Evolution and Religion

Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congregationalist minister, social reformer, journal editor and orator. People flocked to hear his lecture tours and preaching, in which - in addition to campaigning against slavery and promoting women’s suffrage - he embraced the theory of evolution at a time when many pastors were violently opposed to it. Volume II of Evolution and Religion, published in 1885, two years before Beecher’s death, is a collection of lectures in which he uses the insights of evolutionism to probe various facets of Christian life and doctrine, including love of God and neighbour. Beecher’s powerful writing reveals the charisma and enthusiasm which made him such a popular speaker in his day and makes this book particularly rewarding reading for historians of nineteenth-century science, religion and society.