Darwin, Epistemology, and the Scopes Context

Episode 8 of American Evangelicals only had room for excerpts of our conversation with historian of science Ted Davis. This bonus episode gives you the entire, unedited interview. Davis, a leading historian of science and religion, traces the relationship between American Christianity and scientific thought from the early republic through the Scopes trial and into the twenty-first century — challenging some common assumptions about evangelicals and science along the way. If you've already heard our episode on evangelicals and science, think of this as the director's cut: every story, historical detail, and insight that didn't make the final cut. Host John Fea conducted the full interview with Ted Davis. 

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Edward B. “Ted” Davis is Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at Messiah University, where he was a longtime colleague of host John Fea, and a Fellow of the International Society for Science & Religion. He is co-editor, with Michael Hunter, of The Works of Robert Boyle. His most recent book, Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in the Scopes Era (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024), is a critical edition of ten rare pamphlets on science and religion published around the 1925 Scopes trial.

PEOPLE, BOOKS & TERMS MENTIONED

• Francis Bacon — English philosopher; The Advancement of Learning (1605) articulated the “two books” framework of scripture and nature.
• Robert Boyle — 17th-century chemist; his The Christian Virtuoso (1690/91) argued science strengthens rather than threatens Christian faith.
• Cotton Mather — brought Enlightenment science to America; author of The Christian Philosopher (1721), modeled on Boyle.
• Samuel Miller — New York Presbyterian minister and later Princeton Seminary professor; A Brief Retrospect of the Eighteenth Century (c. 1803) attacked “infidel philosophy.”
• Asa Gray — Harvard botanist, correspondent of Charles Darwin, and traditional Christian who reviewed On the Origin of Species favorably in 1860.
• William Jennings Bryan — prosecutor in the 1925 Scopes trial; opposed evolution and, especially, theistic evolution.
• Vernon Kellogg — Stanford biologist and pacifist; Headquarters Nights (1917) linked evolution to German militarism and influenced Bryan.
• Bernard Ramm — Baptist theologian; The Christian View of Science and Scripture (1954) urged evangelicals to be open to science.
• John C. Whitcomb Jr. and Henry Morris — The Genesis Flood (1961), written partly in response to Ramm, launched the modern young-earth creationist movement.
• Francis Collins — geneticist who led the Human Genome Project to completion; prominent evangelical voice on faith and science.
• American Scientific Affiliation — an organization of evangelical scientists founded just before Pearl Harbor, which grew rapidly after World War II.
• Society of Catholic Scientists — founded by astrophysicist Stephen Barr as a Catholic counterpart to the American Scientific Affiliation.

🔗 LINK to episode 8

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2610661/episodes/19367017

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Hosts:

JOHN FEA - Visiting Fellow in History, Lumen Center; Distinguished Professor of History, Messiah University

MAGGIE CAPRA - Visiting Instructor in American History, Beloit College

DAN HUMMEL - Director of the Lumen Center; Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This podcast is brought to you by the Lumen Center and STUDIO, both initiatives of the SL Brown Foundation. 

Find out more about our work:

• slbf.org/lumen-center
• slbf.org/studio

Produced by Daniel Johnson and Dave Conour

Edited by Dave Conour