Religious thought in the Victorian Age : challenges and reconceptions / James C. Livingston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Livingston, James C., 1930-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Great Britain--Religion--19th century.

Great Britain.

Religion.

Physical Description:

viii, 304 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Continuum, 2007.

Summary:

The central purpose of this book is to offer an account of crucial intellectual challenges to traditional British theology, challenges that provoked wide-ranging discussions and decisively shaped British theology. In several instances, they resulted in fundamental reconceptions of traditional doctrine and belief. Not all of the conclusions reached in these debates proved enduring, and some efforts to accommodate theology to advances in the sciences were highly questionable or unnecessary. Yet even the ill-fated forays and speculations were efforts to respond to new, genuine questions that required answers.

James C. Livingston approaches this subject from a new perspective. By 1860, the religious discussion in Britain had broadened significantly in two ways. First, the examination of critical theological issues had moved outside the bounds of the established Church of England and its three dominant parties. The discussion now engaged highly respected Roman Catholic, Nonconformist, and secular thinkers of impressive range. Second, the deeper and more consequential debates on matters touching on religion were no longer dominated by clerics and theologians. Livingston demonstrates that the late Victorian decades were a time of vitality and creativity in the educated public's discussion of critical religious and theological matters.

Contents:

1 The Religious Background and Contexts of the Late Victorian Controversies 7

The Pre-1860 Background 7

The Controversy over the Ethics of Belief 13

The Agnostic Controversies after 1850 20

2 God and the World-The Reign of Law: Design, Providence, and Teleology 32

The Background Prior to 1860 32

The Context of the Argument from Design after 1860 39

Scientific Naturalism: Natural Law and Orthodox Theology Irreconcilable 41

The Unitary Vision of Providence and the Reign of Natural Law: Varieties of Mediation 44

Scottish Ideas of Providential Evolution and the Reign of Law 49

Christian Darwinism: Design and Teleology 62

3 God and the World-The Reign of Law: Providence, Evil, and Theodicy 69

The Reign of Law and Theodicy before Darwin 69

The Paleyian Theodicy and Darwin 72

The Christian Darwinistic Theodicy 76

The Christian Darwinian Theodicy 81

The Theodicies of James Martineau and J. R. Illingworth 86

The Theodicy of the Personal Idealists 91

The Theodicy of F. R. Tennant and James Ward 96

Providence and Theodicy at the Turn of the Century 100

4 God and the World: The Reign of Law and Miracle 106

The Early Victorian Setting 106

The Legacy of J. S. Mill: Baden Powell on Miracles 109

J. B. Mozley's Bampton Lectures On Miracles as a Turning Point 114

Miracles in the Debates of the Metaphysical Society 121

The Broad Church View: Miracle and the Zeitgeist 126

A Way between J. B. Mozley and Matthew Arnold: B. F. Westcott 131

Miracle and the Lux Mundi Theologians 135

J. M. Thompson's Miracles in the New Testament and Bishop Gore's Challenge to Criticism 138

Professor Sanday and the Winds of Change 145

5 Humanity's Place in Nature-The Challenge to Christian Anthropology: Human Origins, the Fall, and Sin 150

The Background to 1860 150

Darwin on the Descent and Future of Mankind 156

Darwin and the Theistic "Darwinians" 164

The Premature Death of Adam: Evolution and the Reconceiving of the Doctrines of the Fall and Sin 174

6 Humanity's Place in Nature-The Challenge to Christian Anthropology: Mind, Free Will, and the Foundation of Morals 192

The Science of Mind: Controversy over the Brain, Mind, and Free Will 192

Some "Irresolute" Materialists 195

The Response of Idealists and Realists 201

The Later Critiques: James Ward to William James 210

Herbert Spencer and the Evolutionary Foundation of Morals 218

7 The New Science of Religion: Christianity's Relation to Other Faiths 230

The Background 230

The New Context after 1860 234

The British Pioneers in the New "Science of Religion": Some Suggestive Theological Implications 237

The Consolidation of the Science of Religion in Britain and Its Influence on Christian Theology 256

Types of Religious Response to the Science of Religion, 1870-1910 261

Some Concluding Remarks 279.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-297) and index.

ISBN:

9780567025135

0567025136

9780567026460

0567026469

OCLC:

81942011