Gods of the gaps: rethinking divine action in William Paley and Robert Chambers

Thesis

This dissertation explores the works of two 19th-century authors, namely, William Paley and Robert Chambers. More specifically, I explore the different readings of divine action (DA) as found in Paley’s Natural Theology (1802) and in Chambers’ Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) and Explanations (1845). In doing so, I employ a combined approach of reception history and reader-response criticism. The main part of my work deals with the various readings of the DA visions in Paley and Chambers, primarily in the British context of c. 1800–1860. This period saw not only the rise of many new academic disciplines and scientific advances, but also intense debates on DA. I suggest that many of these debates were sparked not only because of the aforementioned works by Paley and Chambers but also, crucially, by the different interpretations of their respective visions of DA. My work also takes an exploratory look into some of the recent interpretations of Paley and Chambers, sampled from the 20th and 21st centuries. My overall goal is not only to establish the presence and diversity of these various readings, but also to explore the underlying reasons why. Using the insights from reader- response criticism, I propose the concept of “gaps”: interpretive spaces of various kinds that invite readers’ imaginative interpretation. I suggest that various readers of Paley and Chambers used various strategies to fill in these gaps, which ultimately led to many different interpretations of Paley’s and Chambers’ DA visions. The thesis aims to show that both Paley and Chambers had a more complex view of their DA vision than is typically acknowledged. If the argument in my thesis is correct, we will need to rethink how we view the DA found in the works of Paley and Chambers.

Authors: Zeman, A

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-vjp2mkg6r
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: interpretive gaps; divine action; Natural Theology; Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation; design argument; Robert Chambers; William Paley; natural theology
• Subjects: Religion and science