear may be turgid Victorian prose to be convinced. While wanting or needing to read something are both good motives for picking it up, nothing is more likely to suck the fun out of a book than the feeling that you ought to read it.
None of this is meant to suggest that it's better not to have read Darwin, of course, just to illustrate that it's possible to have a professional relationship with evolution while remaining ignorant of its foundations.
Nevertheless, you wouldn't be much of a Marxist if you'd never read Das Kapital, or a Freudian if you'd never read The Interpretation of Dreams.
Finish the first post: Coming Out
Lectures on "The Origin"
Robert J. Richards (PhD, University of Chicago). Biosketch
"Darwin’s Origin and Descent of Man" is a highly informative course on Darwin and his evolutionary theory given at the University of Chicago in the Fall of 2008. The course comes in both audio and video formats.
Roberts has also composed for the University of Chicago Darwin webpage a brief biography of Darwin and an introduction to On the Origin of Species.
Contains Darwin's complete publications, 20,000 private papers, the largest Darwin bibliography and manuscript catalogue and hundreds of supplementary works: specimens, biographies, obituaries, reviews, reference works and much more.
Darwin exchanged letters with nearly 2,000 people during his lifetime. These range from well known naturalists, thinkers, and public figures, to men and women who would be unknown today were it not for the letters they exchanged with Darwin.
Works about Darwin
Frank Sulloway
"Why Darwin rejected intelligent design." J. Biosci. 34(2), June 2009, 173–183.
As a Cambridge University undergraduate Charles Darwin was fascinated and convinced by the argument for intelligent design, as set forth in William Paley’s 1802 classic, Natural Theology. Subsequently, during his five-year voyage on HMS Beagle (1831–1836), Darwin interpreted his biological findings through a creationist lens, including the thought-provoking evidence he encountered during his historic visit to the Galápagos Islands in September and October 1835. After his return to England in 1836 and his subsequent conversion to the idea of organic evolution in March 1837, Darwin searched for a theory that would explain both the fact of evolution and the widespread appearance of intelligent design. His insight into the process of natural selection, which occurred in September 1838, provided this alternative explanation. Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) exemplifies his skillful deployment of the hypothetico-deductive method in testing and refuting the arguments for intelligent design that he had once so ardently admired.
Full-text pdf
"The Evolution of Charles Darwin." Smithsonian, December, 2005, pp. 58-69. Online essay Introductory essay
David Quammen
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (New York: Atlas Books/Norton , 2006).
David Quammen, a Yale graduate and a Rhodes scholar, is an award-winning science, nature and travel writer whose work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, Outside, Harper's, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times Book Review. He wrote a column, called "Natural Acts", for Outside magazine for fifteen years.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Charles Darwin took 20 years to write his theory of natural selection: he produced On the Origin of Species only on learning that he was about to be scooped. Was he a chronic procrastinator? Or was he afraid of the reaction of his peers, who had scorned earlier books on the "transmutation" of species? A bit of both came into play, but as acclaimed science journalist Quammen (Song of the Dodo) shows, during those two decades, Darwin was busy conducting scientific research that would bolster his observations of the finches and mockingbirds of the Galápagos Islands. He raised pigeons and theorized that domestic varieties could be traced back to a species of wild dove. He floated asparagus seeds in saltwater to explain how plants moved from one continent to another. Quammen commences his portrait with Darwin's homecoming from his five-year trip on the Beagle and then focuses on how he gained enough confidence and evidence to publish a book that would displace humankind from its privileged position as a special creation. This often slyly witty book stands out among the flood of books being published for Darwin's bicentenary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
David Quammen takes up Darwin's story after the Beagle landed on English shores, a decision that allows the author to tighten his focus on the conundrum that presented itself to the famed scientist: when to let his discovery out of the bag? Though critics point out that the price of such concision is a lack of context, they agree that Quammen does an admirable job of giving information where it is needed and galloping over gaps for the story's sake. Those hoping for a more comprehensive tome on natural selection should look elsewhere (perhaps to Quammen's The Song of the Dodo or The Flight of the Iguana), but this entry in Norton's Great Discoveries series delivers an entertaining, enlightening glance at one of the world's most influential thinkers.
Kevin Padian, professor of integrative biology and curator of the Museum of Paleontology, UC Berkeley, writes: "David Quammen has produced the best short biography of Charles Darwin that I have ever read--or can imagine reading. This is no rehash of the commonplace but a fresh and original look at one of history's greatest scientists, writen by one of our very best science writers. This is where all students of evolution and science in general should begin their study of Darwin."
Sean Carroll, author of The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), writes: "A rich, dramatic story brought to life by a gifted and entertaining storyteller. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin captures the exciting conception, prolonged gestation, and difficult birth of Darwin's great idea and demonstrates, once again, David Quammen's special feel for the natural history that inspires our curiosity."
