Thesis ID: CBB001567279

The Science of God's Creation: Popular Science and Christianity in the Early Republic (2011)

unapi

Santoro, Lily A. (Author)


University of Delaware
Heyrman, Christine Leigh
Boylan, Anne M.
Opal, Jason M
Boylan, Anne M.
Mohun, Arwen
Opal, Jason M


Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Advisor: Heyrman, Christine Leigh; Committee Members: Boylan, Anne M., Mohun, Arwen, Opal, Jason M.
Physical Details: 224 pp.
Language: English

Between 1776 and 1840, Americans experienced two key cultural shifts--the rise of evangelicalism and the popularization of the natural sciences. A growing number of Americans became more deeply wedded to the Bible at the same time that scientific ideas about the natural world became increasingly available to laypeople and pastors through schools, lending libraries, and periodicals. Early American popular culture celebrated a scientific approach to the "book of nature," using the natural sciences of the age--astronomy, geology, mineralogy, and natural history--to understand God's created world. This dissertation looks at the effects of these two developments upon lived religion in the early American republic by investigating how Christians in the early republic used and understood the natural sciences. While historians like James Turner and Mark Noll have explored theologians' responses to science, they have largely ignored the place of science in the lived religion of the early republic. How did average churchgoers of differing denominations view the relationship between the biblical and scientific accounts of the natural world? This dissertation addresses this question by looking at the writings of a broad range of Christians--lay churchgoers, students, and pastors--as well as the ways in which popular print culture represented the relationship between religion and science.

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Description Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 72/10, Apr 2012. Proquest Document ID: 884212358.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001567279/

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Authors & Contributors
Mathias Harzhauser
Stuart Mathieson
Christa Riedl-Dorn
Franz Brandstätter
Christian Koeberl
Thorson, Robert M
Concepts
Science and religion
Bible
Christianity
Geology
Natural history
Evangelicalism (Christianity)
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
17th century
20th century, early
Early modern
Places
United States
Middle and Near East
Boston (Massachusetts, U.S.)
London (England)
Netherlands
North America
Institutions
Victoria Institute
Project Apollo (NASA)
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
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