Divine Variations : How Christian Thought Became Racial Science / Terence Keel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keel, Terence, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Race--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Race.

Race--Historiography.

Religion and science--History.

Religion and science.

Eurocentrism--History.

Eurocentrism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (188 pages)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Divine Variations offers a new account of the development of scientific ideas about race. Focusing on the production of scientific knowledge over the last three centuries, Terence Keel uncovers the persistent links between pre-modern Christian thought and contemporary scientific perceptions of human difference. He argues that, instead of a rupture between religion and modern biology on the question of human origins, modern scientific theories of race are, in fact, an extension of Christian intellectual history. Keel's study draws on ancient and early modern theological texts and biblical commentaries, works in Christian natural philosophy, seminal studies in ethnology and early social science, debates within twentieth-century public health research, and recent genetic analysis of population differences and ancient human DNA. From these sources, Keel demonstrates that Christian ideas about creation, ancestry, and universalism helped form the basis of modern scientific accounts of human diversity—despite the ostensible shift in modern biology towards scientific naturalism, objectivity, and value neutrality. By showing the connections between Christian thought and scientific racial thinking, this book calls into question the notion that science and religion are mutually exclusive intellectual domains and proposes that the advance of modern science did not follow a linear process of secularization.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. IMPURE THOUGHTS

2. SUPERSEDING CHRISTIAN TRUTH

3. THE GHOST OF CHRISTIAN CREATIONISM

4. NOAH’S MONGREL CHILDREN

5. BEYOND THE RELIGIOUS PURSUIT OF RACE

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9781503604377

1503604373

OCLC:

1178769894