Review:
A clear, vigorous, and comprehensive portrait of Darwin s religious odyssey. This book will be an absorbing read for anyone to explore anew the story of a brilliant thinker and admirable human being who continues to capture our attention www.episcopalchurch.org, Episcopal Church of USA, 8/6/04
"The book portrays a real, human Darwin, demoralized by a faith journey that undermined his belief in creation." -Science & Theology News, 12/2/03
"Anti-evolutionary writers tend to depict Charles Darwin as a godless infidel who was bent on disproving biblical events and supplanting religion with a new god science. But in Darwin's Religious Odyssey, philosophy professor William Phipps takes great pains to demonstrate that Darwin's religious worldview, well, evolved; he began as an orthodox Anglican priest-in-training and wound up as a self-tortured but not irreligious skeptic. The book's greatest strength is its reliance on Darwin's own journals and correspondence to depict his "circuitous journey of faith." One 1860s letter shows the naturalist's dilemma: "With respect to the theological view of the question: this is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically. But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world.... On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force." Publisher's Weekly, September 9, 2002.
"Prof. Phipps details the intense anguish Darwin went through during his lifetime, although he never wavered from a strong, fundamental belief in God. It is the struggle and anguish among Darwin the scientist, Darwin the religionist, and Darwin the human being that makes this book such intriguing reading. Robert C. O'Neill, Hawthorne, N.J., for The Living Church, March 30, 2003.--Sanford Lakoff
"This timely and comprehensive book deftly weaves little-known letters and archives with published writings to show the full scope of Darwin's thinking on God and religious belief, and sets it in the context of what William James called the varieties of religious experience in the Victorian era. Charles Darwin emerges as a wise and kindly man who faced many of the same issues that perplexed and distressed readers of his Origin of Species." Janet Browne, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, London, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging.--Sanford Lakoff
"This book...does an admirable job of consolidating the thread of religious thought that runs through Darwin's writings...Phipps emphasizes the compatibility of religious belief with Darwinian natural selection, asserting that 'there is not contradiction in claiming that humans are made both in the divine image in spiritual form and in a hominoid image in physical form.' The publication of such a thoughtful and scholarly work on Darwin by a religious publishing house points to a day when such views will be more widely accepted. R. Gilmour, University of Tennessee, for CHOICE, March 2003.--Sanford Lakoff
"Phipps has extensively mined the public and private writings of Darwin and his contemporaries, as well as the works of his modern biographers, to produce this informative and interesting account of Darwin's spiritual odyssey...The heart of Phipps's argument is that even as Darwin rejected traditional faith, he remained a deeply religious man who "exhibited reverence toward whoever was responsible for originating and developing the universe," and embodied the highest sentiments of Victorian Christianity: "Even though Darwin rejected Christian orthodoxy, he retained Christian orthopraxy."..Written in a style that is clear and straightforward, the book will be an absorbing read for anyone interested in the man who remains at the center of our contemporary conflicts and conversations about science and faith." Robert J. Schneider, for Anglican Theological Review.--Sanford Lakoff
"William E. Phipps aims to provide a balanced overview of Darwin's religious development, using the latest resources of Darwin scholarship and documentation. He sets out the available evidence, making good use of Darwin's notebooks and correspondence, and devoting a chapter to each main phase of his life. The book succeeds in its aim of presenting a balanced, comprehensive, and up-to-date account of Darwin's religious views. It is well researched, clearly written, and accurate. It is timely and welcome." -"Science and Christian Belief, "April 2006 "
About the Author:
William Phipps is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Philosophy, Davis and Elkins College. His numerous books on sexual themes in biblical and church history include Genesis and Gender, Was Jesus Married? and Influential Theologians on Wo/Man. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.
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