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For centuries, scripture and theology were the focus of prodigious amounts of scholarship and publishing. Enlightenment philosophy and science, anthropology, ethnology and the colonial experience all brought new perspectives, lively debates and heated controversies to the study of religion and its role in the world, many of which continue to this day. This series explores the editing and interpretation of religious texts, the history of religious ideas and institutions, and not least the encounter between religion and science.

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253 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Religion

Page 12 of 13

A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom
  • Volume 2
  • Andrew Dickson White
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1896
  • First published in 1896, this two-volume history of the conflict between theology and science quickly became a landmark text. It was widely recognised, along with John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science, as a defining study of the relationship between religion and science. A distinguished educator, scholar and writer, Andrew Dickson White was the first president of Cornell University. White held the view that religion was historically opposed to progress in the field of science. He argued that any interference on the part of religion in science had always proved disastrous, whereas scientific investigation, no matter how seemingly damaging to religion, had always resulted in the highest good. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom is the culmination of thirty years of White's research, publication and lectures on the subject. Volume two discusses medicine, insanity, mythology, political economy and comparative philology.

On the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation of Animals and in their History, Habits and Instincts
  • Volume 2
  • William Kirby
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1835
  • This extensively illustrated two-volume treatise, published in 1835, is one of a series commissioned by the Royal Society with funds bequeathed by the Earl of Bridgewater. William Kirby (1759-1850), Cambridge graduate, country parson and respected entomologist, here combines the study of the word of God with that of his works, aiming to disprove Lamarck's hypothesis that all the works of creation can be attributed to second causes, rather than a first cause, i.e. God. Kirby agrees with philosophers' objections to superstitious and bigoted adherence to the letter of scripture, but questions their lack of attention to its spirit. He explores the creation of animals in a spiritual context, and goes on to consider the functions and instincts of the major animal groups. Volume 2 includes chapters on insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals. This book contributed to the intellectual debates that formed the background to Darwin's work on evolution.

Cardinal Lavigerie and the African Slave Trade
  • Edited by Richard F. Clarke
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1889
  • In 1889 the Jesuit Richard F. Clarke published this biography of Charles Lavigerie (1825–1892), the French cardinal and Primate of Africa. From the moment of his arrival in Algeria in 1868, Lavigerie became a key, if sometimes controversial, figure in organising Catholic missions in Africa. In 1874 he founded the Society of Missionaries for Africa, otherwise known as the White Fathers after the white Arab dress they wore. Lavigerie's later career was devoted to the battle against slavery and in 1888 he conducted a campaign in several European capitals denouncing the practice. Clarke's book, which appeared a year after Lavigerie's visit to London, provides an account of the cardinal's career in France and Africa up to that date. It emphasises and praises Lavigerie's anti-slavery message, referring to him in the preface as 'the apostle of the slaves of all Africa'.

Prolegomena to St Paul's Epistles to the Romans and the Ephesians
  • Fenton John Anthony Hort
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    26 November 2009
    First published in:
    1895
  • This posthumous volume, published in 1895, contains two lectures delivered in the 1880s by the biblical scholar F. J. A. Hort, Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. In these lectures, Hort addresses the question of the dating of Romans and Ephesians, their purpose, and their original readership. He examines their context in the relationship of Judaism to Christianity in the Apostolic period and the difference between Gentile, Judaistic and Roman Christianity. By treating the Epistles as historical as well as religious artefacts and analysing their language and grammar as well as content, Hort argues for the authenticity of both texts and therefore for a first-century dating. The dating of the New Testament was a central concern of Hort toward the end of his career, and he argued against F. C. Baur and the Tübingen school, who placed it in the second century. These lectures present evidence to support his argument.

The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte
  • Volume 2
  • Auguste Comte
  • Translated by Harriet Martineau
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1853
  • The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte is a condensed English version of the French philosopher's controversial work, freely translated by Harriet Martineau and published in two volumes in 1853. Martineau's abridged and more easily digestible version of Comte's work was intended to be readily accessible to a wide general readership, particularly those she felt to be morally and intellectually adrift, and Comte's philosophy indeed attracted a significant following in Britain in the later nineteenth century. Comte's 'doctrine' promoted personal and public ethics and social cohesion based no longer on metaphysics but on strict scientific method, and anticipated twentieth-century logical positivism and secular humanism. The second volume of this translation is devoted entirely to Comte's new science of 'social physics' and human progress, and outlines his theories about society and its development through various phases - theological, humanistic and finally scientific.

