Quakers and Science

By Helen Holt. Christian Alternative Books (Quaker Quicks), 2023. 104 pages. $12.95/paperback; $6.99/eBook.

This text packs a lot of thought into its roughly one hundred pages. It looks at how twentieth-century Quakers have navigated what some see as a collision between science and religion: finding unity or compromise where others see only conflict. Holt uses the stories of individuals to explore how Quaker beliefs have been shaped by scientific progress, and how Quaker scientists brought their faith into their scientific work. For me, as a Quaker astrophysicist, I found much to reflect on and much that resonated with my own experience. Anyone in the twenty-first century who would like an alternate view to the drumbeat of conflict between science and religion in our surrounding culture would benefit from the perspectives in Quakers and Science.

The book is split into three sections: First, a rapid historical overview brings our attention up to the twentieth century. The middle of the book consists of brief historical sketches of ten Quaker scientists (or Quakers who taught science) who contributed significantly to either a scientific field or the development of twentieth-century Quakerism (or both). The book concludes with a summary essay about how twentieth-century Quakers have navigated the challenges of holding both scientific inquiry and Quaker faith as guiding principles.

The strengths and weaknesses of the work are both connected to its short length. The biographical sketches—some only a few pages long—pique your interest and then move on. Holt tantalizes us with the story of Victor Paschkis, who seems to have lived his peace testimony by refusing to work on the Manhattan Project and through his cofounding the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, but as Holt says, “It is difficult to get an idea of what he was like as a person, as hardly anything has been written about him.” I am thankful that Holt ends every section with suggestions for further reading, and there are extensive notes and references at the end.

The focus is very strongly on twentieth-century Friends. The historical introduction discusses how Quakers were often pushed into scientific and engineering pursuits by societies that closed off other careers to them, and there is a strong emphasis on Quaker schools and the Manchester Conference of 1895. I was hoping for more exploration of the entangled roots of Quakerism and empirical science in seventeenth-century England, but Holt’s desire is to get to the twentieth century as quickly as possible.

The introduction gives a brief sketch of some scholarship around the interface of science and religion, particularly Ian Barbour’s four-fold taxonomy of conflict, integration, independence, and dialogue. However, these themes don’t really continue throughout the book: Barbour’s classification is hardly mentioned again. Holt’s goals are larger than trying to slot these ten individuals into one of Barbour’s categories.

Her stories illustrate four themes that she explicitly names and explores in the brief closing essay: the importance of social responsibility, an openness to new expressions of faith, an emphasis on experience, and a conviction that there is no fundamental conflict between science and Quakerism. For these ten individuals, these four themes show ways that science and Quakerism resonate with each other. Both science and Quakerism are founded on endless questioning/queries and the testing of leadings/hypotheses, and many of these individuals saw the professional world of science as a path to embodying the Quaker testimonies.

Her choices of who to include are fascinating. I was not surprised to see Arthur Eddington and Jocelyn Bell Burnell, both impressive scientists (and personal heroes of mine) who have written on faith topics. I was also delighted to learn of Quaker physicist Ursula Franklin, who searched for structure both in crystals and human social connections. The profiles also include famous Quakers like Rufus Jones and Howard Brinton, whose scientific backgrounds (psychology and physics, respectively) were unknown to me. Holt explores how their experiences with science shaped their approach to Quakerism, and how their writings, in turn, shaped Quakerism in the twentieth century. Brinton, in particular, was apparently the first writer to attempt to codify the testimonies into a simple list, inspired by scientific reductionism. I was not aware that our ubiquitous list of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and equality can be traced back to Brinton.

As a Quaker astrophysicist myself, I have had to grapple with many of the same issues that the profiles in this book explore. How can we remain true to the peace testimony in a field so intertwined with the military–industrial complex? Do we have a responsibility to ensure that our work is only used to improve people’s lives, or is it impossible to know how the ripples of influence will play out? Can we use the internationalism of science to soften borders and build bridges between possibly hostile countries, or is technology fated to support weapons development? Each of the figures in this book had to face these questions and more, and Holt presents their struggles in an engaging and interesting manner. I look forward to exploring more of the suggested readings in the future.

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Don Smith is the Raymond Binford Professor of Physics at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. He is a member of Friendship Friends Meeting of North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative). He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Chicago, and his area of specialization is high energy astrophysics.