Excerpt: Here Quammen compares Darwin's launching the theory of evolution to a kiwi laying an egg:
The kiwis are small -- no bigger than an overfed chicken.…
A female brown kiwi weighs less than five pounds. Her egg weighs almost a pound -- constituting, that is, about 20 percent of her total weight. Among some kiwis, the egg-to-body weight ratio reportedly reaches 25 percent. A female ostrich, by contrast, lays an egg weighing less than two percent as much as herself. Certain other avian species -- hummingbirds, for instance -- lay more ambitious sing-egg packages than ostriches, but few if any match kiwis. Relative to her body size on a standard with other birds, the brown kiwi's egg is about six times as big as it should be. It contains also a disproportionate allotment of yolk, on which the chick will survive just after hatching. This egg takes 24 hours to develop and, once it has, fills the female like a darning egg fills a sock. Having gorged herself for three weeks to support the growth of such a large embryo, during the last two days she stops eating. There's no room in her abdomen for another cricket.
"Sometimes the egg-bearing female will soak her belly in puddles of cold water," according to one source, "to relieve the inflammation and to rest the weight." She is painfully replete with motherhood.
It seems impossible. How can she carry this thing? How can she deliver? Will it reward her efforts and discomforts, or rip her apart? …
The point is simply metaphor. Every time I see that X-ray of the mama kiwi, I think: There's Darwin during the years of gestation.
More by David Quammen
Desmond and Moore
Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (New York: Warner Books, 1991).
Adrian Desmond and James Moore are the world's authorities on Darwin's life—the authors of a dozen books between them on Darwin and evolution.
Adrian Desmond studied at London University and Harvard, has higher degrees in vertebrate palaeontology and the history of science, and a PhD for his work on Victorian evolution. He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Biology Department at University College London. His study of the pre-Darwinian generation, The Politics of Evolution (1989), received the Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society. In 1993 the Society for the History of Natural History awarded him its Founders' Medal. James Moore, an historian of science at the Open University and the University of Cambridge and visiting scholar at Harvard University, is noted as the author of several biographies of Charles Darwin. He was brought up in a fundamentalist family in Chicago with the idea that Charles Darwin was an enemy of God. As a Cambridge research scholar and a member of the teaching staff at the Open University, he has studied and written about Darwin since the 1970s, co-authoring with Adrian Desmond the major biography Darwin, and also writing The Darwin Legend, The Post Darwin Controversies, and many articles and reviews.
Awards: This book won many awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in Britain, the Grand Comisso Prize in Italy and the Watson Davis Prize from the History of Science Society in America. In 1997 the British Society for the History of Science awarded it the first Dingle Prize for the best book of the decade in communicating the history of science to a wide audience.
From Publishers Weekly
Invaluable for its day-to-day account of Charles Darwin's activities, this monumental biography keenly conveys the English naturalist's struggle to make evolution and natural selection acceptable by presenting them as the bedrock of Victorian middle-class values. Using a trove of previously untapped material, the authors illuminate Darwin as a freethinking agnostic fearful of being labeled an anarchist, a scientific titan trapped on a literary treadmill, a voyager on the Beagle appalled at "low" races of savages, and a paterfamilias who subordinated women but was completely dependent on his wife. Above all, British authors Desmond (The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs) and Moore, the editorial consultant to Cambridge University's Darwin Letters Project, plunge readers into the controversies of the era as parson-hating biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, socialist Alfred Russell Wallace, free-market capitalists and radical atheists bent Darwinism to their own purposes. Photos. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
In 44 chapters with copious notes and massive details, Darwin scholars Desmond and Moore give a rich portrait of the gentleman naturalist and scientific theorist from a sociocultural framework emphasizing Whig-Tory conflicts and Lyellian-Malthusian speculations. The authors reveal that Darwin was particularly influenced by the evolutionary ideas of zoologist Robert Grant; the implications of fossil Argentine megatheriums, speciated Galapagos mockingbirds, and the incredible varieties of barnacles; as well as experimentation with cultivated plants and animals. Despite a doting wife, loyal friends, and belated honors (though he was never knighted), Darwin's life was filled with illness, disappointment, and tragedy (especially the death of daughter Annie at age ten). This impressive volume makes clear that Darwin suffered from a lifelong schizoid struggle between his own materialist science and a late-Victorian theology...Essential reading for evolutionists, Desmond and Moore's monumental work is highly recommended for all academic libraries. BOMC, History Book Club, and Quality Paperback Book Club alternate selections.- H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.Y. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009) by Adrian Desmond and James Moore (see above for more on these authors).
An astonishing new portrait of a scientific icon
In this remarkable book, Adrian Desmond and James Moore restore the missing moral core of Darwin’s evolutionary universe, providing a completely new account of how he came to his shattering theories about human origins.
