Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain [Paperback]

Threatened by the proliferation of cheap, mass-produced publications, the Religious Tract Society issued a series of publications on popular science during the 1840s. The books were intended to counter the developing notion that science and faith were mutually exclusive, and the Society's authors employed a full repertoire of evangelical techniques—low prices, simple language, carefully structured narratives—to convert their readers. The application of such techniques to popular science resulted in one of the most widely available sources of information on the sciences in the Victorian era.

A fascinating study of the tenuous relationship between science and religion in evangelical publishing,Science and Salvationexamines questions of practice and faith from a fresh perspective. Rather than highlighting works by expert men of science, Aileen Fyfe instead considers a group of relatively undistinguished authors who used thinly veiled Christian rhetoric to educate first, but to convert as well. This important volume is destined to become essential reading for historians of science, religion, and publishing alike.

Aileen Fyfeis a lecturer in the history of science and medicine at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Threat of Popular Science
Christian Knowledge
Reading Fish
The Techniques of Evangelical Publishing
The Ministry of the Press
Reinterpreting Science
Postscript
Appendix A: Biographical Sketches of RTS Writers and Staff
Appendix B: Volumes of the Monthly Series
References
Index

Threatened by the proliferation of cheap, mass-produced publications, the Religious Tract Society issued a series of publications on popular science during the 1840s. The books were intended to counter the developing notion that science and faith were mutually exclusive, and the Society's authol£ƒ