The Savage Worlds of Henry Drummond (1851–1897): Science, Racism and Religion in the Work of a Popular Evolutionist

Enhancing Christian Life: How Extended Cognition Augments Religious Community

Amos Funkenstein (1937-1995) was, at the time of his death, professor of Jewish studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He previously held appointments at UCLA and at Tel Aviv and Stanford universities. He came from a very Orthodox religious home in Jerusalem and received a traditional Jewish education in some of the best Orthodox schools in the city. However, as a teenager, he already declared his lack of belief in God. He continued his advanced studies for one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and then, in 1958, went to Germany where he received his B.A. and, in 1965, his doctorate in philosophy from the Free University of Berlin for a dissertation entitled Heilsplan and naturliche Entwicklung. He then came to America to begin his teaching career at UCLA in 1967. His two major intellectual interests were the emergence of modem science and its impact on modem philosophy, as analyzed especially in his important 1986 study, Theology and the Scientific Imagination, and Jewish philosophy in all its forms in both the medieval and modem periods. He wrote a substantial book on Maimonides, the greatest of the medieval Jewish philosophers, as well as important studies of the major medieval Jewish biblical commentator and kabbalist Moses ben Nalman (Nalmanides). He felt very strongly that knowledge of this medieval tradition was required in order to fully understand modem Jewish thought. At the same time, his long years of study in Germany made him especially familiar with and sympathetic to the long line of modem Jewish philosophers from Moses Mendelssohn to Martin Buber and Franz Rosenzweig, though he did not share their religious beliefs. In addition, he had deep interests in the philosophy of history, Jewish history, and the history of biblical exegesis. A polymath, his work ranges over a wide variety of eras and subjects.

Gods, Games, and Globalization: New Perspectives on Religion and Sport

FOR two hundred years, popular writers have attacked traditional religious beliefs in the name of science and pretty well undermined the faith of the plain man. Now, however, the sceptical attitude is turned against science itself, at a moment when, thanks to recent developments of physical theory, science appears vulnerable intellectually and, thanks to recent developments of military and political technique, still more vulnerable morally. Modern men, finding themselves with nothing to put their faith in, fill the spiritual vacuum with bogus religion based on bogus science, like Nazism and Communism. Even the more modest alternative, the assurance that all problems are technological and that the salvation of mankind depends on bigger and better gadgets, is not entirely satisfactory. The new quarterly magazine, Science and Religion (edited by* Dr. Robert E. D. Clark, Paternoster Press, Ludgate House, Fleet Street, London, E.C.4. 1s. 6d. per copy), is intended, as the editor says, "to make science cultural ; to show how science may strengthen religious belief instead of being allowed to develop independently and unconnected with our deepest needs". It is intended for the general public and particularly the young who learn something about science at school and are eager to know more. The articles in the first two numbers are excellently designed for their purpose. They are short, simply written and informative. Many of them are reviews of recent important books. The subjects include chemistry, biology, anthropology, psychology on the more purely scientific side, also historical and philosophical work. If the present standard can be maintained, the venture deserves to be a success.

The question ‘How does religion relate to the world?’ needs to be broken down into a number of separate questions. Most obviously, there is the question of what religious propositions are about: what is their subject-matter? Religious language has several strands, so presumably many kinds of facts and contexts must be taken into account. But is there a special religious or metaphysical subject-matter, e.g. God, His attributes and actions, or is religion just a special response to ordinary life or to history? Since, however, religious belief is not just a question of accepting certain propositions, but involves behaviour and non-propositional uses of language like prayers and commands, we need to re-phrase these questions. Using Wittgenstein’s terminology we might ask: what is the area of life in which religious language-games and forms of life occur and make sense? What are the contexts and surroundings of the concepts which religious people use? What features of the universe, what aspects of human life and history must we consider? In the case of Christianity, how do we relate the forms of life and language-games of present-day Christians to the person and life of Christ?

This chapter addresses the role of trees in religious belief in Britain from prehistory to the later Middle Ages. Despite considerable change to religious practices over the course of millennia, trees have retained a relatively constant symbolic function within systems of belief as signs of the annual seasonal cycle, which affects humans no less than it does the world around us. The principal focus of this chapter is the earliest period for which there is surviving “historical” evidence, namely the early medieval, in which Anglo-Saxon traditional religion was supplanted by Christianity. In the form of the Holy Rood, trees remained a prominent symbolic presence in Christianity throughout the medieval period, being intimately intertwined with the life of Christ and Christian spiritual history.

A survey of Chicago Protestant ministers done in 1928 was replicated in 1978. A total of 54 questions about religious beliefs were asked in six denominations. The overall change was a shift of about 7 percentage points in the liberal direction. Beliefs on some theological topics changed, while others did not change. The topics changing most were the nature and authority of the Bible, the place of the church in Christian life, the afterlife, and the meaning of pain and suffering. Of the six denominations, the Lutherans changed most since 1928, when they were clearly the most conservative. The trends portray not a general secularization but a series of selective changes reflecting the forces of assimilation and accommodation.