There has always been a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? It’s difficult to overstate just what Darwin was risking in publishing his theory of evolution. So it must have been something very powerful—a moral fire, as Desmond and Moore put it—that propelled him. And that moral fire, they argue, was a passionate hatred of slavery.
To make their case, they draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, unpublished family correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships’ logs. They show how Darwin’s abolitionism had deep roots in his mother’s family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America—from the rise of scientific racism at Harvard through the dark days of the Civil War.
Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin’s time argued that blacks and whites had originated as separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin abhorred such "arrogance." He believed that, far from being separate species, the races belonged to the same human family. Slavery was therefore a "sin," and abolishing it became Darwin’s "sacred cause." His theory of evolution gave all the races—blacks and whites, animals and plants—an ancient common ancestor and freed them from creationist shackles. Evolution meant emancipation.
In this rich and illuminating work, Desmond and Moore recover Darwin’s lost humanitarianism. They argue that only by acknowledging Darwin’s Christian abolitionist heritage can we fully understand the development of his groundbreaking ideas. Compulsively readable and utterly persuasive, Darwin’s Sacred Cause will revolutionize our view of the great naturalist.
Praise for Darwin’s Sacred Cause
"Desmond and Moore’s fascinating new look at Darwin forces us to revise and expand the way we look at this revolutionary figure, and to see him wrestling with moral as well as scientific questions. And it is a reminder of just how much the issue of slavery loomed over everything in the nineteenth century, including even fields that were apparently far distant." —Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold’s Ghost and Bury the Chains
"This exciting book is sure to create a stir. Already widely admired for their pathbreaking biography of Charles Darwin, Desmond and Moore here give an entirely new interpretation of Darwin’s views on humankind, bringing together scholarship and sparkling narrative pace to explore theories of ape ancestry and racial origins in the Victorian period. Darwin’s part in making the modern world will never be the same again!" —Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging
Interview with the authors about their book
Janet Browne
Charles Darwin: Voyaging A Biography (vol 1 of 2) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
E. Janet Browne (PhD, Imperial College London) is a zoologist and historian of science. She had taught at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College, London, before moving to Harvard University, where she serves as Aramont Professor of the History of Science.
From Publishers Weekly
The centerpiece of this vivid portrait of Darwin, the first volume of a two-volume biography, is an account of his five-year expedition on the Beagle (1831-36), which transformed a seasick, Cambridge-educated science apprentice into a keen observer of nature and amateur geologist. Drawing on a wealth of new material from family archives, Brown masterfully recreates the personal, cultural and intellectual matrix out of which Darwin's evolutionary theory took shape. We glimpse many facets of Darwin: the failed medical student; the laid-back undergraduate; the impassioned abolitionist; the explorer roping cattle with gauchos on the Argentine pampas; the chronically ill country squire, the patriarchal husband and reluctant atheist whose devout Anglican wife, Emma, disapproved of his theory of human origins. Browne, an English historian of science and associate editor of Darwin's Correspondence, captures the spirit of a quietly revolutionary scientist whose ingrained Victorian prejudices were at odds with his radical ideas. Photos. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
After editing eight volumes of Darwin's correspondence (available from Cambridge University Press), Browne has many new insights into this complex figure. Her new book, the first volume in a planned two-volume biography, describes Darwin's childhood, education, his voyage on the Beagle, family life, and early researches to 1856, as he begins serious work on his "species book." As in Adrian Desmond and James Moore's Darwin (LJ 5/15/92), Darwin is seen more as a product of his society than in some previous biographies. Desmond and Moore delve more deeply into Darwin's university days than does Browne, while she provides a more detailed account of his Beagle voyage. While calling any Darwin biography "definitive" may be a bit optimistic, this work is certainly an important contribution to the literature on Darwin. Highly recommended for both academic and general collections.
Bruce Neville, Univ. of Texas at El Paso
Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (vol 2 of 2) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003).
