Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, Jun 21, 1997 - History - 407 pages
In this intriguing history, James Gilbert examines the confrontation between modern science and religion as these disparate, sometimes hostile modes of thought clashed in the arena of American culture. Beginning in 1925 with the infamous Scopes trial, Gilbert traces nearly forty years of competing attitudes toward science and religion.

"Anyone seriously interested in the history of current controversies involving religion and science will find Gilbert's book invaluable."—Peter J. Causton, Boston Book Review

"Redeeming Culture provides some fascinating background for understanding the interactions of science and religion in the United States. . . . Intriguing pictures of some of the highlights in this cultural exchange."—George Marsden, Nature

"A solid and entertaining account of the obstacles to mutual understanding that science and religion are now warily overcoming."—Catholic News Service

"[An] always fascinating look at the conversation between religion and science in America."—Publishers Weekly
 

Selected pages

Contents

The Promise of Genesis
1
William Jennings Bryan Scientist
23
The Republic of Science
37
A World without John Dewey
63
A Magnificent Laboratory a Magnificent Control Room
95
Churching American Soldiers
121
Rendezvous at Rancho La Brea
147
Two Men of Science
171
Transgressing the Heavens
225
The Religious Possibilities of Social Science
253
The Religion of Science
273
Space Gothic in Seattle
297
Conclusion
321
Notes
325
Index
391
Copyright

Almost a Message from God Himself
199

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About the author (1997)

James Gilbert is professor of history at the University of Maryland. He is the author of ten books, including Perfect Cities: Chicago's Utopias of 1893 and Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s, also published by the University of Chicago Press.