The secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century

OWEN CHADWICK, The secularization of the European mind in the nineteenth century, Cambridge University Press, 1975, 8vo, pp. [iii], 286, £6.50. Professor Chadwick bases this book on his Gifford Lectures for 1973 to 1974, taking as his central theme the problem of the declining hold of the church on late nineteenth-century Europe. The reasons for this recession are multiple, as is obvious, and they include the new technology, German materialism, a cheap press, the organization of the working man, together with the impact of Marx, evolutionary science, scientific history and politics. "Secularization" is the term selected by the author to describe this phenomenon, and it denotes "a process, a fundamental change in attitudes and ways of life". As is to be expected, this is a brilliant work of scholarship, which deals lucidly with an enormous and complex topic; it represents intellectual history at its best, with ideas and suggestions leaping from almost every page. The author traces the many strands which make up the pattern, one of them being the outstanding polemic of science versus religion (pp. 161-188), and the revolution incited by Darwin. This technique renders the book episodic in nature, but this is inevitable and does not detract from its overall worth. For the historian of science and of medicine of the nineteenth century Professor Chadwick's book will be essential reading, for it helps to provide the"external" background to the "internals" minutiae of his research if he is studying technical advances. For the student of the social aspects of Victorian science or medicine a close acquaintance with this book will be even more mandatory.