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Science, Religion, and Psychical Research: The Monistic Thought of Sir Oliver Lodge1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

John D. Root
John D. Root
Affiliation:
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616
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Extract

In his long and distinguished career which bridged two centuries, Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) was one of the most versatile intellectual figures in England. His discoveries in physics placed him in the first rank of British science. For his work in electricity, radio, and wave theory Lodge was awarded the Rumford and Alfred medals by the Royal Society. He also was a Romanes Lecturer at Oxford, a president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the first Principal of the University of Birmingham. Lodge's publication record is breathtaking: more than 1,200 items, including nearly forty books, over a sixty-year period. While more than half of these were purely scientific or technical, it is significant that more than 100 pieces dealt with psychical research and an additional 170 books and articles dealt with topics in philosophy and religion. More than half of Lodge's writings in this latter category appeared between 1896 and 1914.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 71 , Issue 3-4 , October 1978 , pp. 245 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1978

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References

2 The only biography of Lodge is Jolly, W. P., Sir Oliver Lodge: Psychical Researcher and Scientist (London: Constable, 1974)Google Scholar. One may also consult Lodge's autobiography, Past Years (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932)Google Scholar.

3 The books include: Life and Matter (London: William & Norgate, 1905)Google Scholar; Man and the Universe; a Study of the Influence and Advances of Scientific Knowledge Upon Our Understanding of Christianity (London: Methuen, 1908)Google Scholar; Reason and Belief (London: Methuen, 1910)Google Scholar; and The Substance of Faith Allied with Science (New York/London: Harper & Brothers, 1907)Google Scholar. The articles bore such titles as: “Religion, Science, and Miracle”; “Science and Religion”; “First Principles of Faith”; “Suggestions for the Reinterpretation of Christian Doctrine”; and “The Reconciliation between Science and Faith.” See Besterman, Theodore, A Bibliography of Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. (London: Oxford University, 1935)Google Scholar.

4 Turner, Frank Miller, Between Science and Religion: the Reaction to Scientific Naturalism in Late Victorian England (New Haven/London: Yale University, 1974) 5Google Scholar. Among the prominent late Victorian scientists who saw no incompatibility between religion and science were Lord Kelvin, Balfour Stewart, George Stokes, Lord Rayleigh, Clark Maxwell, and St. George Mivart. The six figures studied by Turner are Henry Sidgwick, Alfred Russell Wallace, George John Romanes, Frederick W. H. Myers, Samuel Butler, and James Ward.

5 Ibid., 35.

6 Lodge, Past Years, 172.

7 Hynes, Samuel, The Edwardian Turn of Mind (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 1968) 143Google Scholar.

8 See Brown, Alan W., The Metaphysical Society: Victorian Minds in Crisis, 1869–1880 (New York: Columbia University, 1947.)Google Scholar Seven surviving members of the Metaphysical Society became members of the Synthetic Society.

9 “The Rules of the Society,” in Arthur James Balfour, comp., Papers Presented Before the Synthetic Society, 1896–1908 (London: Printed for Private Circulation by Spottiswoode and Co., 1909) viiGoogle Scholar. A complete list of the fifty-four members is found on p. viii.

10 Lodge, Past Years, 172

11 Lodge was elected at the second meeting, 25 March 1896; The Journal of Clement C. J. Webb, Bodleian Library, Oxford, Ms. Res.d.169. The reason for the invitation, no doubt, was Lodge's close friendship with Balfour, Rayleigh, Sidgwick, and Myers through the Society for Psychical Research.

12 Friedrich von Hügel to Percy Gardner, 14 March 1903, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS. Res.c.55/208–10. The month before, von Hügel described Lodge as “so astonishingly improved.” Von Hügel to George Tyrrell, 24 February 1903, British Museum, Add. MSS. 44928, 79.

13 Jolly makes little mention of Lodge's involvement in the Synthetic Society except to note that, with his election, “Lodge was promoted into the first division of discussion groups” (Sir Oliver Lodge, 115). For records of attendance, see the manuscript “Minute Book of the Synthetic Society,” in the possession of Wilfrid J. Ward, Cowes, Isle of Wight.

14 Lodge, untitled remark dated 2 May 1896, in Papers Presented Before the Synthetic Society (hereafter cited as Papers), 35.

15 Lodge, untitled remark, 6 June 1896, Papers, 57. Webb's first impression of Lodge at this meeting was that he was “unintelligent”; Webb Journal, Bodleian Library, MS. Res.d.169.

16 Lodge, “On the Possibility of a Logical Proof of Religious Doctrine,” 29 January 1897, Papers, 72–73, 75. Gore later wrote to Lodge, “If a man like you becomes satisfied that spirits communicate with us, it will interest me very much: if you show reasons for believing that they are the spirits of dead men, it will interest me still more: if that they are the spirits of just men allowed to communicate something we ought to know, most of all.” Undated letter, quoted in Prestige, George L., The Life of Charles Gore (London: William Heineman, 1935) 272Google Scholar.