From Publishers Weekly
When Browne published her first volume on the life of Darwin seven years ago (Charles Darwin: Voyaging), she secured her reputation as the last word on the Victorian naturalist. Now she has published the much-anticipated second half, and it is more spellbinding than the first, which ended on a cliffhanger of sorts. Darwin was back from his Beagle voyages, his famous evolutionary principles were distilled in his mind and the Bible-centered science of his day was about to be convulsed forever. Here, Browne picks up the story a year before the publication of On the Origin of Species, with the arrival of a package from Alfred Russel Wallace, whose own ideas on natural selection virtually mirrored Darwin's, forcing him to go public; as Browne shows, he proved himself a master tactician of institutional and media spin. Browne's subject is monumental, but her writing style is never overburdened by the weight. Rather, her prose is elegant in its clarity of thought, her craftsmanship impeccable in the way it weaves a coherent whole from the innumerable threads of thought, experience and persona that comprised this colossal life. Darwin's science, Browne contends, was characterized by his systematic use of correspondence, which the author puts to effective use in her narrative, again illustrating how the naturalist's thought was as much the collective product of his day as it was its single-most intellectual catalyst. Readers are left with the image of the sailor returned home to dig in his garden, stare into the past and, in dying, slip into legend. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This volume concludes a magisterial biography. The first volume, Charles Darwin: Voyaging, examined how the young Darwin formed his ideas. Now Browne, a zoologist and historian of science, offers a frank, comprehensive, and detailed account of the last half of Darwin's life (1858-82), focusing on both his major contributions to natural history and his pioneering researches into many biological subjects, ranging from orchids and insectivorous plants to the inheritance of characteristics and earthworms. She stresses the serious scientific and theological controversies that surrounded the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) and emphasizes the great value Darwin found in his relationships with like-minded naturalists such as Charles Lyell, Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Besides all the facts, ideas, and events, the reader also discovers the human side of the scientific father of organic evolution. Of special interest is Browne's attention to Darwin's quiet family life at Down House, including insights into his voluminous correspondence and debilitating ill health. In this very impressive volume, Darwin emerges as a modest and private genius consumed with the need to understand the complexities of life forms through critical observation and persistent experimentation. Highly recommended for all academic and public science collections. H. James Birx, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Keith Stewart Thomson
Keith Thomson (PhD, Harvard) is emeritus professor of natural history at the University of Oxford and a senior research fellow of the American Philosophical Society. He writes a column for the American Scientist called Marginalia. Biosketch
Review
"The image of Darwin as the doddering old sage of Down, taking his daily constitutional walks about the backyard sand path thinking deep thoughts about the philosophical implications of evolution, has become so iconic that we forget what he was like in his youth and prime. Keith Thomson has brilliantly resurrected the young Charles Darwin, revealing the inchoate mind of a genius in the early stages of countless starts and stops, hunches and hypotheses. This compelling narrative reminds us of how creativity and insight really begin."-Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist Scientific American, author of Why Darwin Matters (Michael Shermer ) Product Description
What sort of person was the young naturalist who developed an evolutionary idea so logical, so dangerous, that it has dominated biological science for a century and a half? How did the quiet and shy Charles Darwin produce his theory of natural selection when many before him had started down the same path but failed? This book is the first to inquire into the range of influences and ideas, the mentors and rivals, and the formal and informal education that shaped Charles Darwin and prepared him for his remarkable career of scientific achievement.
Keith Thomson concentrates on Darwin’s early life as a schoolboy, a medical student at Edinburgh, a theology student at Cambridge, and a naturalist aboard the Beagle on its famous five-year voyage. Closely analyzing Darwin’s Autobiography and scientific notebooks, the author draws a fully human portrait of Darwin for the first time: a vastly erudite and powerfully ambitious individual, self-absorbed but lacking self-confidence, hampered as much as helped by family, and sustained by a passion for philosophy and logic. Thomson’s account of the birth and maturing of Darwin’s brilliant theory is fascinating for the way it reveals both his genius as a scientist and the human foibles and weaknesses with which he mightily struggled.
Darwin and Religion
Introductory Essay: Professor John Hedley Brooke
Brooke is a Professor of Science and Religion within the Faculty of Theology at Oxford, who was asked to write this introduction by the Executive Committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. Biosketch
What did Darwin have to say about religion? What were his religious, or anti-religious, beliefs? Did he believe that his theory of evolution by natural selection was incompatible with belief in a Creator? Was it his revolutionary science that turned him into an agnostic? These questions have a special urgency in 2009, the year that marks the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his most celebrated book, On the Origin of Species (1859). It is important to answer them in a balanced way because Darwin’s authority and example are continually invoked to justify metaphysical and theological claims that go far beyond the details of his evolutionary biology and that of his scientific successors. Darwin’s great gift to science was to show how an explanation could be given for what had been described as the mystery of mysteries, the successive appearance of new species discernible in the fossil record. If new species could emerge from pre-existing species by a process of natural selection, it was no longer necessary to suppose there had been what Darwin called independent acts of creation. For atheists and scientific materialists the plausibility of Darwin’s theory was a particularly welcome gift because it could be used to dispel the notion of divine intervention in nature and to challenge the long-cherished belief that each species had been separately and meticulously designed by its Creator. Not surprisingly, there was much apprehension and some downright hostility among religious believers, which in ultra-conservative religious circles still continues today. Darwin’s theory has certainly proved divisive within Christendom; but a long tradition of assimilation and accommodation suggests that some at least of Darwin’s insights have been received as a gift by religious thinkers as well as scientists. As the nineteenth-century Anglican theologian Aubrey Moore put it, under the guise of a foe Darwin had done the work of a friend, liberating Christianity from a false image of the deity in which God was only present in the world when intervening like a deus ex machina.
