A Tale of Two Controversies: Darwinism in the Debate over “Essays and Reviews”

Abstract

The intellectual crisis of Victorian faith was a tale of two books. Charles Darwin'sOrigin of Specieswas published on 28 November, 1859; a composite volume of biblical criticism,Essays and Reviews, six of whose seven authors were clergymen, appeared on 21 March 1860. Both volumes provoked controversies. The Darwinian controversy is remembered and the biblicalcontroversy is largely forgotten, and perhaps in thelongue durŕeof history this ought to be so. But there was no doubt at the time that the biblical controversy was more important, dealing with matters that Victorians regarded as both fundamental and familiar. Richard Church, later dean of St. Paul's, wrote to his American scientist friend Asa Gray in 1861 that Darwin's “book I have no doubt would be the subject still of a great row, if there were not a much greater row going on aboutEssays and Reviews.” Leslie Stephen, who experienced both controversies as a young man, later regretted that “the controversy raised byEssays and Reviewseven distracted men for a time from the far more important issues raised by the publication of Darwin'sOrigin of Species.” A modern student of press reactions to Darwin found thatEssays and Reviewsreceived quantitatively more attention and concluded: “Darwin's book received decidedly less immediate attention in the press than the theological Essays and Reviews … [T]here is little doubt that science was no match for religion in the competition for public interest in Mid-Victorian Britain.” HadEssays and Reviewsbeen published when first advertised in February 1859, or even when rescheduled in October, it, rather than theOrigin of Species, would have been the major book of that critical year.