History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom | Page 6

ideas for which so bitter a struggle was made at its foundation have
triumphed. Its faculty, numbering over one hundred and, fifty; its
students, numbering but little short of two thousand; its noble buildings
and equipment; the munificent gifts, now amounting to millions of
dollars, which it has received from public-spirited men and women; the
evidences of public confidence on all sides; and, above all, the adoption
of its cardinal principles and main features by various institutions of
learning in other States, show this abundantly. But there has been a
triumph far greater and wider. Everywhere among the leading modern
nations the same general tendency is seen. During the quarter-century
just past the control of public instruction, not only in America but in the
leading nations of Europe, has passed more and more from the clergy to
the laity. Not only are the presidents of the larger universities in the
United States, with but one or two exceptions, laymen, but the same
thing is seen in the old European strongholds of metaphysical theology.
At my first visit to Oxford and Cambridge, forty years ago, they were
entirely under ecclesiastical control. Now, all this is changed. An
eminent member of the present British Government has recently said,
"A candidate for high university position is handicapped by holy
orders." I refer to this with not the slightest feeling of hostility toward
the clergy, for I have none; among them are many of my dearest friends;
no one honours their proper work more than I; but the above fact is
simply noted as proving the continuance of that evolution which I have
endeavoured to describe in this series of monographs--an evolution,
indeed, in which the warfare of Theology against Science has been one
of the most active and powerful agents. My belief is that in the field left

to them--their proper field--the clergy will more and more, as they
cease to struggle against scientific methods and conclusions, do work
even nobler and more beautiful than anything they have heretofore
done. And this is saying much. My conviction is that Science, though it
has evidently conquered Dogmatic Theology based on biblical texts
and ancient modes of thought, will go hand in hand with Religion; and
that, although theological control will continue to diminish, Religion,
as seen in the recognition of "a Power in the universe, not ourselves,
which makes for righteousness," and in the love of God and of our
neighbor, will steadily grow stronger and stronger, not only in the
American institutions of learning but in the world at large. Thus may
the declaration of Micah as to the requirements of Jehovah, the
definition by St. James of "pure religion and undefiled," and, above all,
the precepts and ideals of the blessed Founder of Christianity himself,
be brought to bear more and more effectively on mankind.
I close this preface some days after its first lines were written. The sun
of spring has done its work on the Neva; the great river flows tranquilly
on, a blessing and a joy; the mujiks are forgotten. A. D. W.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, ST. PETERSBURG, April
14,1894.
P.S.--Owing to a wish to give more thorough revision to some parts of
my work, it has been withheld from the press until the present date. A.
D. W. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y., August 15, 1895.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER I
.
FROM CREATION TO EVOLUTION. I. The Visible Universe.
Ancient and medieval views regarding the manner of creation
Regarding the matter of creation Regarding the time of creation
Regarding the date of creation Regarding the Creator Regarding light
and darkness Rise of the conception of an evolution: among the
Chaldeans,the Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans Its survival through
the Middle Ages, despite the disfavour of the Church Its development
in modern times.--The nebular hypothesis and its struggle with

theology The idea of evolution at last victorious Our sacred books
themselves an illustration of its truth The true reconciliation of Science
and Theology
II. Theological Teachings regarding the Animals and Man. Ancient and
medieval representations of the creation of man Literal acceptance of
the book of Genesis by the Christian fathers By the Reformers By
modern theologians, Catholic and Protestant Theological reasoning as
to the divisions of the animal kingdom The Physiologus, the Bestiaries,
the Exempila Beginnings of sceptical observation Development of a
scientific method in the study of Nature Breaking down of the
theological theory of creation
III. Theological and Scientific Theories of an Evolution in Animated
Nature. Ideas of evolution among the ancients In the early Church In
the medieval Church Development of these ideas from the sixteenth to
the eighteenth centuries The work of De Maillet Of Linneus Of Buffon
Contributions to the theory of evolution at the close of the eighteenth