There is no simple answer to questions about Darwin’s religious sympathies. This is partly because they changed over time.
Full-text >>
Darwin and Religion
Darwin is more famous, and more notorious than ever. Nowhere is this more evident than in the ongoing controversies over science and religion. Today's debates, from the teaching of intelligent design in schools, to questions of free will and human values in light of modern research in genetics, have deep roots in the nineteenth-century controversies surrounding Darwin's work on evolution. Yet Darwin is most often used in ways that distort or oversimplify his views. He is misquoted or misrepresented in order to support a particular position. Whose Darwin is the true Darwin, and what are the implications of his theory for the present?
To help address this question in an informed way, the Darwin Correspondence Project at the University of Cambridge is producing a new web resource. Our aim is to provide a unique, complete, and reliable source of information on Darwin and religion. Darwin’s letters provide a unique resource for recovering the complexities of discussion in his own day, and for studying the impact of his theories on people from a wide range of backgrounds. The picture that Darwin’s letters present of his personal beliefs, and of the implications of his theory for religious belief generally, is much richer than that given in his published works, or indeed in most modern scholarship.
Darwin exchanged letters with nearly 2000 correspondents in the course of his life, including professional scientists, schoolteachers, colonial settlers, missionaries, and plant and animal breeders. At least 200 of his correspondents were clergymen, some of whom were personal friends and many of whom provided Darwin with data for his publications. He often relied on information and support from scientific colleagues who had strong religious convictions, and he was approached for advice on the implications of his work for morality and religious belief. The letters show that Darwin's work could mean many different things to different people. Some saw Darwinism as a threat to religion, but many found ways of reconciling their beliefs with an evolutionary view of nature.
The Darwin and religion site is also unique in providing primary historical sources, together with explanatory and interpretive material from experts in a wide range of fields. This material is provided in three forms. Detailed footnotes to the letters make Darwin's private discussions with his contemporaries understandable to general readers. Specially commissioned essays and interviews with scientists, theologians, philosophers, and historians provide commentaries on the historical material and its relevance to current debates. A dramatisation of the correspondence between Darwin and the American botanist Asa Gray, brings the Victorian debate about science and religion to life.
The material is organised thematically, with sections on design, personal belief, ethics and society, the boundaries of science and religion, and the conduct of debate. There is considerable scope for the future development of specifically targetted educational materials at all levels. Users will eventually be able to sign up to use a work group space on the website which will allow exploration and discussion of the material with the option of making their work public.
Our intention is to provide an authoritative, durable, multi-media resource that will lay to rest some misunderstandings and misrepresentations that have found currency on the web and in popular culture generally, to promote well-informed debate, and to arrive at new insights through the engagement of the present with the past.
Book: Nick Spencer, Darwin and God (London: SPCK, 2009). Amazon UK Amazon US Excerpts
Product Description
'A very helpful discussion of a neglected and important subject' Mary Midgley. Nick Spencer draws on Darwin's autobiography, manuscripts, notebooks and letters - as well as his world-famous publications - in exploring Darwin's view of design, purpose, morality, the universe and the human mind. The author argues that, although Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection did undermine his Christian faith, it was the age-old problem of suffering - first in theory, then through the dreadful loss of his favourite child - that caused it to break down. Darwin and God is the first full-length account of Darwin's religious beliefs to be published in the UK. Meticulously-researched, it presents a moving, compelling and tumultuous story of one of the world's greatest scientists.
About the Author
Nick Spencer is Director of Studies at Theos, the public theology think tank. He has written a number of books, most recently (with Bob White) Christianity, Climate Change and Sustainable Living, and is the author (with Jonathan Chaplin) of God and Government (SPCK, forthcoming).
Author Interview: Nick Spencer joined the gang at St. Paul's Theological Centre, London, 18 June 2009, for a "God Pod" discussion on his book. In this conversation, Nick explores Darwin's own faith and the impact of Darwin's theories on Christian theology.
Although Charles Darwin made significant contributions to modern science, the implications of his theories on religious thought are also of great interest. What better way to explore this timely issue than through Darwin's own religious journey?
In this intellectually provocative documentary film, director David Wollert personalizes one of the great controversies of the modern era. The viewer is asked to take Charles Darwin's faith journey.
Incorporating voice-overs from his journals and autobiography, the film traces Darwin's personal and professional life as it documents his transition from theism, to deism, to agnosticism.
Supportive of both evolution and religion, Paradise Lost tells the story of one man's struggle to comprehend a world explained both by religion and by the science that bears his name.
Professor's Documentary On Charles Darwin Honored by the American Library Association
BLOUNTVILLE, TN - In the shouting match between proponents of Darwin's evolutionary theories and those who demonize him, the story of his own religious faith is lost. How might Darwin's own struggles illuminate today's discussion of his ideas?
