Baden Powell (mathematician)
Encyclopedia
Baden Powell, MA
, FRS
, FRGS
(22 August 1796–11 June 1860 Kensington
, London) was an English mathematician
and Church of England
priest. He was also prominent as a liberal theologian
who put forward advanced ideas about evolution
. He held the Savilian Chair of Geometry
at the University of Oxford
from 1827 to 1860. After his death his family changed their surname to Baden-Powell in his memory.
Powell married three times, and had fourteen children in total: Henry
was a naval officer and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
; George
was a politician; Robert
was the founder of the Scouting
movement; Baden
was an aviator; Agnes
was the founder of the Girlguiding UK
. He was the grandfather of Betty Clay
and Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell
, and the great-grandfather of Robert Baden-Powell, 3rd Baron Baden-Powell and Michael Baden-Powell
.
His second marriage on 27 September 1837 to Charlotte Pope (died 14 October 1844) produced one son and three daughters:
His third marriage on 10 March 1846 (at St Luke's Church, Chelsea) with Henrietta Grace Smyth (3 September 1824–13 October 1914), produced seven sons and three daughters:
Shortly after the Powell's death, the remaining children of his third marriage became 'Baden-Powell'. The name legally changed by Royal Licence on 30 April 1902. Baden Henry Powell is often also referred as Baden Henry Baden-Powell.
had revealed his ideas. He argued that science should not be placed next to scripture or the two approaches would conflict, and in his own version of Francis Bacon
's dictum, contended that the book of God's works was separate from the book of God's word, claiming that moral and physical phenomena were completely independent.
His faith in the uniformity of nature (except man's mind) was set out in a theological
argument; if God is a lawgiver, then a "miracle" would break the lawful edicts that had been issued at Creation. Therefore, a belief in miracles would be entirely atheistic. Powell's most significant works defended, in succession, the uniformitarian geology
set out by Charles Lyell
and the evolutionary ideas in Vestiges of Creation published anonymously by Robert Chambers which applied uniform laws to the history of life in contrast to more respectable ideas such as catastrophism
involving a series of divine creations. "He insisted that no tortured interpretation of Genesis would ever suffice; we had to let go of the Days of Creation and base Christianity
on the moral laws of the New Testament
."
The boldness of Powell and other theologians in dealing with science led Joseph Dalton Hooker
to comment in a letter to Asa Gray
dated 29 March 1857: "These parsons are so in the habit of dealing with the abstractions of doctrines as if there was no difficulty about them whatever, so confident, from the practice of having the talk all to themselves for an hour at least every week with no one to gainsay a syllable they utter, be it ever so loose or bad, that they gallop over the course when their field is Botany or Geology as if we were in the pews and they in the pulpit. Witness the self-confident style of Whewell and Baden Powell, Sedgwick and Buckland." William Whewell
, Adam Sedgwick
and William Buckland
opposed evolutionary ideas.
When the idea of natural selection
was mooted by Darwin and Wallace in their 1858 papers to the Linnaean Society, both Powell and his young friend William Henry Flower
thought that natural selection made creation rational.
who produced a manifesto titled Essays and Reviews
around February 1860, which amongst other things joined in the debate over On the Origin of Species. These Anglicans included Oxford professors, country clergymen, the headmaster of Rugby school
and a layman. Their declaration that miracles were irrational stirred up unprecedented anger, drawing much of the fire away from Charles Darwin
. Essays sold 22,000 copies in two years, more than the Origin sold in twenty years, and sparked five years of increasingly polarised debate with books and pamphlets furiously contesting the issues.
Referring to "Mr Darwin's masterly volume" and restating his argument that belief in miracles is atheistic, Baden Powell wrote that the book "must soon bring about an entire revolution in opinion in favour of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature.":
He would have been on the platform at the British Association for the Advancement of Science
1860 Oxford evolution debate
that was a highlight of the reaction to Darwin's theory
. That would indeed have been interesting, for Huxley's antagonist Wilberforce
was also the foremost critic of Essays and Reviews. Sadly, Powell died of a heart attack a fortnight before the meeting.
ISBN 0-5212-4245-2, 346 pages
Master of Arts (Oxbridge)
In the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts of these universities are admitted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university .There is no examination or study required for the degree...
, FRS
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, FRGS
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
(22 August 1796–11 June 1860 Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London) was an English mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
priest. He was also prominent as a liberal theologian
Liberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
who put forward advanced ideas about evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
. He held the Savilian Chair of Geometry
Savilian Professor of Geometry
The position of Savilian Professor of Geometry was established at the University of Oxford in 1619. It was founded by Sir Henry Savile, a mathematician and classical scholar who was Warden of Merton College, Oxford and Provost of Eton College, reacting to what has been described as "the wretched...
at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
from 1827 to 1860. After his death his family changed their surname to Baden-Powell in his memory.
