Product Details
Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain

Science and Salvation: Evangelical Popular Science Publishing in Victorian Britain
By Aileen Fyfe

List Price: CDN$ 29.96
Price: CDN$ 29.88 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $39. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca

7 new or used available from CDN$ 18.00

Product Description

Threatened by the proliferation of cheap, mass-produced publications, the Religious Tract Society issued a series of publications on popular science during the 1840s. The books were intended to counter the developing notion that science and faith were mutually exclusive, and the Society's authors employed a full repertoire of evangelical techniques—low prices, simple language, carefully structured narratives—to convert their readers. The application of such techniques to popular science resulted in one of the most widely available sources of information on the sciences in the Victorian era.

A fascinating study of the tenuous relationship between science and religion in evangelical publishing, Science and Salvation examines questions of practice and faith from a fresh perspective. Rather than highlighting works by expert men of science, Aileen Fyfe instead considers a group of relatively undistinguished authors who used thinly veiled Christian rhetoric to educate first, but to convert as well. This important volume is destined to become essential reading for historians of science, religion, and publishing alike.


Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #769910 in Books
  • Published on: 2004-07-17
  • Original language: English
  • Dimensions: 1.02 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 432 pages

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Threatened by the proliferation of cheap, mass-produced publications, the Religious Tract Society issued a series of publications on popular science during the 1840s. The books were intended to counter the developing notion that science and faith were mutually exclusive, and the Society's authors employed a full repertoire of evangelical techniques—low prices, simple language, carefully structured narratives—to convert their readers. The application of such techniques to popular science resulted in one of the most widely available sources of information on the sciences in the Victorian era.

A fascinating study of the tenuous relationship between science and religion in evangelical publishing, Science and Salvation examines questions of practice and faith from a fresh perspective. Rather than highlighting works by expert men of science, Aileen Fyfe instead considers a group of relatively undistinguished authors who used thinly veiled Christian rhetoric to educate first, but to convert as well. This important volume is destined to become essential reading for historians of science, religion, and publishing alike.

About the Author

Aileen Fyfe is a lecturer in the history of science and medicine at the National University of Ireland, Galway.