Of apes and ancestors
Subtitle: evolution, Christianity, and the Oxford debate
By: Ian Hesketh.
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 144
ISBN-13: 9780802092847
Subjects: Huxley, Thomas Henry, -- 1825-1895; Wilberforce, Samuel, -- 1805-1873; Darwin, Charles, -- 1809-1882; Huxley, Thomas Henry, -- 1825-1895; Wilberforce, Samuel, -- 1805-1873; Darwin, Charles, -- 1809-1882; Evolution (Biology) -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Religion and science -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Évolution (Biologie) -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire -- 19e siècle; Religion et sciences -- Grande-Bretagne -- Histoire -- 19e siècle; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 19th century; Grande-Bretagne -- Vie intellectuelle -- 19e siècle
Description: "In June of 1860, some of Britain's most influential scientific and religious authorities gathered in Oxford to hear a heated debate on the merits of Charles Darwin's recently published Origin of Species. The Bishop of Oxford, "Soapy" Samuel Wilberforce, clashed swords with Darwin's most outspoken supporter, Thomas Henry Huxley. The latter's triumph, amid quips about apes and ancestry, has become a mythologized event, symbolizing the supposed war between science and Christianity. But did the debate really happen in this way? Of Apes and Ancestors argues that this one-dimensional interpretation was constructed and disseminated by Darwin's supporters, becoming an imagined victory in the struggle to overcome Anglican dogmatism. By reconstructing the Oxford debate and carefully considering the individual perspectives of the main participants, Ian Hesketh argues that personal jealousies and professional agendas played a formative role in shaping the response to Darwin's hypothesis, with religious anxieties overlapping with a whole host of other cultural and scientific considerations. An absorbing study, Of Apes and Ancestors sheds light on the origins of a debate that continues, unresolved, to this day." -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [129]-136) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Charles Darwin: historian of natural history; title: The struggles of Soapy Sam; title: Thomas Henry Huxley and Richard Owen: or, Darwin's bulldog and the queer fish; title: Joseph Dalton Hooker and the early history of a great friendship; title: The Oxford debate; title: Remembering the Oxford debate; title: Epilogue: the history of the present.