The Victoria Institute, biblical criticism, and the fundamentals
Mathieson, Stuart PatrickORCID: 0000-0002-0781-3747
(2021)
The Victoria Institute, biblical criticism, and the fundamentals.
Zygon, 56
(1).
pp. 254-274.
ISSN 0591-2385
The Victoria Institute was established in London in
1865. Although billed as an anti-evolutionary organization, and stridently anti-Darwinian in its rhetoric, it spent relatively little time
debating the theory of natural selection. Instead, it served as a haven
for a specific set of intellectual commitments. Most important among
these was the Baconian scientific methodology, which prized empiricism and induction, and was suspicious of speculation. Darwin’s use
of hypotheses meant that the Victoria Institute members were unconvinced that his work was truly scientific, but even more concerning for them was the specter of biblical criticism. This approach to
biblical studies incorporated techniques from literary criticism, treating it as any other document. Since it also relied on hypotheses, the
Victoria Institute members were similarly skeptical that biblical criticism was scientific, and spent much of their time attempting to refute it. In this way, they functioned as an incubator for the concerns
that would animate the fundamentalist–modernist controversies of
the early twentieth century.
Metadata
Item Type:
Article (Published)
Refereed:
Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:
biblical criticism; evolution; fundamentalism; Ireland;
philosophy of science; Victoria Institute