Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective [Hardcover]

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, evangelicals often took their place among prominent practicing scientists, and their perspectives exerted a considerable impact on the development of modern western science. Over the last century, however, evangelical scientists have become less visible, even as the focus of evangelical engagement has shifted to political and cultural spheres.

Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspectiveoffers the first wide-ranging survey of the history of the encounter between evangelical Protestantism and science. Comprising papers by leading historians of science and religion, this collection shows that the questions of science have been central to the history of evangelicalism in the United States, as well as in Britain and Canada. It will be an invaluable resource for understanding the historical context of contemporary political squabbles, such as the debate over the status of creation science and the teaching of evolution.

Introduction: Placing Evangelical Encounters with Science
Part I. Overview
1. The History of Science and Religion: Some Evangelical Dimensions,John Hedley Brooke
Part II. Orientations
2. The Puritan Thesis Revisited,John Morgan
3. Christianity and Early Modern Science: The Foster Thesis Reconsidered,Edward B. Davis
Part III. Theological Engagements
4. Science, Theology, and Society: From Cotton Mather to William Jennings Bryan,Mark A. Noll
5. Science and Evangelical Theology in Britain from Wesley to Orr,David W. Bebbington
6. Science, Natural Theology, and Evangelicalism in Early Nineteenth-Century Scotland: Thomas Chalmers and theEvidenceControversy,Jonathan R. Topham
Part IV. Specific Encounters
7. Scriptural Geology in America,Rodney L. Stiling
8. Situating Evangelical Responses to Evolution,David N. Livingstone
9. Telling Tales: Evangelicals and the Darwin Legenl£-