The Relations between Religion and Science
  • Eight Lectures Preached before the University of Oxford in the Year 1884 on the Foundation of the Late Rev. John Bampton, M.A.
  • Frederick Temple
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1884
  • In 1884 the long-running annual series of Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford was given by Frederick Temple, at that time Bishop of Exeter. He had earlier been a prominent educational reformer, headmaster at Rugby School and chaplain to Queen Victoria, and he later rose to become Archbishop of Canterbury. This book contains his Bampton Lectures on The Relations between Religion and Science - perhaps the most passionately debated topic of that time. He discusses the apparent conflict between scientific and religious beliefs on various topics including free will, knowledge, evolution, and supernatural power, but concludes that science and religion are not foes, but counterparts, and that neither is complete without the other. His contribution in this area is of lasting importance in the history and philosophy of science.

Life in Nature
  • James Hinton
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1862
  • Life in Nature, first published in 1862, is a series of papers by the nineteenth-century English surgeon and popular science writer James Hinton. About a third of the material, though revised and reworked for this book, had appeared previously under the title 'Physiological Riddles' in the Cornhill Magazine, in which Hinton explained biological phenomena for non-scientific readers. Hinton wrote this thirteen-chapter book to present a concise overview of the human body, informed by the latest scientific insights, that would be more easily intelligible for the general population than the scientific physiological data of his day. His intention was also to demonstrate the similarity between patterns occurring in the organic world and in the rest of nature. This book will be of value to historians of Victorian culture and science as an example of how authors and publishers responded to the growing middle-class interest in scientific discoveries.

The Scripture Doctrine of Creation
  • With Reference to Religious Nihilism and Modern Theories of Development
  • Thomas Rawson Birks
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1872
  • Thomas Rawson Birks was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and a senior professor of philosophy. This book was first published in 1872, the year of his appointment to the prestigious Knightbridge Professorship. As an active Anglican clergyman, Birks engaged energetically in many heated theological controversies. In the Victorian debates on the relationship between religion and science he took a strongly anti-Darwinian stance, declaring that the theory of evolution contradicted the doctrine of creation and could not explain the mystery of life. In other areas, however, he argued that the findings of science confirmed the glory of God, since 'the telescope reveals the grandeur and vastness of the starry worlds' and 'the microscope discovers marks of design and beauty' which are evidence of a supreme designer. His influential evangelical views are expressed in this book, which argues for scripture as the ultimate key to the mystery of existence.

A View of the History, Literature, and Religion of the Hindoos
  • Including a Minute Description of their Manners and Customs, and Translations from their Principal Works
  • Volume 2, The Hindoo Mythology
  • William Ward
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1817
  • William Ward's account of the Hindu communities among whom he served as a Baptist missionary in Serampore in West Bengal was first published in 1811 and reprinted in this third edition in 1817. It was an extremely influential work that shaped British views of the newly defined entity of 'Hinduism' in the early nineteenth century. Ward and his fellow missionaries promoted social reforms and education, establishing the Serampore Mission Press in 1800 and Serampore College in 1818. Ward devoted twenty years to compiling his study of Hindu literature, history, mythology and religion, which was eventually published in four volumes. It provided richly detailed information, and was regarded as authoritative for the next fifty years. It is therefore still an important source for researchers in areas including Indian history, British colonialism, Orientalism and religious studies. Volume 2 focuses on places of worship, ritual practices, and beliefs about death and reincarnation.

Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa
  • Robert Moffat
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1842
  • Robert Moffat, Scottish missionary and linguist, arrived in South Africa in 1817 under the aegis of the London Missionary Society. He pioneered missionary activity among the Tswana people and became deeply influential in South Africa, helping to open up the 'missionary road' north of the Cape and later criticising the Afrikaners and becoming an advocate of British imperial rule in the region. He was also the first transcriber of the Setswana language. Missionary Labours and Scenes in Southern Africa (1842) is an autobiographical account of Moffat's time as a missionary and contains, as he states in the preface, a 'faithful record of events which have occurred within the range of his experience and observation' that 'supplies much that may serve to illustrate the peculiar attributes of African society.' Missionary Labours was hugely popular with the Victorian readership and became a classic narrative of missionary activity in Africa.

