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George Combe (1788-1858) rose from humble origins to tour widely in Europe and the United States lecturing on phrenology, the popular Victorian belief that character traits were determined by the configuration of the skull. His most famous book, The Constitution of Man, published in 1828, put forward a naturalist agenda and sold approximately 350,000 copies. In 1857, Combe published On the Relation between Science and Religion. He denounces dogmatism and sectarianism, and argues insistently that religious leaders should encourage the study of science as revealing God's governance. He proposes that phrenology sheds light on the divine purpose and moral laws through an improved understanding of the human mind, and criticises both scientists and religious leaders who maintain that higher thought has nothing to do with the brain. His book ranges widely across the concerns of Victorian educated classes, and addresses questions many of which still resonate today.
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C a m b r i d g e L i b r a r y C o ll e c t i o n Books of enduring scholarly value
Religion For centuries, scripture and theology were the focus of prodigious amounts of scholarship and publishing, dominated in the English-speaking world by the work of Protestant Christians. Enlightenment philosophy and science, anthropology, ethnology and the colonial experience all brought new perspectives, lively debates and heated controversies to the study of religion and its role in the world, many of which continue to this day. This series explores the editing and interpretation of religious texts, the history of religious ideas and institutions, and not least the encounter between religion and science.
On the Relation Between Science and Religion George Combe (1788-1858) rose from humble origins to tour widely in Europe and the United States lecturing on phrenology, the popular Victorian belief that character traits were determined by the configuration of the skull. His most famous book, The Constitution of Man, published in 1828, put forward a naturalist agenda and sold approximately 350,000 copies, distributed by over 100 publishers, by 1900. In 1857, Combe published On the Relation between Science and Religion. He describes his childhood bafflement as to how God governs the world, his delight on observing the laws of nature, and his disillusionment with human social organisation. He denounces dogmatism and sectarianism, and argues insistently that religious leaders should encourage the study of science as revealing God’s governance, rather than discourage it. He proposes that phrenology sheds light on the divine purpose and moral laws through an improved understanding of the workings of the human mind (identifying ’affective’ and ‘intellectual’ areas of the brain responsible for traits such as ‘benevolence’, ‘wonder’, and ‘hope’), and criticises both scientists and religious leaders who maintain that higher thought and moral behaviour has nothing to do with the brain. His book ranges widely across the concerns of Victorian educated classes, referring to books (including Paley’s Natural Theology as well as the phrenology works of Gall and Spurzheim), statistics on church attendance, popular views on Eastern religions, spiritualism, and Roman Catholicism, and current affairs. It is a fascinating document of its time, and addresses questions many of which still resonate today.
Cambridge University Press has long been a pioneer in the reissuing of out-of-print titles from its own backlist, producing digital reprints of books that are still sought after by scholars and students but could not be reprinted economically using traditional technology. The Cambridge Library Collection extends this activity to a wider range of books which are still of importance to researchers and professionals, either for the source material they contain, or as landma