IAH 201
Spring 2009
“Challenges to Protestantism from Secular Ideology:
The Scopes Trial, Dayton, TN, 1925”
Thesis:
In 1925, the Scopes Trial became a symbol of the secularization that began to shape
American public culture in the late 19
th
century.
Popular representations of the trial in the years
after 1925 suggested that secularism had triumphed over fundamentalist Christianity.
Fundamentalist Christians did withdraw from American mainstream culture after the trial, but
they were not defeated.
Debates over secularism in American public institutions continued
throughout the twentieth century.
I.
Growth of secular ideology in late 19
th
—early 20
th
century
A.
Changes to public education
-Protestantism was a normal part of early 19
th
century public education—Bible
reading & daily prayer (using protestant text) was typical
-In the late 19
th
century, liberal Protestants, Catholics, and Jews called for change.
By 1890s, Protestantism was being replaced by secular ideology in public schools
and in university
B.
Charles Darwin,
Origins of Species
(1859)
1.
Darwin’s theory
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- Spring '05
- dontknow
- Civil Liberties, late 19th century, Scopes Trial, William Jennings Bryan, Dayton, secular ideology
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