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GLADSTONE, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE DISCIPLINE OF HISTORY, 1840–1896

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2020

JONATHAN CONLIN Open the ORCID record for JONATHAN CONLIN [Opens in a new window]
JONATHAN CONLIN*
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
*
School of Humanities (History), Avenue Campus, University of Southampton, Southamptonso17 1bf[email protected]
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Abstract

Between 1885 and 1891, the Liberal statesman William Ewart Gladstone debated the scientific status of the Book of Genesis with the natural historian Thomas Henry Huxley in a series of articles published in the Nineteenth Century. Viewed in isolation, this episode has been seen as a case of a professional scientist dismissing an amateur interloper. This article repositions this familiar dispute as one chapter in Gladstone's lifelong engagement with the concept of historical ‘development’, the unfolding or evolution of Providence to human reason over time, a concept which came to prominence in the 1840s, in both Tractarian theology and in natural history. Gladstone consistently advocated an accommodation between transmutation and natural theology based on a probabilist ontology derived from the eighteenth-century Anglican churchman Joseph Butler (1692–1752). That understanding of historical truth to which Gladstone credited his ability to discern when political issues became ripe for agitation demanded a humble, Christian moral temper that embraced doubt and salutary suffering, rather than certainty and whiggish celebration of progress.

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Article
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The Historical Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , September 2020 , pp. 911 - 934
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Gareth Atkins and David Bebbington for their helpful comments on drafts, and the Gladstone Library, Hawarden, for the award of The Revd Canon Dr Stewart Lawton Memorial Scholarship.

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