Northeast State biology professor David Wollert found the topic so compelling that he wrote and directed a documentary film entitled Paradise Lost: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin. Apparently others find the topic just as interesting. The film was recently named "Editor’s Pick" by Library Journal, the official journal of the American Library Association.
Wollert was admittedly surprised by the honor. Over 100,000 libraries and institutions subscribe to the journal. Amongst thousands of submissions, only a few titles each year are singled out as “Editor’s Pick,” and these are usually books, rather than films. “I was pleased just knowing that they wanted to review it,” he says.
More -->>
Writer/Director
Originally from Louisville, Kentucky, David Wollert received a B.A. in biology from the University of Louisville. Following completion of a M.S. in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Tennessee, he worked in the Health Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where he performed human health risk assessments associated with exposures to environmental waste at several DOE sites. A strong interest in education led him back into teaching and a faculty position at Black Hawk College in Moline, IL. He and his wife Michele eventually returned to East Tennessee, and he has been at Northeast State since 2000.
REVIEWS
Ravonne Green, Library Journal: Writer/director Wollert reflects on Charles Darwin's complex personality and his digression from his earlier years as an orthodox theist to his latter years as an agnostic. Even though Darwin had trouble understanding God, he paradoxically continued to support Christian causes such as shelters for alcoholics and missionary and evangelistic efforts of his day. There have been few people who have had a greater influence on the fields of science, theology, sociology, and philosophy than Charles Darwin. This DVD is exceptionally well done and would be an asset to any library collection.
Dr. Theodore N. Thomas, Milligan College: David Wollert's film, Paradise Lost: The Religious Life of Charles Darwin, seeks to present Charles Darwin, not as an enemy of Christian faith, nor as a secular saint of science, but as a nineteenth century scientist whose research, whose personal losses, and whose religious reflections turned him into "an honest and vulnerable human being in a state of perpetual soul searching." Wollert paints a sympathetic picture of a man whose own evolution led him from Christianity into deism, and then into agnosticism—but never atheism. Paradise Lost is a serious piece of work. The film is beautiful. People who are struggling with issues of faith and a scientific worldview will find this sympathetic treatment of Darwin instructive. I will see to it that our college library adds this documentary to its permanent collection, and will recommend to our Communications Area that students of film become acquainted with this example of rhetoric and artisanship.
On Alfred Russel Wallace
From NSCE: Amid the hoopla as the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of the Origin of Species approach, it is good to be reminded of the contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace, who also formulated the idea of evolution by natural selection. "Wallace's story is complicated, heroic, and perplexing," as David Quammen writes in "The Man Who Wasn't Darwin" (published in the December 2008 issue of National Geographic). "[M]ost people who know of Alfred Russel Wallace know him only as Charles Darwin's secret sharer, the man who co-discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection but failed to get an equal share of the credit," Quammen explains.
But Wallace is worthy of attention in his own right: "Besides being one of the greatest field biologists of the 19th century, he was a man of crotchety independence and lurching enthusiasms, a restless soul never quite satisfied with the place in which he lived," Quammen adds.
In addition to the article, Quammen recently discussed Wallace in a November 5, 2008, lecture at Montana State University, which is now available as a podcast.
The Response to Darwinism
Edward J. Larson (JD, Harvard University; PhD, University of Wisconsin) is an American historian and legal scholar. He is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. He was formerly Talmadge Chair of Law and Russell Professor of American History at the University of Georgia. Professor Larson specializes in law, science and technology, and health care law. The author of five books and over forty published articles, Professor Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine, and law from an historical perspective. He is a Pulitzer Prize winner (see below).
Reviews
"Larson...ably illuminates the legal and constitutional issues...yet he is admirably aware that what transpires in state houses and law courts usually reflects larger social forces." ---The New Republic
"The main contribution of the book is that it traces clearly the legal controversies surrounding evolution and creationism in American high schools, but readers will also enjoy a vivid retelling of personal credos, political machinations, pedagogical developments, and other historical circumstances surrounding the vicissitudes of 'public science' in the schools."---Science
"The merging of several disciplines in a single scholar proves unusually rewarding to the treatment of creationism in American education. Whatever the outcome of the current cases...the need for a scholarly assessment of antecedents and prospects in this area has never been clearer." ---Journal of Law and Religion
Product Description
Trial and Error traces the coverage or lack thereof, of evolution in textbooks used in American public schools from the mid-1800s to the present. While the teaching of Darwinian evolution was common and not controversial in the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, the debates between evolutionists and creationists, those who argue that the Biblical theory of origins deserves equal treatment, have flared throughout the twentieth century--first in the 1920s, most famously in the Scopes trial; again in the 1960s, when the regional legislation banning the teaching of evolution was overturned, notably in Arkansas and Louisiana; and throughout the 1980s with various controversies over science textbooks, including California. Larson proposes to bring the subject up to the present through a discussion of recent trends, including the "intelligent design" movement, led by Phillip Johnson, a revised form of anti-evolutionism that gained popularity on college campuses; the impact of Michael Behe's versions of evolution; and debates over what counts as evidence for and against evolution--all of which have influenced debates over science standards, particularly at state and local levels. This new chapter will chronicle anti-evolution actions in Kansas and elsewhere and counter-actions by the National Academy of Science and others anti-creationist groups. This updated classic work presents a balanced historical interpretation of legal and educational debates over evolutionism, and will appeal to those interested in the fields of history, religion, science, and law.
