Victoria Institute

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Victoria Institute
Established 1865, as "Philosophical Society of Great Britain"; now uses the working name "Faith and Thought"
President Sir John T. Houghton
Website faithandthought.org.uk

The Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain, was founded in 1865, as a response to the publication of On the Origin of Species and Essays and Reviews. Its stated objective was to defend "the great truths revealed in Holy Scripture ... against the opposition of Science falsely so called." Although it was not officially opposed to evolution, it attracted a number of scientists sceptical of Darwinism, including John William Dawson and Arnold Guyot.[1]

Heyday and decline

The Victoria Institute enjoyed considerable success in the late nineteenth century, with membership (including several members of the Royal Society) reaching a high point of 1,246 in 1897, but quickly plummeted to less than one third of that figure in the first two decades of the twentieth century.[1] James Clerk Maxwell was repeatedly invited to join the institute, including in writing in 1875, but, although he was a devout evangelical Christian, he turned down the invitations, due the institute's narrow outlook and conservatism. Only a few prominent scientists who were Evangelicals joined it.[2]

Prominent Canadian creationist (and long-standing institute member) George McCready Price, attended meetings regularly while living in London between 1924 and 1928, but his views failed to persuade the membership.[3]

In 1927 it appointed prominent electrical engineer and physicist John Ambrose Fleming as its president. Fleming's 1935 presidential address, on his views on anthropology and the Bible, provoked commentary from leading London newspapers and a lengthy reply from anatomist and anthropologist Arthur Keith.[4]

Though it was anti-evolution at first, the institute joined the theistic evolution camp by the 1920s. Its library and study centre were destroyed in World War II by bombs, and J.W. Haas, Jr. noted in 1990 that it therefore had little recent influence on the British scene other than through its journal Faith and Thought [5](The Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute became Faith and Thought in 1958, which, in turn, merged with the Christians in Science Newsletter to become Science and Christian Belief in 1989[6]).

Current organisation

The Victoria Institute currently uses the working name 'Faith and Thought'.[7] Its current president is John T. Houghton. Its current vice-presidents include Malcolm Jeeves, Kenneth Kitchen, and Alan Ralph Millard.[8] In conjunction with Christians in Science, it publishes Science and Christian Belief (into which Faith and Thought was merged) twice yearly.[9] It also publishes Faith & Thought, "Relating advances in knowledge to faith within society" since 2005. This title replaces the Faith and Thought Bulletin, which, in turn, replaced the Faith and Thought Newsletter, which was started in 1985.[10]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Numbers(2006) p162
  2. ↑ McNatt, Jerrold L. (September 2004). "James Clerk Maxwell's Refusal to Join the Victoria Institute". Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (American Scientific Affiliation) 56 (3): 204–215. 
  3. ↑ Numbers(2006) p162-163
  4. ↑ Numbers(2006) pp164-165
  5. ↑ Haas, J.W. (March 1990). "Science & Christian Faith in Western Europe: Personal View". Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith (American Scientific Affiliation) 42: 39–44. Retrieved 5 November 2009. 
  6. ↑ Faith & Thought (formerly Faith and Thought Newsletter, started in 1985), ISSN 0955-2790, back cover
  7. ↑ Introduction, Faith and Thought
  8. ↑ "Officers and Council on Faith and Thought Website". Retrieved 12 April 2008. 
  9. ↑ World Evangelical Fellowship, Evangelical review of theology, Volume 15, p. 191, Paternoster Press (1991). Retrieved 5 November 2009
  10. ↑ Faith & Thought (formerly Faith and Thought Newsletter, started in 1985), ISSN 0955-2790, back cover

References

  • Numbers, Ronald (30 November 2006). The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, Expanded Edition. Harvard University Press. pp. 624 pages. ISBN 0-674-02339-0. 

Further reading

  • Faith and Thought (Victoria Institute), Paternoster Press, 1958–1988. Vol. 90, no. 1 (spring 1958)-v. 114, no. 2 (Oct. 1988).
Merged with: Science and Faith, to form: Science & Christian Belief.
Continues: Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical Society of Great Britain (1867–1957).

External links

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