3. "Its Fertile Suggestion": Positivism and the American Clergy to 1865

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Abbreviations ix
4. Acknowledgments xi
5. Introduction. "The Bugbear of the Modern Religious Mind" 1
6. Part I. The Transmission of Positivism
7. 1. "Tolerably Familiar to Most": Comte and the British Clergy to 1853 21
8. 2. "That Dilutedcomtism": Positivism and the British Clergy, 1853-1865 57
9. 3. "Its Fertile Suggestion": Positivism and the American Clergy to 1865 93
10. 4. "In The Mouth Of Every Man": Positivism and the Theologians, 1865-1890 142
11. 5. "By The Company They Keep": Positivism's Association With Darwinism and Biblical Criticism 182
12. Part II. The Reconstruction of Theology
13. 6. "Wholly And Finally Given": The Believing Positivists 209
14. 7. "Scepticism Afraid of Itself ": Church Authority and Biblical Literalism 237
15. 8. "We Who Have Broken Loose": Radical Unitarians and Theists 281
16. 9. "Supplementing the Old Work": The Judicious Conservatives 329
17. 10. "New Wine in New Bottles": The Liberals 373
18. Epilogue. "In Common With Ourselves 441
19. Bibliography 449
20. Index 481