Tuesday, June 30, 2026

It is the 30th of June 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

There are certain debates- theological or otherwise- which have long captured our imagination, giants in their field, stepping into the arena for a verbal joust.

 

Cicero vs. Catiline in the Roman Senate, Las Casas vs. Sepúlveda in the 1550s in Spain arguing about the human rights of indigenous peoples, Lincoln vs Douglas on Slavery, or Darrow vs Bryan at the Scopes Trial.

 

But it was on this, the 30th of June in 1860, that some have called the “Debate of the Century” or the first time religion was challenged by science on the public stage. It has come down to us as “Huxley vs. Wilberforce” with an anecdote either invented or overblown… let’s tell the story.

 

The names: Wilberforce and Huxley might ring a bell. WILLIAM Wilberforce was the great English Abolitionist- this was his son, the Bishop of Oxford: Samuel Wilberforce. Samuel had been famously lampooned in the papers as “Soapy Sam”- a kind of unctuous, preening cleric. Huxley was Thomas Huxley, the English biologist and the Grandfather of Aldous Huxley (who wrote Brave New World).

 

The scene took place when the British Association for the Advancement of Science came to Oxford University to discuss recent publications, not the least of them being Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Darwin was uneasy in debate- after hearing of Huxley’s defense of his ideas, he wrote to him: "I honour your pluck; I would as soon have died as tried to answer the bishop in such an assembly”. Huxley would be known as “Darwin’s Bulldog”- the skeptic willing to debate theologians. One more note: Huxley would refer to theologians as “gnostics” or those with “special knowledge”- he himself would say he had no such special or secret knowledge and was thus not a gnostic, but an agnostic…. He coins the term.

 

Wilberforce, already caricatured as “Soapy Sam,” plays the role of the backwater Fundamentalist in the story as it is commonly told. But Samuel, like many clerics of his age, was deeply interested in Natural Philosophy, a field being increasingly divided amongst new “scientists” and specialists. But Wilberforce had read Darwin’s work and critiqued it in print, such that Darwin himself said of Wilberforce’s review, “it is uncommonly clever; it picks out with skill all the most conjectural parts, and brings forward well all the difficulties. It quizzes me quite splendidly.”

 

But the story persists as caricature. Wilberforce asks Huxley if he is a descendant of apes on his mother's side, or father's side… The clever Huxley remarks to a friend, “the Lord hath delivered him into my hands,” and says that he would rather be a descendant of an ape than a bishop…. Ok, he almost certainly didn’t say that- Huxley responded quite vociferously in his own lifetime that he wouldn’t have said that. Perhaps he said something more along the lines that he would rather be a descendant of an ape than that of such a character as Wilberforce…. Maybe. Secondary and tertiary sources abound… people who were there, or knew someone who was there, have their versions… in reality, it wasn’t a debate as such. Wilberforce and Huxley were the two biggest names, but others were saying as much if not more on behalf of either Darwin’s natural selection or the church's teachings.

 

If Huxley said anything close to what is recorded- a witty riposte to turn the tide- it was likely heard by few… not only was he reportedly ill with a throat malady, the museum where the debate took place was loud, and it was difficult to hear anyone with the cacophony of voices.

 

It would become, after the fact, a legendary debate- even if it wasn’t a debate and none initially recorded it as such. It marks the first time in the post-Enlightenment West when the new “sciences” (as they would be called) took on Christianity- or was at least framed as in opposition- and held its ground. Or at least it did in public perception… as one scholar has noted: "was really the first time Christianity had ever been asked to square off against science in a public forum in the whole of its history”- and the question of “who won” takes a back seat to the fact that the debate took place, had partisans on both sides, and has become a kind of early totem for the split between science and religion. And it took place today, the Oxford “Debate” between Huxley and Wilberforce on this day in 1860.

 

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and 1 John 4:

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 30th of June 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who uses that verse “test the spirits” as an argument against prohibition… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man whose kids are finally coming back from camp… it was quiet… maybe too quiet… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.