Social Evolution
  • Benjamin Kidd
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1894
  • In 1894, the British sociologist Benjamin Kidd published Social Evolution, an influential book that summarised and evaluated the prevailing social theories at the end of the nineteenth century: Karl Marx's socialism and Herbert Spencer's social Darwinism. Both of these conflicting theories were based on Darwinian evolutionary theory. In this book, Kidd discusses the immense changes that applied science has brought to the world and the interconnectedness of everyone. The book's ten chapters include discussions of the conditions of human progress, the function of religious beliefs, and the organisation of the working classes. Kidd found flaws in both Karl Marx's and Herbert Spencer's vision of society's future and concluded that religion was essential for the evolution of society because it acts in the interest of generational group survival rather than individual competition. Social Evolution called for a comprehensive study of society because a new era in Western civilisation was beginning.

The Method of the Divine Government
  • Physical and Moral
  • 2nd edition
  • James McCosh
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1850
  • This 1850 edition of The Method of The Divine Government is the Scottish philosopher and clergyman James McCosh's influential account of how God's providence, which in his opinion is an unquestionable fact, governs the world in both a physical (external) and in a moral (internal) sense. The latter is particularly connected to the many layers that make up man's conscience. This second edition, which consists of four parts ('books') and an appendix, differs from the original version as McCosh pays far more attention to first principles than to fundamental ones. He seeks to pinpoint God's character and probes the depths of man's conscience (First Book) and in the following he delves into the physical aspects of God's government, paying particular attention to Comte's Positivism. McCosh devotes part three to a detailed analysis of the human mind and moral nature and finally in the fourth part he reconciles God and man.

Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development
  • Henry George Atkinson, Harriet Martineau
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1851
  • Henry George Atkinson (c.1812–c.1890), a free thinker and supporter of naturalism, published extensively on phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism. He became acquainted with the professional writer, political activist and radical philosopher Harriet Martineau (1802–76) in the 1840s, when she attributed her recovery from a long illness to mesmerism. Their correspondence was published in 1851, and promotes a radical form of atheistic naturalism, more extreme than that found in George Combe's best-selling Constitution of Man (also published in this series). It ranges widely over topics including the brain and the nervous system, matter and causation, superstition, theology and science. The book promotes the purity of natural law as superior to social customs and institutions, and reflects many concerns of the intelligentsia of the time, amongst whom it stirred up much controversy.

A Series of Discourses on the Christian Revelation, Viewed in Connection with the Modern Astronomy
  • Thomas Chalmers
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 September 2009
    First published in:
    1817
  • In 1817 the Scottish mathematician and churchman Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847), who was later invited to write one of the Bridgewater Treatises (also reissued in this series) published this book, based on weekday sermons preached by him in Glasgow. His main aim is to refute the 'infidel' argument that because the earth and humanity are such insignificant parts of the universe, God - if he existed - would not care about them. However, he is also addressing the 'narrow and intolerant professors' who 'take an alarm' at the idea of philosophy rather than incorporating science into their Christian preaching. Chalmers writes from the viewpoint of an admirer of science and modern astronomy. However, he also argues that wonder at the magnificence of creation and even acknowledging it as God's work is not enough, and that a truly moral Christian life is essential for salvation.

A View of the Evidences of Christianity
  • In Three Parts
  • Volume 1
  • William Paley
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1794
  • This two-volume book by the philosopher and theologian William Paley, published in 1794, was considered so important that it was required reading for Cambridge students (including Charles Darwin) well into the nineteenth century. This classic work of apologetics is divided into three parts in which Paley discusses the historical evidence for Christianity and the miracles of Jesus Christ. He begins volume 1 with the proposition that the original witnesses to Christ's miracles should be believed, because they spent their entire lives in constant danger for what they witnessed. Paley takes on Hume's argument that no miracle can be proved regardless of the amount of evidence with the observation that if one believes in God, then miracles should be expected. Paley's intellectual defence of Christianity was one of the most popular of the day, and his work is considered a direct forerunner of the contemporary theory of intelligent design.

