Irish Catholicism and science : from 'Godless colleges' to the 'Celtic tiger' / Don O'Leary.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Leary, Don, 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Catholic Church.

Religion and science--Ireland--History--19th century.

Religion and science.

Religion and science--Ireland--History--20th century.

Catholic Church--Ireland--History--19th century.

Catholic Church--Ireland--History--20th century.

History.

Ireland.

Physical Description:

xvi, 343 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cork : Cork University Press, 2012.

Summary:

Science and Roman Catholicism have both acted as powerful agents of change in Ireland and elsewhere. But the interaction between Catholicism and science in Ireland has received very little attention from historians to date. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to address this longstanding deficiency in Irish historical literature. There is a strong international dimension to this study. The period of interest is from the Famine to the 'Celtic Tiger'.

The subject matter encompasses a diverse range of topics. Issues indigenous to Ireland include recurring controversies about university education, the relative paucity of Catholic scientists in nineteenth-century Ireland, the perception of science as a trait of a Protestant and colonial mindset, anti-Catholicism and science, the economic and political conditions in the Irish Free State which worked against the growth of science in Ireland, and the impact of science and technology on Irish Catholicism in recent decades. These subjects are interwoven with topics which extend far beyond Irish interest - such as evolutionary debates, the question of whether or not Catholicism was compatible with science, anti-modernism in the Catholic Church, Vatican pronouncements on science, the theological implications of extraterrestrial life and of Big Bang cosmology, whether human freewill is real or not, and the importance of science in arguments about the existence of God. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Politics, Religion and Science, 1840s-1874 1

Catholic Under-representation in Science 1

'Godless Colleges' and the Catholic University 8

A Conflict of Interests 20

Tyndall and the Catholic University 28

2 Faith and Evolution, 1860s-1880s 33

Evolution by Natural Selection 33

The Rejection of Darwinism 36

Apes or Angels? 41

Murphy versus Vaughan and Mivart 47

3 Catholicism and Science, 1890s-1903 58

Converging Themes 58

The Ascendancy of Ultraconservatism 59

Evolution, Extraterrestrials, and the Incarnation 64

In Defence of the Faith 70

4 Commissions of Enquiry, 1901-1907 81

Restraining the Scientists 81

Joly's Critique 90

5 Anti-Modernism, 1907-1920s 100

The Campaign against Heresy 100

Evolution and Apostasy 108

6 Evolution, Entropy and Electro-Magnetics, 1920s-1930s 121

Science before and after the Treaty 121

Evolution - Continuous or Discontinuous? 128

Censorship 138

Mind over Matter? 141

Scientific Consensus and Catholic Dissent 148

7 From De Valera's Institute to the Big Bang, 1939-1950 153

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 153

Alfred O'Rahilly - Defender of Roman Catholicism 157

Gill's Fact and Fiction in Modern Science 165

Postwar Pessimism 172

From Discord to Harmony 178

8 Between Science and Dogma, 1950-mid-1970s 185

Humani Generis 185

Piety and Science 191

Harmonious Initiatives 194

Evolution and Original Sin 201

9 The Elusive Master Narrative, mid-1970s-2006 208

Dialogue or Isolation? 208

A Concept of Four Dimensions 213

The Conflict Thesis 219

10 Science and Social Transformation 228

Science and the Decline of Irish Catholicism 228

Catholicism in the Cultural Market 235.

ISBN:

9781859184974

1859184979

OCLC:

773430777