17 Lodge, “On the Nature of Proof,” 28 May 1897, Papers, 134.

18 Undated letter from Lodge to Wilfrid Ward, Papers, 150–51.

19 Ward, Maisie, The Wilfrid Wards and the Transition (2 vols.; London/New York: Sheed & Ward, 1934–37)Google Scholar, I. 373. Eight active members of the Society for Psychical Research were also members of the Synthetic Society: Arthur and Gerald Balfour, Richard Hodgson, R. H. Hutton, Frederick Myers, Lord Rayleigh (John Strutt), Henry Sidgwick, and Lodge.

20 Gauld, Alan, The Founders of Psychical Research (New York: Schocken, 1968) 307, 311Google Scholar. Myers wrote to Lodge on 27 June 1896: “Christianity is a noble and beneficent incident; but how much is there in the Universe before it, after it, and beyond!” Lodge Papers, London Society for Psychical Research (LSPR), no. 1481.

21 Papers, 187–97; and, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 15 (1900) 110–27.Google Scholar

22 Myers to Lodge, 5 May 1898, Lodge Papers, LSPR, no. 1513.

23 Lodge, “Is Obscurity or Infinitude the Well-Spring of Religion?” 10 June 1898, Papers, 219.

24 Lodge, “Supplement to the Discussion on Mr. Balfour's Paper,” June 1900, Papers, 334, 336. William James had high praise for Lodge's paper: “Your's is what I call a philosophical mind, truly ready for any hypothesis whatever, provided it can be interpreted ‘pragmatically' …”; James to Lodge, 8 August 1902, Lodge Papers, LSPR, no. 955.

25 Lodge, “Faith and Knowledge,” April 1902, Papers, 381–83. Lodge's remarks were in response to a Synthetic Society paper by James Ward entitled “Faith and Science,” 24 April 1902, Papers, 363–69.

26 Lodge, , “A Physicist's Approach,” in Hand, J. E., ed., Ideals of Science and Faith; Essays by Various Authors (London: Longman, Green, & Co., 1904) 3, 7Google Scholar. This article is a combination of two articles: “The Outstanding Controversy Between Science and Faith,” HibJ 1 (1902) 46–61Google Scholar; and “The Reconciliation Between Science and Faith,” HibJ 1 (1903) 209–27Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., 16.

28 Ibid., 19–20.

29 lbid., 23, 25, 47.

30 Lodge, , “Sin”, HibJ 3 (1904) 2Google Scholar. This was the second of four articles in the series.

31 Lodge, , “Christianity and Science, II,” HibJ 4 (1906) 642Google Scholar.

32 See Lodge, “Materialism and Christianity,” 9 March 1905, Papers, 491–504.

33 Lodge, “Christianity and Science,” 643. Life and Matter: A Criticism of Professor Haeckel's ‘Riddle of the Universe’ (New York/London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1906)Google Scholar.

34 Lodge's book is largely an expansion of remarks made before the Synthetic Society and of articles in the HibJ. Cf. “Ambiguous Terms,” 20 February 1903, Papers, 385–92; “Materialism and Christianity,” 9 March 1905, Papers, 491–504; and “‘Mind and Matter': A Criticism of Professor Haeckel,” HibJ 3 (1905) 315–31Google Scholar. Haeckel's book had sold nearly 100,000 copies in English translation.

35 Lodge, Life and Matter, 6, 20, 32, 51, 65–66.

36 Ibid., 67.

37 Ibid., 101–7. When this comment was first made before the Synthetic Society, 20 February 1903, Webb reports that Lodge “was plied with question [about] his very difficult position that ‘direction' implies no additional energy. One needed another physicist to be there: and James Ward, who could have discussed the matter, was at the last minute prevented from coming.” Webb Journal, Bodleian Library, MS Res.e.127.

38 Ibid., 116–17.

39 Ibid., 144.

40 Ibid., 150.

41 Typical of the favorable reviews of Life and Matter was that of the Right Reverend D'Arcy, C. F.: “No higher praise could be given to Sir Oliver Lodge's book than to say it is a strong assertion of the rights of human experience against artificial dogma, the product of abstractions” (HibJ 4 [1906] 703)Google Scholar.

42 McCabe, Joseph, “Sir Oliver Lodge on Haeckel,” HibJ 3 (1905) 748Google Scholar. McCabe had been a Franciscan priest; see his From Rome to Rationalism (London: Watts & Co., 1899)Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., 755.

44 Lodge, “Propositions to be Maintained,” 14 March 1907, Papers, 540–41. Webb reports that Lodge's propositions “showed him at his best.” Webb Journals, Bodleian Library, MS. Res.e. 131.

45 , Lodge, “‘First Principles of Faith': A Basis for Religious Teaching,” HibJ 4 (1906) 726–27Google Scholar.