In the first half of the nineteenth century a remarkable group of Scottish evangelicals set out to address the theological questions raised by the possibility of intelligent life on other worlds. These included the popular science writer Thomas Dick, reformer and political economist Thomas Chalmers, natural philosopher David Brewster, and geologist and journalist Hugh Miller. All concluded that only a universe where life was ubiquitous would be compatible with the power and wisdom of the Deity. Each of them proceeded to formulate an answer to the problem of how the incarnation and atonement of Christ could relate to beings on other planets. The writings of these figures present a fascinating case study on how an important group of evangelical thinkers attempted to meet the challenges posed by modern science, not by rejecting its findings, but by developing a new synthesis between it and their religious beliefs.

Although Pentecostal Protestants are often included under the broad term “evangelical Protestant,” research suggests that Pentecostals are distinct from other evangelical Protestants in their religious and secular beliefs and activities. In this research note, we demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of a religious classification that accounts for differences between affiliates of Pentecostal denominations and affiliates of other Protestant denominations. Analysis of nationally representative survey data shows that affiliates of evangelical Protestant and Pentecostal Protestant denominations differ in their levels of education, religious beliefs, attitudes on social issues, and political ideology. These differences are largely congruent with theoretical expectations of differences among Protestant subgroups. The classification of Pentecostal denominations presented in this research note is an important tool for researchers, which can be applied to a wide range of social scientific inquiries.

Wyclif’s theological doctrines are reasonably familiar and I do not intend to dwell upon them unduly here. They had their focus in his concepts of the Church, the Bible and the eucharisr, and they were the outcome of a singular combination of a metaphysics of realism—the belief in the reality of universal essences or natures, such as genera and species, and including being itself as the most universal essence of all—and an apostolic or evangelical view of Christian life, modeled on the life of Christ and his disciples, as one of purely spiritual mission and temporal renunciation. It was that combination which made Wyclif’s religious beliefs distinctive, and it is that which I wish to consider here.

Reviewed by: Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon? Paul S. Boyer, Merle Curti Professor of History Emeritus Christian Zionism: Road-map to Armageddon? by Stephen Sizer. Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005. 298 pp. $29.00. No one who follows events in the Middle East can fail to be aware of the involvement of so-called Christian Zionists in the politics of the region. These are evangelical Protestants whose reading of Bible prophecy convinces them that God has a distinct end-time plan for the Jews—a plan whose fulfillment [End Page 160] is integral to Christ's second coming and thousand-year Millennial reign. According to this interpretive system, known as premillennial dispensationalism, as the End approaches, Israel will expand to incorporate the lands God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed, from the Euphrates to "the river of Egypt." The Jews will also take over Jerusalem's Temple Mount and rebuild the Temple on the site now occupied by two sacred Islamic shrines. Stephen Sizer, an evangelical Anglican clergyman, offers a history and critique of this version of Christian Zionism. His book may seem heavy going in places for readers not immersed in this belief system, but it does illuminate prophetic beliefs that shape the attitudes of millions of evangelical Protestants worldwide, and especially in the United States, toward Israel, the Palestinians, and Islam. (These End-Time beliefs also influence believers' view of the United Nations, the global economy, and U.S. mass culture—but that is another story.) Sizer begins by tracing the British origins of dispensationalism and its Zionist component. This belief system is usually credited to John Darby, a founder of the Plymouth Brethren, an English dissenting sect. Sizer, however, stresses the role of such now-obscure figures as Edward Irving, a Scottish preacher popular in London in the 1820s, and Henry Drummond, a banker and politician with an interest in Bible prophecy. He traces the influence of these beliefs on later British leaders, including David Lloyd George, the prime minister who oversaw the issuance of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, calling for "a National Home for the Jewish people" in Palestine. Readers interested in the evolution of American attitudes toward Israel will welcome Sizer's discussion of dispensationalism's migration to the United States through John Darby's evangelistic tours and the preaching and writings of James H. Brookes, Arno C. Gaebelein, Cyrus Scofield, and other late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century figures. Sizer notes the importance of the wealthy Chicago real-estate developer William Blackstone, a committed dispensationalist and early Zionist. Visiting Jewish agricultural colonies in Palestine in 1888–89, Blackstone saw them as exciting portents of Christ's imminent return. In 1891, five years before Theodor Herzl's Zionist manifesto Der Judenstaat, Blackstone drafted a "Memorial" calling for a Jewish state in Palestine, "according to God's distribution of nations," as a response to Czarist pogroms. He secured signatures from J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, the Chief Justice of the United States, and some 400 other government and business leaders. With reason, Louis D. Brandeis later praised Blackstone as "the Father of Zionism." Sizer's chapter on dispensationalism's political implications is particularly timely. Popular writers and televangelists like Hal Lindsey, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, and James Hagee, together with politicians [End Page 161] who share their beliefs (or seek the votes of those who do), have been outspoken supporters of Israeli control of the West Bank and Gaza, as a step toward the prophesied expansion to the biblical boundaries, and of all Jerusalem and Temple Mount—essential to the rebuilding of the Temple. These Christian Zionists reject Palestinian political or territorial claims; denigrate the Palestinian people in language that Sizer finds disturbingly analogous to Nazi stereotypes of the Jews; and, in their prophecy-fueled worldview, demonize Islam as vile and sinister. Such figures, reinforced by a network of like-minded organizations, writes Sizer, constitute "probably the most powerful lobby in the United States today, influencing not only American foreign policy but also the chances of a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict" (p. 105). Sizer only passingly mentions the darker side of the dispensationalist version...