The Book of Revelation in Greek Edited from Ancient Authorities
  • Samuel Prideaux Tregelles
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    26 November 2009
    First published in:
    1844
  • Samuel Prideaux Tregelles (1813–1875) was a Cornish-born Biblical scholar who travelled to major libraries all over Europe to study ancient manuscripts with the aim of publishing a more reliable Greek New Testament than had been available to Luther, Tyndale and their successors. The 1844 edition of the Book of Revelation reissued here was his first major publication, and announced his larger project. It contains the Greek text, an English translation, and a meticulous critical apparatus which provides a window into nineteenth-century textual criticism, a burgeoning field in which scholars including Lachmann and Tischendorf were also active. Tregelles gives a detailed history of the printed editions of Revelation and shows how he went beyond the received text, examining more than forty thousand variants to establish the most authoritative version. Tregelles' criteria for evaluating the reliability of manuscripts, described in his Introduction, remain of interest to Biblical scholars today.

Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D
  • Late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Chaplain to the Honourable East India Company
  • John Sargent
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    04 March 2010
    First published in:
    1819
  • Henry Martyn (1781–1812) was born in Cornwall and educated at Cambridge. After hearing about the success of William Carey's mission at Serampore, he abandoned his intended career as a barrister to become a missionary, and joined the East India Company as a chaplain. During six years spent mostly in India he produced Hindi, Urdu and Persian translations of the New Testament. He is best remembered for these and other scripture translations which remained popular in India until the end of the nineteenth century. This memoir draws on Martyn's personal letters and diary. It was first published in London in 1816, soon after Martyn's untimely death in Persia, and appeared in a second edition (reissued here) in 1819. Part 1 covers his early life, Part 2 begins with his arrival in India and describes his missionary work, and Part 3 recounts Martyn's exhausting journey to Persia and his death.

The New Testament in the Original Greek
  • Volume 1, Introduction and Appendix
  • Edited by Brooke Foss Westcott, Fenton John Anthony Hort
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
    First published in:
    1881
  • The publication in 1881 of The New Testament in the Original Greek, by the Cambridge scholars Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901) and Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), marked the culmination of twenty-eight years of work and an innovation in the theory and methods of New Testament textual criticism. This first of two volumes contains a detailed discussion of the theories and methods behind the reconstructed text, sets out the editors' theory of text-types, and justifies their choice to break with the dominant use of the Textus Receptus. It argues for the Neutral Text, represented by the uncials Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus, as being the earliest and least corrupt form. Westcott and Hort's claim to reconstruct the 'original text' may seem extravagant today but according to Bruce Metzger theirs was the 'most noteworthy critical edition of the Greek Testament ever produced by British scholarship'.

The Missionary Life and Labours of Francis Xavier Taken from his own Correspondence
  • With a Sketch of the General Results of Roman Catholic Missions among the Heathen
  • Henry Venn
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 May 2010
    First published in:
    1862
  • A founding member of the Jesuit order, Francis Xavier (1506–1552) travelled as a missionary to India, Japan and China in the mid-sixteenth century. He is traditionally associated with legends of miraculous works and the conversion of tens of thousands of people. This controversial 1862 biography by the Anglican missionary clergyman Henry Venn (1796–1873) uses Xavier's own words to examine the future saint's character and private thoughts. Xavier's correspondence reveals a sensitive, energetic and occasionally vengeful man who was not averse to employing aggressive means. Containing numerous letters printed in full, Venn's chronicle provides an analysis of Xavier's mission, methods and achievements from a non-Catholic perspective. Venn also explores Xavier's close friendship with the Jesuits' founder Ignatius Loyola, and probes the facts behind previous biographers' tales of miracles. The book ends with a detailed and challenging appraisal of the overall success of the worldwide Roman Catholic mission since the sixteenth century.

Lux Mundi
  • A Series of Studies in the Religion of the Incarnation
  • Edited by Charles Gore
  • Published online:
    29 August 2010
    Print publication:
    13 August 2009
    First published in:
    1889
  • Charles Gore (1853–1932), the future Bishop of Oxford and a passionate campaigner for social justice, compiled and edited these twelve theological essays published in 1891. The eleven contributors, all Oxford scholars at some time, shared the conviction that theology must engage with advances in scientific and historical knowledge, learn from them, and use them in interpreting Christian doctrine. In their case, this meant recognising God at work in the material world, in evolution, and in society, not merely at the spiritual level. 'If the true meaning of the faith is to be made sufficiently conspicuous,' Gore wrote in his introduction, 'it needs disencumbering, reinterpreting, explaining'. The essays focus on the Incarnation, as the central doctrine for the whole of theology, which may be applied very differently in different contexts. The book, regarded by some as too progressive, was a great success and sold ten editions in its first year.

Page 12 of 13