Discovery and Revelation: Religion, Science, and Making Sense of Things.
Peter Manseau and Andrew Ali Aghapour. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2022. 159 pages
Reviewed by E. Harold Breitenberg, Jr.
This delightfully informative, intellectually stimulating, and beautifully produced book adds a neglected perspective to learning about science, religion, and the relationships between them, especially in the United States. Based on an exhibit of the same name, which ran for over a year at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, Discovery and Revelation is a novel and important contribution to the growing body of literature about religion and science.
Manseau is the Lilly Endowment Curator of American Religious History at the National Museum of American History, where co-author Aghapour is a consulting scholar of religion and science.
The book is divided into three major sections: Revolutions, Evolutions, and Complexity, each consisting of 1-page introductions followed by eight short articles. All articles are short, 3 or 5 pages each, with the exception of a 7-page article on “Trial of the Century,” about the so-called Scopes “Monkey” Trial of 1925.
An instructive Introduction helps readers understand the approach taken in the book and explains its connection to the Smithsonian exhibit, which was described in the “Religion, Scripture, and Science on Display in D.C.” article in the May 2023 issue of SciTech†.
In addition to covering significant persons and events related to science and religion, which are well known to many, Discovery and Revelation also gives attention to individuals whose connections with religion and science are not as widely understood or appreciated. Moreover, while articles such as “And Yet it Moves,” “The Bible Surgeon,” “Darwin in America,” “Trial of the Century,” and “Playing Dice with the Universe” cover familiar ground—Galileo, the so-called Jefferson Bible, Darwin, the Scopes “Monkey” Trial, and Einstein, respectively—these topics gain perspective and become more real to readers through photographs of physical objects depicted with each: a letter Galileo wrote while under house arrest in 1635 to Nicolas Peiresc, expressing the fear Galileo had that his many discoveries, obtained through science, may be stifled; the English New Testament from which Thomas Jefferson cut selected passages which he then pasted into the collage he titled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth Extracted Textually from the Gospels in Greek, Latin, French & English; Asa Gray (a scientist and devout Christian) and Rabbi Kaufman Kohler, both of whom supported Darwin and saw no conflict between evolution and their respective religious traditions, and geologist Louis Aggasiz who instead favored polygenism and creationism; outhouses close to the location of the Scopes trial with a “Read Your BIBLE” sign displayed on them; and Einstein’s pipe.
Lesser known individuals and circumstances are covered in articles titled “Thomas Paine’s Clockwork Universe,” about the importance of orreries for the development of Paine’s religious perspective, which significantly differed from the dominant Christian worldview of his time; “Religious Freedom and the Air We Breathe,” that describes the minister, chemist, political theorist, and natural philosopher Joseph Priestley’s contributions to religious freedom; “Our Celestial Visitant,” a discussion of the importance of comets for William Miller and his Millerite followers, and, years later, for Ellen Harding Baker (1847-1888), an astronomer and educator who created a “Solar System” quilt; ”Her Heavenly Radium,” highlighting the influences of Marie Curie’s discovery of radium on religious belief and understandings of the Earth’s age, as well as the interest she and her husband, Pierre Curie, had in the séances of Eusapia Palladino, a touring medium from Italy; and “Your Brain on God,” that recounts some of the ways scientific research has been conducted in recent decades on practitioners of various religious traditions, including meditating Buddhist monks and nuns as well as the ceremonial use of peyote by Native Americans.
Although best known for his connection to the Salem witch trials in colonial Massachusetts, in “Something of Ye Small-Pox” readers learn about the importance Puritan minister Cotton Mather also had for medicine and science in America. “A Pharmacist’s Herb Garden” explores Sister Francis Xavier Hebert’s compounding of medicines from plants in a garden she grew during the second quarter of the 18th century, which were used in the hospital she and other members of an Ursuline religious community established in New Orleans.
“What Hath God Wrought” takes us into the early days of the telegraph and how that invention contributed to extensive changes in religion in the United States. Samuel F. B. Morse was a devout Christian and used the phrase “What Hath God Wrought,” from Numbers 23:23, in the inaugural telegraph he sent in 1844 from the U.S. Capital to Baltimore, Maryland. Spiritualists, whose first magazine was titled The Spiritual Telegraph, the Oneida Community, and various other religious persons and groups interpreted the telegraph and other new technologies of the mid-nineteenth century as largely positive developments and anticipated great contributions to the cause of religion from them.
While many people know about one or more accomplishments of inventor, astronomer, naturalist, and inventor Benjamin Banneker, few may have heard about the almanacs he produced over a period of several years and ways that the religious interests of this Black farmer dovetailed with his scientific and other achievements.
Banneker included descriptions of his dreams and church feast days along with forecasts for eclipses in his astronomical journal. He also corresponded with leading figures of the new United States, including Thomas Jefferson. As the book notes, “Banneker was the first Black man to directly and publicly challenge Jefferson’s prejudiced assumptions [about race] and the exchange [of letters between Banneker and Jefferson] was circulated widely by abolitionists in the United States and Great Britain.”
A prominent feature of the book is its many interesting photographs and reproductions of historic artifacts.
The numerous engaging images and short articles combine to produce a book that is visually appealing and easy to read. College students find the book especially attractive, particularly in the way Discovery and Revelation brings together celebrated as well as obscure but fascinating persons and events, thereby making tangible many aspects of science, faith, and religion that often seem quite remote from students’ own lives and experiences. Endnotes for each article appear at the end of the book, providing a useful list of source material. Highly recommended.
