Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science

by Terence Keel

Divine Variations offers a new account of the development of scientific ideas about race. Focusing on the production of scientific knowledge over the last three centuries, Terence Keel uncovers the persistent links between pre-modern Christian thought and contemporary scientific perceptions of human difference. He argues that, instead of a rupture between religion and modern biology on the question of human origins, modern scientific theories of race are, in fact, an extension of Christian intellectual history.

Keel's study draws on ancient and early modern theological texts and biblical commentaries, works in Christian natural philosophy, seminal studies in ethnology and early social science, debates within twentieth-century public health research, and recent genetic analysis of population differences and ancient human DNA. From these sources, Keel demonstrates that Christian ideas about creation, ancestry, and universalism helped form the basis of modern scientific accounts of human diversity—despite the ostensible shift in modern biology towards scientific naturalism, objectivity, and value neutrality. By showing the connections between Christian thought and scientific racial thinking, this book calls into question the notion that science and religion are mutually exclusive intellectual domains and proposes that the advance of modern science did not follow a linear process of secularization.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Race, History Of Science

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2018

About the author

Terence Keel is an award-winning scholar, the founding director of the BioCritical Studies Lab, and a professor of human biology, society, and African American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is author of "Divine Variations: How Christian Thought Became Racial Science" and co-editor of "Critical Approaches to Science and Religion. Keel has received fellowships from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health.

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was recommended by Gerald Horne on his recent interview with Guerrilla History Pod (check them out!), and it was very good. He tries to re-construct the modern conception of race to Christian thought, and convincingly demonstrates how Christian thought has penetrated what we think to be secular science. I learned a lot about the anthropologists whose ideas we still accept today and the biblical background on which they operated.

[Aleana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pre Christian religious ideals influencing racial science? Woah. That’s some tasty ish.

[Ava Pifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very academic, but really good research and message. I read this for my religion class and it was my favorite book for the class.

[jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Keel, your class was fascinating. Thanks for the A+

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at how race, Christianity, and science have all shaped each other.