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Biblical Biology: American Protestant Social Reformers and the Early Eugenics Movement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Leila Zenderland
Leila Zenderland
Affiliation:
American Studies DepartmentCalifornia State University at Fullerton
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Abstract

In most historical accounts, eugenic doctrines and Christian beliefs are assumed to be adversaries. Such a perspective is too narrow, however, for while many prominent eugenicists were indeed religious skeptics, others sought to reconcile eugenics with Christianity. Various American Protestant social reformers tried to synthesize new biological theories with older biblical ideas about the meaning of a good inheritance. Such syntheses played an important role in disseminating eugenic doctrines into America's deeply Protestant heartland.

Type
Historical Perspectives
Information
Science in Context , Volume 11 , Issue 3-4 , Autumn-Winter 1998 , pp. 511 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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