Abstracts Category : Other

Shattering the divine symbiosis: The impacts of science on clerics and church members in the Australian colonies, 1830-1890

by Lesley Borowitzka

Between 1830 and 1890 developments in science challenged the interpretation of scripture and the theology of the Christian churches as never before. The new scientific theories of uniformitarianism, evolution and abiogenesis were rejected as atheistic by most clerics and church members, with the most conservative aspects of British theology and science expressed in the churches and the scientific establishment of the Australian colonies. Early in the century, natural theology, which encouraged the study of nature in order to learn more about its Creator, underpinned by literal interpretations of the creation accounts in scripture, was well established in Britain and among colonial clerics such as Charles Wilton and William Branwhite Clarke in Sydney and John Lillie in Hobart. They also promoted nature study for the improvement of the moral and intellectual life of colonists and to gain practical knowledge about the natural resources of the new land. From the 1830s however, natural theology and the creation accounts in Genesis were increasingly challenged by geological evidence. Scriptural geology and catastrophism became casualties of science. The image of a benevolent and interventionist Creator was further challenged when Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was published in 1844, proposing that new forms of life and even celestial bodies were created by a continual process governed by natural laws, rather than by Gods direct intervention. Clerical scientists such as Clarke in Sydney and Adam Sedgwick in Britain denounced such a proposal as atheistic and idolatrous. By the end of the 1860s, Darwins theory of evolution of new species led to further questions about the role of God in creation, and was explicitly and controversially extended to humans by Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Lyell. Even the role of God as provider of the essential life force was challenged by Huxleys abiogenesis theory. In the Australian colonies, distinct theological differences arose in response to these challenges, differences between the Christian denominations and also between the colonies. In Adelaide in the 1860s Attorney General Richard Hanson introduced the work of Lyell and Darwin to the public with the cautious support of Adelaides Anglican Bishop Augustus Short and Congregational Church spokesman James Jefferis. In contrast, at the same time in Melbourne Anglican Bishop Charles Perry joined Governor Henry Barkly and the conservative scientific community in publicly rejecting Darwins theory, although by the 1870s the arrival of Bishop James Moorhouse brought a more liberal theology to Melbourne, more in line with the more pro-science positions of Adelaides Bishop Short and Bishop Charles Bromby of Tasmania. New South Wales Anglican Bishop Frederic Barker did not contribute to public discussion about the discoveries and theories; that role fell to Clarke, through his public lectures and articles in the Sydney Morning Herald. Melbourne stood out as the place in which the public entered into the debate throughAdvisors/Committee Members: Strong, Rowan.