Powell married three times, and had fourteen children in total: Henry
Warington Baden-Powell
Henry Warington Smyth Baden-Powell KC , known as Warington within the family, was Robert Baden-Powell's oldest brother...
was a naval officer and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
; George
George Baden-Powell
George Smyth Baden-Powell KCMG was a son of Baden Powell, and brother of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Baden Baden-Powell, Warington Baden-Powell, and Agnes Baden-Powell...
was a politician; Robert
Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, OM, GCMG, GCVO, KCB , also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, and founder of the Scout Movement....
was the founder of the Scouting
Scouting
Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth movement with the stated aim of supporting young people in their physical, mental and spiritual development, that they may play constructive roles in society....
movement; Baden
Baden Baden-Powell
For the town, see Baden-BadenBaden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell, FS, FRAS, FRMetS was the youngest son of Baden Powell, and the brother of Robert Baden-Powell, Warington Baden-Powell, George Baden-Powell, and Agnes Baden-Powell...
was an aviator; Agnes
Agnes Baden-Powell
Agnes Smyth Baden-Powell was the younger sister of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, and was most noted for her work in establishing the Girl Guide movement as a female counterpart to her older brother's Scouting Movement.-Early life:Agnes was the ninth of ten children, and the third...
was the founder of the Girlguiding UK
Girlguiding UK
Girlguiding UK is the national Guiding organisation of the United Kingdom. Guiding began in the UK in 1910 after Robert Baden-Powell asked his sister Agnes to start a group especially for girls that would be run along similar lines to Scouting for Boys. The Guide Association was a founder member of...
. He was the grandfather of Betty Clay
Betty Clay
The Hon. Betty St. Clair Baden-Powell, Mrs. Clay, CBE was the daughter of Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting and Olave Baden-Powell...
and Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell
Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell
Arthur Robert Peter Baden-Powell, 2nd Baron Baden-Powell, Bt, FRSA was the son of Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, and Olave St. Clair Soames...
, and the great-grandfather of Robert Baden-Powell, 3rd Baron Baden-Powell and Michael Baden-Powell
Michael Baden-Powell
David Michael Baden-Powell is the heir presumptive to the Barony of Baden-Powell. He is the great-grandson of Baden Powell, the grandson of Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, the great-nephew of Agnes Baden-Powell, Baden Baden-Powell, and Warington Baden-Powell,...
.
Family
Powell's first marriage on 21 July 1821 to Eliza Rivaz (died 13 March 1836) was childless.His second marriage on 27 September 1837 to Charlotte Pope (died 14 October 1844) produced one son and three daughters:
- Charlotte Elizabeth Powell, (14 September 1838–20 October 1917)
- Baden Henry Powell, (23 August 1841–2 January 1901)
- Louisa Ann Powell, (18 March 1843–1 August 1896)
- Laetitia Mary Powell, (4 June 1844–2 September 1865)
His third marriage on 10 March 1846 (at St Luke's Church, Chelsea) with Henrietta Grace Smyth (3 September 1824–13 October 1914), produced seven sons and three daughters:
- Henry Warington Smyth Powell, (3 February 1847–24 April 1921)
- George Smyth Powell, (24 December 1847–20 November 1898)
- Augustus Smyth Powell (1849–1863),
- Francis Smyth Powell (later Baden-Powell) (29 July 1850–1931)
- Henrietta Smyth Powell (28 October 1851–9 March 1854),
- John Penrose Smyth Powell (21 December 1852–14 December 1855),
- Jessie Smyth Powell (25 November 1855–24 July 1856),
- Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell, (22 February 1857–8 January 1941)
- Agnes Smyth Powell , (16 December 1858–2 June 1945)
- Baden Fletcher Smyth Powell, (22 May 1860–3 October 1937).
Shortly after the Powell's death, the remaining children of his third marriage became 'Baden-Powell'. The name legally changed by Royal Licence on 30 April 1902. Baden Henry Powell is often also referred as Baden Henry Baden-Powell.
Evolution
Powell was an outspoken advocate of the constant uniformity of the laws of the material world. His views were liberal, and he was sympathetic to evolutionary theory long before Charles DarwinCharles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
had revealed his ideas. He argued that science should not be placed next to scripture or the two approaches would conflict, and in his own version of Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
's dictum, contended that the book of God's works was separate from the book of God's word, claiming that moral and physical phenomena were completely independent.
