Chemistry has been distinctive in its relations with religious and anti-religious belief. In its alchemical formation it minimally provided analogies for spiritual transformation. By the late-nineteenth century it was a prominent resource for scientific materialism and reductionism. Currently, it underpins ambitious projects for biosynthesis, usurping a vocabulary of ‘creation’. The aim of this chapter is to identify turning points as chemistry became a fully naturalized science. Five theses are introduced: that a simple antithesis between natural science and supernatural religion is inadequate; that chemistry, for much of its history, could be on the side of the angels; that, conversely and in other contexts, it could be corrosive of religious belief; that, as a catalyst for both belief and unbelief, it could be ambiguous in its cultural implications; and that the importance of scientific naturalism as an agent of disbelief is easily exaggerated.
Carin Berkowitz and Bernard Lightman , eds. Science Museums in Transition: Cultures of Display in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America. Science and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017. Pp. 395. $34.99 (cloth).