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 ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'' and ''

Essays and Reviews ''Essays and Reviews'', edited by John William Parker, published in March 1860, is a broad-church volume of seven essays on Christianity. The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidence for Christianity, religious tho ...

''. 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 Sir John William Dawson (1820–1899) was a Canadian geologist and university administrator. Life and work John William Dawson was born on 13 October 1820 in Pictou, Nova Scotia, where he attended and graduated from Pictou Academy. Of Scotti ...

and

Arnold Guyot Arnold Henry Guyot ( ) (September 28, 1807February 8, 1884) was a Swiss-American geologist and geographer. Early life Guyot was born on September 28, 1807, at Boudevilliers, near Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He was educated at Chaux-de-Fonds, then ...

.Numbers(2006) p162

Early years

The Victoria Institute was established in 1865 by a group of London evangelicals, with the

Earl of Shaftesbury Earl of Shaftesbury is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1672 for Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley, a prominent politician in the Cabal then dominating the policies of King Charles II. He had already succeeded his fa ...

as its first president. Its first honorary secretary, James Reddie, was a staunch critic of Darwinism, which he described as "''inharmonious''" and "utterly ''incredible''", and

Philip Henry Gosse Philip Henry Gosse FRS (; 6 April 1810 – 23 August 1888), known to his friends as Henry, was an English naturalist and populariser of natural science, an early improver of the seawater aquarium, and a painstaking innovator in the study of ma ...

, author of '' Omphalos'', was a vice-president. However, evolution was a relatively minor concern, with much attention being paid to the threat of Biblical criticism.

Heyday and decline

The Victoria Institute enjoyed considerable success in the late nineteenth century, having Sir G. G. Stokes as president from 1886 till his death, whilst

President of the Royal Society The president of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected Head of the Royal Society of London who presides over meetings of the society's council. After informal meetings at Gresham College, the Royal Society was officially founded on 28 November ...

. Membership reached 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.

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and li ...

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 to the institute's narrow outlook and conservatism. Only a few prominent scientists who were Evangelicals joined it. Prominent Canadian creationist (and long-standing institute member)

George McCready Price George McCready Price (26 August 1870 – 24 January 1963) was a Canadian creationist. He produced several anti-evolution and creationist works, particularly on the subject of flood geology. His views did not become common among creationists u ...

, attended meetings regularly while living in London between 1924 and 1928, but his views failed to persuade the membership. In 1927 it appointed prominent electrical engineer and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

John Ambrose Fleming Sir John Ambrose Fleming FRS (29 November 1849 – 18 April 1945) was an English electrical engineer and physicist who invented the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, designed the radio transmitter with which the first transatlantic ra ...

as its president. He thought himself a creationist and insisted on creation of the soul, but his acceptance of divinely guided development and of

Pre-Adamite The pre-Adamite hypothesis or pre-Adamism is the theological belief that humans (or intelligent yet non-human creatures) existed before the biblical character Adam. Pre-Adamism is therefore distinct from the conventional Abrahamic belief that Ada ...

humanity meant he was thought of as a

theistic evolution Theistic evolution (also known as theistic evolutionism or God-guided evolution) is a theological view that God creates through laws of nature. Its religious teachings are fully compatible with the findings of modern science, including biological ...

ist. 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 Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

and anthropologist

Arthur Keith Sir Arthur Keith FRS FRAI (5 February 1866 – 7 January 1955) was a British anatomist and anthropologist, and a proponent of scientific racism. He was a fellow and later the Hunterian Professor and conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the R ...

. 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.''Faith & Thought'' (formerly Faith and Thought Newsletter, started in 1985), , back cover

Current organisation

The Victoria Institute currently uses the working name 'Faith and Thought'. Its current president is Professor Sir Colin J. Humphreys. Its current vice-presidents include Malcolm Jeeves,

Kenneth Kitchen Kenneth Anderson Kitchen (born 1932) is a British biblical scholar, Ancient Near Eastern historian, and Personal and Brunner Professor Emeritus of Egyptology and honorary research fellow at the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, Univ ...

, Alan Ralph Millard and

John Warwick Montgomery John Warwick Montgomery (born October 18, 1931) is a lawyer, professor, Lutheran theologian, and author living in France. He was born in Warsaw, New York, United States. From 2014 to 2017, he was Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at ...

. In conjunction with

Christians in Science Christians in Science (CiS) is a British organisation of scientists, philosophers, theologians, ministers, teachers, and science students, predominantly evangelical Christians, concerned with the dialogue between Christianity and science. The orga ...

, it publishes ''

Science and Christian Belief ''Science and Christian Belief'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Christians in Science and the Victoria Institute. The editors-in-chief are Keith R Fox and Meric Srokosz. The journal was established in 1989, with Oliver ...

'' (into which ''Faith and Thought'' was merged) twice yearly. World Evangelical Fellowship
''Evangelical review of theology'', Volume 15, p. 191,

Paternoster Press Paternoster Press is a British Christian publishing house which was founded by B. Howard Mudditt (1906–1992) in 1936. Mudditt was a Bank of England clerk who decided to move into publishing after seeing the many publishers based on London's Pa ...

(1991). Retrieved 5 November 2009 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.

Notes

References

* *

External links

Official Faith and Thought Website

Victoria Institute Archives
at the

John Rylands Library The John Rylands Research Institute and Library is a Victorian era, late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, neo-Gothic building on Deansgate in Manchester, England. It is part of the University of Manchester. The library, which opened to t ...

, Manchester. {{Authority control Evangelical parachurch organizations Christian creationism Christianity and science