Jean-André de Luc (1727–1817): an atheist's comparative view of the historiography

Abstract

AbstractThe paper considers issues arising when historians of different theological persuasions write about geologists whose religious principles influenced their geological work. For illustrative purposes, three accounts of the work of Jean-André de Luc are discussed, written by a freethinker (Charles Gillispie); an Anglican (Martin Rudwick); and two co-authors, one a Calvinist (François Ellenberger) and the other an atheist (Gabriel Gohau). The issue of understanding or empathizing (or otherwise) with one's subject in writing the history of geology is raised. It is suggested that the accounts of de Luc discussed here show the marks of the religious views of the different historians. In discussing this suggestion, the concepts of ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ from cultural anthropology are deployed. (These terms indicate, respectively, an ‘insider's’ or an ‘outsider's’ approach to a subject.) Older geological writings commonly reflected their authors' religious perspectives; but this is much less common in modern work. Therefore the science–religion issue will become of less importance for historians writing about the history of geology for the twentieth century onwards.