Between Two Wor(l)ds: Worldview and Observation in the Use of General Revelation to Interpret Scripture, and Vice Versa

Abstract

"To his great dismay, Harald Alabaster was caught between two worlds. A. S. Byatt’s novella “Morpho Eugenia,” from which the recent ˜lm Angels and Insects was made, is set in Victorian England in the decade following the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. Globe-trotting naturalist William Adamson has been cast into hard times by a shipwreck, and Alabaster, with a dilettante’s interest in insects but no organizational skills, becomes Adamson’s patron. He takes him into his household to bring order to his chaotic collection of rare specimens. Yet the real burden of Alabaster’s heart is the writing of a book that will prove scienti˜cally that his romantic brand of Christianity is compatible with Darwin’s new theories. Adamson is to help with this apology by arguing against its thesis—a task that he undertakes most willingly since, despite his surname, he long ago abandoned the fundamentalist belief that he is Adam’s son, embracing instead a coldly consistent Darwinian naturalism, a view of “nature red in tooth and claw,” purposeless and amoral"