Ted Davis Presents "Science and Religion, Chicago Style: The Protestant Modernist Encounter with Science"

Please join us October 25, 2024  to hear “Science and Religion, Chicago Style: The Protestant Modernist Encounter with Science” from Ted Davis of Messiah University. 

Time:  3:30-5:00pm

Location: Harlow Room, Bizzell Library, 5th floor

In the years surrounding the Scopes trial in 1925, liberal Protestant scientists joined with “modernist” theologians and clergy to diminish opposition to evolution and to persuade American Christians to adopt more positive attitudes toward modern science. With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and many elite scientists, the University of Chicago Divinity School published a series of ten pamphlets on science and religion by nationally prominent scientists and religious leaders. Intended for wide distribution, the pamphlets were sent to every high school principal in the United States, every state and national legislator, and ten thousand Protestant ministers. They were used as textbooks at many universities, including Dartmouth College, where William Patten taught the first required course on evolution. This talk narrates the story of the pamphlets—why they were written, who paid for them, and what messages they conveyed. Overall, the pamphlets and their history provide previously unknown context for the Scopes trial and a revealing window on the Protestant modernist encounter with science.

This talk is based on the forthcoming book, Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in the Scopes Era (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024), which will be featured in a panel discussion at the American Historical Association.