210 life
much. Although it is difficult at this late date to sort out what orthodox doc-
trines he ditched because of evolution and which ones he abandoned for other
reasons, we do know that by the last decade of his life he had come to reject
the idea of a transcendent God, the notion of the Bible as “a direct revelation,”
the divinity of Christ, the existence of heaven and of the devil, the efficacy of
intercessory prayer, the special creation and fall of humans, and the plan of
salvation. Only the existence of an imminent, pantheistic God and personal
immortality survived. Yet, despite toying at times with leaving organized reli-
gion, LeConte remained a nominal Presbyterian and an ecumenical Christian
till the end.^17
In his early years as a harmonizer LeConte insisted that because science
could “say absolutely nothing” about the soul and immortality, the field re-
mained “open for evidence from any quarter, and of any degree.” By the 1890s,
however, he had concluded that science, particularly the doctrine of evolution,
could indeed say something—and something positive—about immortality.
“Do you not see,” he asked fervently, “without immortality, the whole purpose is
balked—the whole process of cosmic evolution is futile. Shall God be so long and
at so great pains to achieve aspirit, capable of communing with Him, and then
allow it to lapse again into nothingness?” Besides, there was always Josie to
think about. Even after Joseph’s death, his wife, Bessie, would write him letters
on their birthdays and wedding anniversary. “How happy you must be dear to
be with so many loved ones,” she wrote tearfully on one of these occasions;
among those she mentioned was “our little Josie.”^18
LeConte’s crises—especially those brought on by the loss of his daughter
and his encounter with materialism—made it psychologically impossible for
him to accept any nontheistic version of evolution, including Darwin’s own.
At the same time these traumatic experiences facilitated his identification with
the emotional and theological needs of other liberal Christians struggling with
evolution and thus helped in his becoming the reconciler of evolution and
religion par excellence.
J. Peter Lesley (1819–1903)
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the distinguished geologist
and sometime minister J. Peter Lesley ranked among the most prominent
scientists in America who rejected Darwinism; yet his experience, which in-
cluded spiritual crises and mental breakdowns, remains little known. This is
especially surprising since, unlike most antievolutionists, Lesley disliked or-
thodox Christianity even more than Darwinism and was among the first Amer-
icans to make the case for human evolution.
As a religiously devout youth, who memorized most of the Bible, he stud-
ied at the University of Pennsylvania in anticipation of entering the Presbyte-