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PETER J. BOWLER, Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Pp. 479. $40.00.
"Private theories about what the Bible ought to mean, and premature theories about what the world ought to mean, have met in loud and widely advertised controversy, especially in the Victorian time; and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion." So wrote the great G. K. Chesterton in 1933 reflecting upon the preceding half-century of debate between science and religion. Peter Bowler begins his dense study of the matter by noting that, Chesterton's quip notwithstanding, historians have mistakenly treated early-twentieth-century Britain as bereft of noteworthy interaction, friendly or otherwise, between science and religion. His book's eleven dense chapters stand as an attempt to tell this story that historians have neglected.
Just what story have they not told? By Bowler's account, a fascinating tale of liberal churchmen and theistic scientists eagerly pursuing reconciliation between science and religion, but ultimately failing to lay hold of their elusive goal. Although alienated during the Victorian era, science and religion in early-twentieth-century Britain sought reconciliation and debated the terms upon which compatible relations could be built, especially during the 1920s. During the 1930s, however, prospects for reconciliation unraveled in the face of totalitarian ideology, impending global war, and resistance from various conservative Christians...