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion (New York: Basic Books, 1997). Winner of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History
Edward J. Larson (JD, Harvard University; PhD, University of Wisconsin). See above.
Description
Amazon.com
If you haven't seen the film version of Inherit the Wind, you might have read it in high school. And even people who have never heard of either the movie or the play probably know something about the events that inspired them: The 1925 Scopes "monkey trial," during which Darwin's theory of evolution was essentially put on trial before the nation. Inherit the Wind paints a romantic picture of John Scopes as a principled biology teacher driven to present scientific theory to his students, even in the teeth of a Tennessee state law prohibiting the teaching of anything other than creationism. The truth, it turns out, was something quite different. In his fascinating history of the Scopes trial, Summer for the Gods, Edward J. Larson makes it abundantly clear that Truth and the Purity of Science had very little to do with the Scopes case. Tennessee had passed a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution, and the American Civil Liberties Union responded by advertising statewide for a high-school teacher willing to defy the law. Communities all across Tennessee saw an opportunity to put themselves on the map by hosting such a controversial trial, but it was the town of Dayton that came up with a sacrificial victim: John Scopes, a man who knew little about evolution and wasn't even the class's regular teacher. Chosen by the city fathers, Scopes obligingly broke the law and was carted off to jail to await trial. What happened next was a bizarre mix of theatrics and law, enacted by William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution and Clarence Darrow for the defense. Though Darrow lost the trial, he made his point--and his career--by calling Bryan, a noted Bible expert, as a witness for the defense. Summer for the Gods is a remarkable retelling of the trial and the events leading up to it, proof positive that truth is stranger than science.
From Booklist
Few courtroom dramas have captured the nation's attention so fully as that played out in 1925 when Tennessee prosecuted John Scopes for teaching evolutionary science in the classroom. Seventy years later, Larson gives us the drama again, tense and gripping: the populist rhetoric of Scopes' chief accuser, William Jennings Bryan; the mordant wit of his defender, Clarence Darrow; the caustic satire of the trial's most prominent chronicler, H. L. Mencken. But as a legal and historical scholar, Larson moves beyond the titanic personalities to limn the national and cultural forces that collided in that Dayton courtroom: agnosticism versus faith; North versus South; liberalism versus conservatism; cosmopolitanism versus localism. Careful and evenhanded analysis dispels the mythologies and caricatures in film and stage versions of the trial, leaving us with a far clearer picture of the cultural warfare that still periodically erupts in our classes and courts. Bryce Christensen.
More from Larson
- A video lecture at Case Western Reserve University on October 16, 2008, entitled “From Dayton to Dover: A History of the Evolution Teaching Legal Controversy in America.” YouTube Link
Ron Numbers (PhD, UC Berkeley) is Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently is president of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science/Division of History of Science and Technology. He is past president of both the History of Science Society and the American Society of Church History. Professor Numbers has published several books on the history of science and is coediting an eight-volume Cambridge History of Science.
Review
This is an interesting, important, and concise book by a top-notch historian of science. It deals primarily with the late-19th- and early-20th-century reception of Darwinism in the United States as experienced by scientists, scientific organizations, and religious organizations...[Numbers's] underlying thesis is that the reception of Darwinism was neither as revolutionary as evolutionists say, nor as insignificant as the creationists say. Numbers argues that, in fact, there was much internal debate within both sides over the scientific meaning of "evolution" and the biblical interpretation of "creation," and therefore these was actually a constellation of views within both camps...This relatively slim volume really covers a lot of uncharted territory in six short chapters; it includes chapters on the Scopes trial and the evolutionary debate within the Seventh Day Adventist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches. Accessible to general readers and all academic levels, this is a priority acquisition for well-established history of science and religious history collections.
--R. F. White (Choice )
In this short, but pithy, book, historian Ronald L. Numbers documents the reception of Darwinism in America, both within scientific circles and among the general public...Numbers does a superb job of detailing Adventist, Holiness, and Pentecostal responses to Darwinism. He shows how and why, at the time of the Scopes trial, few "biblical literalists" interpreted the Bible as claiming a recent creation in six 24-hour days, but by the late 20th century young-Earth creationism had become the dominant form of organized antievolutionism in America...Throughout the book, Numbers confronts what he calls myths or misperceptions that have infiltrated the popular consciousness of the history of Darwinism.