Polling data has indicated that evangelical Christians tend toward skepticism about the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Recognizing that evangelical Christians compose a politically influential population, we conducted interviews with pastors and lay members of churches in Dallas, Texas to assess the relationship between their religious beliefs and their views on climate change. In-depth interviews showed more complex relationships between religious and climate beliefs than has been documented by previous survey-based research. The interviews revealed a set of interrelated religious beliefs, namely in biblical inerrancy, God’s sovereignty, human sinfulness, eschatology, and evangelism, from which evangelicals draw to describe their perceptions of climate change. Our analysis shows how common belief interpretations contribute to skepticism of human-induced climate change for many interviewees. We also describe how alternative interpretations of these same beliefs promoted environmental concern and even acceptance of anthropogenic climate change among other interviewees. Results suggest the need to account for how faith shapes the complex and nuanced environmental beliefs that evangelicals hold.

Background Evangelical Christian college students navigate campus buoyed by Christian privilege but may encounter silencing or othering tied to their religious beliefs, a feeling of incompatibility with their campus climate, and conflations of their religious and political beliefs that are inaccurate and discouraging. Unsupportive campus climates can discourage evangelical students from having productive exchanges across difference and deepening their own worldview commitments, which is concerning due to their general lack of interfaith participation that challenges stereotypes and unnuanced assumptions. Purpose This study explores how evangelical Christians perceive their campus climates and whether those perceptions are different based on other social identity intersections with gender, race, sexuality, and political affiliation. In addition to individual characteristics, how the campus environment and various curricular and co-curricular experiences moderate evangelical students’ perceptions of the worldview climate is examined. Methods A sample of 1235 evangelical college students was examined via means, standard deviations, and ranges for six campus climate measures, one-way ANOVAs to examine whether those measures differed by different identity dimensions, and then multilevel modeling to better understand the role of campus experiences in evangelicals’ perceptions of their campus climate. Results Evangelical students’ campus climate perceptions were generally positive; more provocative encounters were reported by women than men and evangelical Asian students indicated more divisiveness, more insensitivity, and less space for support than their peers. Political affiliation also revealed several significant differences in perceived campus climate. Interfaith engagement through pre-college activities, formal and informal activities, and friendships were connected to perceptions of campus climate, with those reporting more engagement being more likely to have productive encounters across difference and to report insensitivity or divisiveness. Religious affiliation was the most significant institutional characteristic. Conclusions and Implications This study illuminates how collegiate experiences and campus environments exacerbate or attenuate evangelical Christian students’ perceptions of the campus climate, and the results indicate that effective teaching practices where true interfaith experiences happen and that create inclusive space for evangelical students in the classroom are key to fostering development, especially in light of the social status ambiguity evangelical college students may be experiencing during their college years.

Zionism was and remains a national movement with the goal of establishing the State of Israel. This chapter shows that the economic processes that set the stage for the migration of labor in a globalized scale may become an inextricable part of the cultural processes whereby religious beliefs, rituals, and symbols are produced, disseminated, and consumed. It traces the creation of Evangelical Churches by and for Latin-American migrant workers within the context of the Jewish state. The chapter relates to the social significance of religious practices and beliefs, both as particular forms of production and consumption, for migrants’ individual and collective identity in the host society. It focuses on the construction of identity via the articulation of symbols, rituals, and religious practices, in “protected” spaces such as immigrant Churches in Israel. The chapter also focuses on the role of immigrant Churches in satisfying the needs for social status, prestige, and power, and recognition within the immigrant community.

What is the relationship between religion and human development? Using data from the pooled 1981–2014 World and European Values Surveys, we examine the effect of human development on a country's level of religious attendance and belief. Consistent with the idea that the primary causal mechanism underlying secularization theory has to do with the substitutability of secular and religious goods, we find that human development has a negative effect on religious attendance but no effect on religious belief. Our results indicate that as societies develop, we should not be surprised if religious belief remains high even as religious attendance declines. The negative effect of human development on religious attendance is driven primarily by a country's level of education and health. Our analysis suggests that it is important to think carefully about what one's theoretical model of the secularization process implies for different aspects of religion.