Gentle Skeptics?: American Catholic Encounters with Polygenism, Geology, and Evolutionary Theories from 1845 to 1875

GENTLE SKEPTICS? AMERICAN CATHOLIC ENCOUNTERS WITH POLYGENISM, GEOLOGY,AND EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES FROM 1845 TO 1875 by William J.Astorl* For many Christians, the middle decades of the nineteenth century witnessed new scientific discoveries and theories which appeared to threaten their beliefs. American Protestant responses to these new discoveries and theories, particularly to evolution, have been well studied by historians.1 In comparison, American Catholic responses have earned far less scrutiny2 Admittedly,American Catholics wrote comparatively little on science and produced no commentator of St. George Jackson Mivart's stature and influence within the scientific community.1 'Captain Astore (USAF) has recently completed a D.Phil, degree in modern history at the University of Oxford. He wishes to thank Robert Fox, Graeme Gooday, John H. Brooke, Carolyn T. Lee, and Ronald L. Numbers. He wishes to extend special thanks to Sharon Kingsland for her continued support and guidance. 'James R. Moore, The Post-Darwinian Controversies:A Study of the Protestant Struggle to Come to Terms with Darwin in Great Britain and America, 1870-1900 (Cambridge , 1979); Jon H. Roberts, Darwinism and the Divine in America: Protestant Intellectuals and Organic Evolution, 1859-1900 (Madison,Wisconsin, 1988); David Livingstone , Darwin 's Forgotten Defenders: The Encounter between Evangelical Theology and Evolutionary Thought (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1987); Frederick Gregory, "The Impact of Darwinian Evolution on Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century," in David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (eds.), God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1986), pp. 369-390. 'John L. Morrison, "A History of American Catholic Opinion on the Theory of Evolution , 1859-1950 "(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri, 1951);John R. Betts,"Darwinism , Evolution, and American Catholic Thought, 1860-1900," Catholic Historical Review, XLV OuIy, 1959), 161-185; R. Scott Appleby, "Church andAge Unite! "The Modernist Impulse in American Catholicism (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1992); Ralph E. Weber, Notre Dame'sJohn Zahm (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1961). On Mivart see Jacob W. Gruber,^4 Conscience in Conflict: The Life ofSt. GeorgeJackson Mivart (New York, 1960). Also useful is Robert J. Richards, Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (Chicago, 1987), esp. pp. 225-229, 354-363- For other English Catholic responses see John D. Root, "Catholicism 40 BYWlLLtAMJASTORE41 American Catholics did, however, produce thoughtful, measured responses which revealed uniquely Catholic concerns in a distinctly American intellectual and social context.4 In this article American Catholic responses to science from 1845 to 1859 will be explored first. Polygenism—not geology or evolutionary theories—emerged as the most significant issue. Polygenists denied that all humans were Adam's descendants, some arguing that the different races of man were actually distinct species.5 Polygenism enjoyed significant support in antebellum America partly for its seemingly scientific legitimation of slavery/' Because of the significant support it enand Science in Victorian England," Clergy Review, 66 (April and May, 1981), 138-147, l62-170;John Lyon,"Immediate Reactions to Darwin:The English Catholic Press'First Reviews of the Origin of the Species,'" Church History, 41 (1972), 78-93; Alvar Ellegàrd, Darwin and the General Reader:The Reception ofDarwin's Theory ofEvolution in the British Periodical Press, 1859-1872 (Göteborg, 1958), esp. pp. 38, 61, 98-99, 106-109, 154,302,313,318. The subtlety and complexity of past relations between religion and science are now well recognized by historians. The most recent and best survey is John Hedley Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (Cambridge, 1991). See also the fine bibliographical essay by Ronald L. Numbers, "Science and Religion," Osiris, 2d series, I (1985), 59-80. 'William Stanton, The Leopard's Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59 (Chicago, I960); David N. Livingstone, The Preadamite Theory and the Marriage ofScience and Religion (Philadelphia, 1992); idem, "Preadamites:The History of an Idea from Heresy to Orthodoxy," Scottish Journal of Theology, 40 (1987), 41-66; Peter Bowler, Theories of Human Evolution: A Century of Debate, 1844-1944 (Baltimore, 1986); Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny: The Origins ofAmerican Racial Anglo-Saxonism (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1981);Thomas F. Gossett, Race, the History of an Idea in America (Dallas, 1963); Thomas Virgil Peterson, Ham andJapheth: The Mythic...