Darwinism and the Divine in America

Description

Originally published in 1988, Jon Roberts’s book provided the first comprehensive analytical overview of public dialogue among nineteenth-century American Protestant intellectuals who struggled with the theory of organic evolution. Before the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1859, most American Protestant intellectuals valued science, especially natural history, for supplying data that appeared to be invaluable for defending many major tenets of the Christian worldview. Arguments over the scientific merits of Darwin’s theory gave way to discussions of its theological implications. Roberts’s book reconstructs the course of that conversation from 1875 to 1900.

Author Bio

Jon H. Roberts is the Tomorrow Foundation Professor of American Intellectual History at Boston University. Darwinism and the Divine in America was awarded the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History.

Reviews

"Jon H. Roberts has scrutinized the response of Protestant apologists to this major challenge to their faith in such painstaking and exhaustive detail that his effort will surely stand as the book of record."— ~The Journal of American History