46 Ibid., 728, 730.

47 Lodge, , The Substance of Faith (London: Methuen, 1907)Google Scholar. George Tyrrell criticized “Sir Oliver Lodge's catechism” for not providing a morality (Tyrrell to Mark Andre Raffalovich, 15 August 1907, Raffalovich Papers No. 33, Library of the Blackfriars, Oxford). Gore's, BishopThe New Theology and the Old Religion (London: John Murray, 1907)Google Scholar was expressly a criticism of Lodge's views. Curiously, the most inflated compliments for Lodge's efforts in The Substance of Faith came from an American Roman Catholic theologian, Francis Aveling, who declared the book to be “the completest attempt on the part of a man of science to reconcile science and religion” (Aveling, “Faith and Science,” The Catholic World 85 [1907] 477–78Google Scholar; see also Aveling's “Two Catechisms,” The Catholic Worlds [1907] 754–69Google Scholar). See Hastings Rashdall, “Is a Common Creed Necessary as a Condition of Religious Sympathy and Cooperation?” 18 February 1909, and Clement Webb, “Necessity of a Creed for Purposes of Religious Cooperation,” 23 March 1909. Neither of these papers were reprinted in Papers.

48 Most of the essays were new, but included were expanded versions of “Suggestions Towards the Reinterpretation of Christian Doctrine,” HibJ 2 (1904) 461–75Google Scholar, and a Synthetic Society paper, “Materialism and Christianity,” 9 March 1905, Papers, 491–504.

49 Lodge, , Man and the Universe; A Study of the Influences of the Advances in Scientific Knowledge Upon Our Understanding of Christianity 1908 (London: Methuen, 1912) 11–12, 27Google Scholar.

50 Ibid., 29, 256, 171.

51 O'Shea, John J., “Science and Religion: Exit Tyndall, Enter Lodge,” The American Catholic Quarterly Review 38 (1913) 561Google Scholar.

52 Lodge, Past Years, 138.

53 McCabe's last retort was The Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge (London: Watts, 1914)Google Scholar.

54 Lodge, , Reason and Belief (London: Methuen, 1910) 198Google Scholar.

55 Lodge, , Survival of Man; A Study in Unrecognized Human Faculty (New York: Moffat, Yard, and Co., 1909)Google Scholar.

56 See Lodge, , Continuity; the Presidential Address to the British Association for 1913 (New York/London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1914)Google Scholar.

57 Lodge, , “Help From the Unseen,” in Science and Religion, by “Seven Men of Science” (London: W. A. Hammond, 1914) 25–27Google Scholar.

58 Hynes, The Edwardian Turn of Mind, 145.

59 Raymond (New York: George H. Doran, 1916)Google ScholarPubMed. See discussion in Jolly, Sir Oliver Lodge, chap. 13.

60 Jolly, Lodge, 209–10; source not identified.

61 Lodge to Henry Scott Holland, 5 January 1917, Lodge Papers, LSPR, 757. Bishop Edward Talbot, another friend from the Synthetic Society, also had lost a son in the war. Though fearful that Raymond might divert people from seeking God spiritually, Talbot praised the book's “dignity, its gentleness and calm, its upward-looking treatment of those great subjects of Life and Death, …”(Talbot to Lodge, 22 January 1917, in Stephenson, Gwendolyn, Edward Stuart Talbot, 1844–1934 [London: S.P.C.K., 1936] 230Google Scholar).

62 Other works by Lodge during these years include: The Making of Man; a Study in Evolution (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1924)Google Scholar; Evolution and Creation (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1926)Google Scholar; Why I Believe in Personal Immortality (London: Cassell, 1928)Google Scholar; Phantam Walls (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1929)Google Scholar; Conviction of Survival. Two Discourses in Memory of F. W. H. Myers (London: Methuen 1930)Google Scholar; and Advancing Science (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1932)Google Scholar.

63 Lodge, , My Philosophy (London: Methuen, 1933) 5Google Scholar.

64 Lodge's principal scientific exposition of this concept is in The Ether of Space (New York/London: Harper & Brothers, 1909)Google ScholarPubMed.

65 Lodge, , Ether and Reality (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1925) 18, 25–26, 35–149Google Scholar.

66 Ibid., 153–54.

67 Ibid., 173–179; emphasis mine.

68 Wilson, David, “The Thought of the Late Victorian Physicists: Sir Oliver Lodge's Ethereal Body,” Victorian Studies 15 (1971–72) 45Google Scholar.

69 Ibid., 45–47.

70 Lodge, , Science and Human Progress (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1927) 156–57Google Scholar.

71 Lodge, Past Years, 351.

72 Supra, 5; Henson, Herbert H., Letters of Herbert Hensley Henson (ed. Braley, Evelyn Foley; London: S.P.C.K., 1950) 43Google Scholar.