--Laurie R. Godfrey (Science Books & Films )
Review
Numbers's carefully researched study helps us understand the origin of the wide-ranging attitudes towards creation and evolution found among conservative Christians today. Darwinism Comes to America is a worthy successor to The Creationists.
--Eugenie C. Scott, National Center for Science Education
David N. Livingstone (PhD, Queen's University Belfast). Following graduation, he continued at Queen's as a Research Officer and Lecturer, becoming Reader and then full Professor. He has held visiting professorships at Calvin College, Michigan, University of British Columbia, University of Notre Dame, and Baylor University.
From Library Journal
Tracing the Christian response to evolution from the mid-19th century to the present, Livingstone finds accommodation to have been more common than confrontation. Nineteenth-century theologians concentrated upon reconciling evolutionary thought with the existence of a Divine plan for the universe. It was only with the rise of Fundamentalism, which saw evolutionary theory as an attack upon the authority of scripture and as yet another of the modern forces demolishing society's old values, that a split between religion and science developed. Hence, Livingstone concludes, this split is not necessary. While not as comprehensive as James R. Moore's The Post-Darwinian Controveries, this is an excellent work. D. Stephen Rockwood, Mount Saint Mary's Coll. Lib., Emmitsburg, Md. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Darwinism and its Discontents (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Michael Ruse (PhD, University of Bristol), is Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, Florida State University. He is a philosopher of science, specializing on the philosophy of biology, and is well known for his work on the argument between creationism and evolutionary biology. He has published extensive on the topic. He has published and edited over 20 books and numerous articles. See CV here. Wiki Biosketch
From Publishers Weekly
Ruse, a well-known evolutionary historian and philosopher, defends Darwin from all comers, whether religious critics; those who, like Gertrude Himmelfarb, have accused Darwin of being a second-rate scientist; or postmodernist critics who say science is a social construction and not objective truth. Ruse (Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?) expounds on why he accepts evolution as fact. Though he doesn't buy the argument that all science is merely a social construct, he acknowledges that Darwinism holds a mirror up to the times and reflects contemporary thinking, and he looks at the forms Darwinism has taken in philosophy, literature and popular culture. Some readers may think that Ruse, who freely and frequently admits that he isn't a Christian, doesn't quite provide a level playing field on which to confront some of his intellectual opponents, in particular the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga and the atheist scientist Richard Dawkins. Still, Ruse's agnosticism keeps him from being doctrinaire ("Perhaps there is a God on the other side... I do not know"). Some readers will struggle with Ruse's occasional philosophic density. Nevertheless, this should interest fans of the philosophy of science and readers caught up in the contemporary debate about evolution. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Reviews
"Anyone who wants to understand evolutionary theory and the fascinating issues that surround it, can find no better place than Michael Ruse's Darwinism and Its Discontents. He discusses the objections raised to evolutionary theory down through the most legitimate to those that are anything but legitimate. His discussions are fair, measured and informed. High school students, undergraduates and the public at large would find this book worth reading."
--David Hull, Northwestern University
"Of all the literally hundreds of books out there that claim to have the true, right or only line on Darwin, Ruse has the beating of them all. He shows the wonder in both the natural world and Darwin's efforts to understand it."
--Allan C. Hutchinson, Toronto Globe and Mail
"Darwinism and Its Discontents is vintage Ruse: clear, incisive, focused on fundamental and controversial topics, written with verve. Michael Ruse is a philosopher, comfortably at home with the biology, and sensitive to the religious controversies."
--Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine
"Ruse is unique in his combined knowledge of evolutionary principles, history of science, philosophy, and theology, and he brings them all to bear with clarity and effect in evaluating the present-day status of evolutionary thought."
--Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University
"The enemies of a thorough-going Darwinism are many: fundamentalists who think it a damnable doctrine; social-constructionists who would drain away its blood; and even some evolutionary biologists who balk at taking the last step. Over the years, Michael Ruse has engaged them all with scholarship, intelligence, and wit--his most potent weapon. Now in a more synthetic mode, Darwinism and Its Discontents brilliantly marshals these instruments to disarm the recalcitrant and convince the fair minded. The book displays a humane thinker who yet flexes muscle and moxie."
--Robert J. Richards, University of Chicago
"Darwinism and Its Discontents is Ruse's most comprehensive look at Darwinism to date...He negotiates the terrains of history, philosophy, and theology well enough to offer cogent versions of the central issues and their multiple sides...For an introduction to the mainstream Darwinian view and its wider context, one might not find a better entrée than Ruse's account."
--Horace L. Fairlamb, University of Houston-Victoria
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