revolution within the profession.
Moral philosophers such as Adam Smith of Glasgow and the controversial David Hume of Edinburgh had dominated the intellectual culture of Scotland during Benjamin Rushâs student days. The cooperation of theologians and scientists in the greater national project of modernization distinguished Scotland within the European Enlightenment. A vibrant dialogue between theology and science shaped the Scottish Enlightenment and benefited from the mingling of theologians and scientists in learned societies. 39 Moral questions influenced the course of scientific investigation.
Scottish students ventured out to study in the centers of European science. Almost a thousand Scots had enrolled at Leiden in the century before the establishment of the Edinburgh medical college. Scottish theologians encouraged the growth of the science faculties, cultivated the medical programs, and helped give direction to science. By the close of the eighteenth century, medicine was the largest academic program at Edinburgh, and medical missionsâlinking science and evangelism to address human needsâwere among its leading vocations. James Ramsay enrolled at Kingâs College, Aberdeen, and then studied medicine in London. In 1762 he sailed to St. Kitts, where he practiced medicine and where his antislavery convictions were born. When he returned almost two decades later, Ramsay published a thoroughexposé of the brutality and immorality of slavery in the British possessions in which he also countered the emerging racist defenses of slavery from intellectuals such as David Hume. 40
Dr. Benjamin Rush
SOURCE: University Archives, University of Pennsylvania
A confidence that theology and science had a common social purpose also convinced Rush that the moral currents of human society were converging to end African slavery. âThe abolition of domestic Slavery is not a Utopian Scheme,â he promised. He saw the institution faltering under its own economic inefficiencies and growing public hostility. 41
The idea can be pushed further. Rush and many of his peers viewed science as rescuing a theology that had been hijacked in defense of slavery. Theological racism hampered Christiansâ response to modern social questions. Science could save theology by addressing that failure. The German scientist Carl Vogt, a professor at the University of Geneva, was likely answering this concernwhen he concluded that âthe term âraceâ expresses, perhaps, only a theological idea.â The origins of racialism were to be found in a theology that had been corrupted by social sins ranging from color prejudice to human bondage. 42
âThe vulgar notion of their being descended from Cain, who was supposed to have been marked with this color, is too absurd to need a refutation,â Rush had insisted. It was not difficult to expose religion as the primary offender in the emergence of modern racial thought, he continued. The moral silence of American ministers on the issue of slavery was troubling by itself. âBut chieflyâye Ministers of the Gospel, whose dominion over the principles and actions of men is so universally acknowledged and felt,â the doctor demanded, âlet your zeal keep pace with your opportunities to put a stop to slavery.â Nor could slavery be rationalized as a mechanism for Christianization, since a just religion could not spread by unjust means. âA Christian Slave is a contradiction in terms,â he concluded. 43
Nonetheless, Rush enjoyed broad intellectual influence over medical science in the slave states. In June 1813 the members of the Medical Society of South Carolina gathered in the Circular Church in Charleston to memorialize Benjamin Rush. The Philadelphia physician had taught or mentored half the members of the society, a telling measure of his influence, the reach of the Pennsylvania medical program, and the legacies of Scottish universities in
Moral philosophers such as Adam Smith of Glasgow and the controversial David Hume of Edinburgh had dominated the intellectual culture of Scotland during Benjamin Rushâs student days. The cooperation of theologians and scientists in the greater national project of modernization distinguished Scotland within the European Enlightenment. A vibrant dialogue between theology and science shaped the Scottish Enlightenment and benefited from the mingling of theologians and scientists in learned societies. 39 Moral questions influenced the course of scientific investigation.
Scottish students ventured out to study in the centers of European science. Almost a thousand Scots had enrolled at Leiden in the century before the establishment of the Edinburgh medical college. Scottish theologians encouraged the growth of the science faculties, cultivated the medical programs, and helped give direction to science. By the close of the eighteenth century, medicine was the largest academic program at Edinburgh, and medical missionsâlinking science and evangelism to address human needsâwere among its leading vocations. James Ramsay enrolled at Kingâs College, Aberdeen, and then studied medicine in London. In 1762 he sailed to St. Kitts, where he practiced medicine and where his antislavery convictions were born. When he returned almost two decades later, Ramsay published a thoroughexposé of the brutality and immorality of slavery in the British possessions in which he also countered the emerging racist defenses of slavery from intellectuals such as David Hume. 40
Dr. Benjamin Rush
SOURCE: University Archives, University of Pennsylvania
A confidence that theology and science had a common social purpose also convinced Rush that the moral currents of human society were converging to end African slavery. âThe abolition of domestic Slavery is not a Utopian Scheme,â he promised. He saw the institution faltering under its own economic inefficiencies and growing public hostility. 41
The idea can be pushed further. Rush and many of his peers viewed science as rescuing a theology that had been hijacked in defense of slavery. Theological racism hampered Christiansâ response to modern social questions. Science could save theology by addressing that failure. The German scientist Carl Vogt, a professor at the University of Geneva, was likely answering this concernwhen he concluded that âthe term âraceâ expresses, perhaps, only a theological idea.â The origins of racialism were to be found in a theology that had been corrupted by social sins ranging from color prejudice to human bondage. 42
âThe vulgar notion of their being descended from Cain, who was supposed to have been marked with this color, is too absurd to need a refutation,â Rush had insisted. It was not difficult to expose religion as the primary offender in the emergence of modern racial thought, he continued. The moral silence of American ministers on the issue of slavery was troubling by itself. âBut chieflyâye Ministers of the Gospel, whose dominion over the principles and actions of men is so universally acknowledged and felt,â the doctor demanded, âlet your zeal keep pace with your opportunities to put a stop to slavery.â Nor could slavery be rationalized as a mechanism for Christianization, since a just religion could not spread by unjust means. âA Christian Slave is a contradiction in terms,â he concluded. 43
Nonetheless, Rush enjoyed broad intellectual influence over medical science in the slave states. In June 1813 the members of the Medical Society of South Carolina gathered in the Circular Church in Charleston to memorialize Benjamin Rush. The Philadelphia physician had taught or mentored half the members of the society, a telling measure of his influence, the reach of the Pennsylvania medical program, and the legacies of Scottish universities in
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