Quakers, Jews, and Science

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines how two religious minorities — the Quaker and Anglo-Jewish communities — engaged with the sciences. It argues that for both Quakers and Jews, science offered educational and career opportunities and ways of participating in the wider society. Members of both communities pursued their own scientific interests, with Quakers being attracted principally to the observational sciences. Drawing on a wealth of documentary material, this book charts the involvement of Quakers and Jews in many different aspects of science: scientific research, science education, science-related careers, and scientific institutions ranging from the Royal Society to the Great Exhibition. Particularly instructive are the responses of both communities to the challenge of modernity posed principally by Darwin’s theory of evolution. It is shown that both communities were generally pro-evolution, and looked askance at those dogmatic Christians who opposed Darwin’s theory. During the closing years of the nineteenth century, progressives in both communities deployed science, especially the theory of evolution, in their arguments against traditionalists within their own ranks.