Of Snails and Salvation

Abstract

The Christian missionary John Thomas Gulick (1832–1923) has long been recognized as an important evolutionary theorist. Most recently, his scientific contributions have been commended by biologists skeptical of the sufficiency of pan-adaptationist accounts of evolution. While Gulick’s scientific work has been noticed, his theological and metaphysical commitments have been largely dismissed, ignored, or downplayed. This paper argues that this not only marginalizes what for Gulick was of central importance but has also distorted historical accounts of his theory of evolution. In the portrait drawn here, Gulick’s understanding of evolution emerges as a significant example of the creative interplay between theological and evolutionary ideas and explanations in the early twentieth century. Gulick’s intellectual influences, his theological vision, and his opposition to fatalism combined to form a lifelong quest to understand both snails and salvation.