His faith in the uniformity of nature (except man's mind) was set out in a theological
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
argument; if God is a lawgiver, then a "miracle" would break the lawful edicts that had been issued at Creation. Therefore, a belief in miracles would be entirely atheistic. Powell's most significant works defended, in succession, the uniformitarian geology
Uniformitarianism (science)
In the philosophy of naturalism, the uniformitarianism assumption is that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the...
set out by Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation...
and the evolutionary ideas in Vestiges of Creation published anonymously by Robert Chambers which applied uniform laws to the history of life in contrast to more respectable ideas such as catastrophism
Catastrophism
Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. The dominant paradigm of modern geology is uniformitarianism , in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, create the Earth's appearance...
involving a series of divine creations. "He insisted that no tortured interpretation of Genesis would ever suffice; we had to let go of the Days of Creation and base Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
on the moral laws of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
."
The boldness of Powell and other theologians in dealing with science led Joseph Dalton Hooker
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...
to comment in a letter to Asa Gray
Asa Gray
-References:*Asa Gray. Dictionary of American Biography. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928–1936.*Asa Gray. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.*Asa Gray. Plant Sciences. 4 vols. Macmillan Reference USA, 2001....
dated 29 March 1857: "These parsons are so in the habit of dealing with the abstractions of doctrines as if there was no difficulty about them whatever, so confident, from the practice of having the talk all to themselves for an hour at least every week with no one to gainsay a syllable they utter, be it ever so loose or bad, that they gallop over the course when their field is Botany or Geology as if we were in the pews and they in the pulpit. Witness the self-confident style of Whewell and Baden Powell, Sedgwick and Buckland." William Whewell
William Whewell
William Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.-Life and career:Whewell was born in Lancaster...
, Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
and William Buckland
William Buckland
The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...
opposed evolutionary ideas.
When the idea of natural selection
Natural selection
Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....
was mooted by Darwin and Wallace in their 1858 papers to the Linnaean Society, both Powell and his young friend William Henry Flower
William Henry Flower
Sir William Henry Flower KCB FRCS FRS was an English comparative anatomist and surgeon. Flower became a leading authority on mammals, and especially on the primate brain...
thought that natural selection made creation rational.
Essays and Reviews
He was one of seven liberal theologiansLiberal Christianity
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically and biblically informed religious movements and ideas within Christianity from the late 18th century and onward...
who produced a manifesto titled Essays and Reviews
Essays and Reviews
Essays and Reviews, 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 thought in England, and the cosmology of Genesis....
around February 1860, which amongst other things joined in the debate over On the Origin of Species. These Anglicans included Oxford professors, country clergymen, the headmaster of Rugby school
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
and a layman. Their declaration that miracles were irrational stirred up unprecedented anger, drawing much of the fire away from Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Essays sold 22,000 copies in two years, more than the Origin sold in twenty years, and sparked five years of increasingly polarised debate with books and pamphlets furiously contesting the issues.
Referring to "Mr Darwin's masterly volume" and restating his argument that belief in miracles is atheistic, Baden Powell wrote that the book "must soon bring about an entire revolution in opinion in favour of the grand principle of the self-evolving powers of nature.":
He would have been on the platform at the British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
1860 Oxford evolution debate
1860 Oxford evolution debate
The 1860 Oxford evolution debate took place at the Oxford University Museum on 30 June 1860, seven months after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Several prominent British scientists and philosophers participated, including Thomas Henry Huxley, Bishop Samuel...
that was a highlight of the reaction to Darwin's theory
Reaction to Darwin's theory
The immediate reaction to Darwin's theory followed closely on his publication of On the Origin of Species, and Charles Darwin's book sparked off international debate, though the heat of controversy was less than that over earlier works such as Vestiges of Creation...
. That would indeed have been interesting, for Huxley's antagonist Wilberforce
Samuel Wilberforce
Samuel Wilberforce was an English bishop in the Church of England, third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his time and place...
was also the foremost critic of Essays and Reviews. Sadly, Powell died of a heart attack a fortnight before the meeting.
Works
- History of Natural Philosophy from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1837, 396 pages
- The Connexion of Natural and Divine Truth Or the Study of the Inductive Philosophy Considered as Subservient to Theology: Or, The Study of the Inductive Philosophy, Considered as Subservient to Theology, Published by J.W. Parker, 1838, 313 pages
- A General and Elementary View of the Undulatory Theory, as Applied to the Dispersion of Light, and Some Other Subjects: Including the Substance of Several Papers, Printed in the Philosophical Transactions, and Other Journals, Published by J.W. Parker, 1841, 131 pages
- Lectures on Polarized Light: Together with a Lecture on the Microscope, Delivered Before the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and at the Medical School of the London Hospital, co-authored with Jonathan Pereira, Published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1854, 311 pages
- The Order of Nature: Considered in Reference to the Claims of Revelation : a Third Series of Essays, Published by Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1859, 495 pages
Further reading
* Corsi, Pietro (1988). Science and Religion: Baden Powell and the Anglican Debate, 1800-1860, Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
ISBN 0-5212-4245-2, 346 pages