Cobb, ER; (2005) Mid-nineteenth century conflict: Religious and scientific discourse in English architectural history. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Introduction It seems architectural historians either write about science and architecture, or they write about religion and architecture, and there certainly have been many books written solely about Victorian churches. Even so, I have yet to find a scholar who writes about the relationship between Victorian science and religion with respect to architecture. Most general historians tend to write about the relationship between science and religion in Victorian times as an 'invasion' of scientific facts that strain or force the hand of religious thought until eventually religion succumbs to secularisation. Instead, I propose that scientific theories and metaphors were articulated in art and architectural writing and speech precisely because these ideas took root in religious understandings. To be clear, I am not suggesting some kind of Zeitgeist, but rather that the presence of religious conceptions made the scientific metaphors and theories of the mid-nineteenth century resonate, made these ideas possible and plausible, as seen in locally articulated art and architectural writing and commentary.

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