Biography:

Thomas F. Glick is a historian of science and technology at Boston University. He began a field of inquiry into the comparative reception of Darwinism by organizing a meeting at the University of Texas in 1971 out which came The Comparative Reception of Darwinism (1972; 2nd ed 1988). He has written on the reception of Darwinism in Catholic countries and has published books on Darwinism in Latin America, in Brazil, and in the Vatican.

Abstract:

Darwinism and Religion in Three Traditions: John Zahm (Roman Catholic); William Louis Poteat (Protestant); Mohammed Abduh (Muslim)

The relationship between Darwinism and religion is examined in three short biographies of important participants in the Darwin debate. The American evolutionist, John Zahm, was a professor of science at the University of Notre Dame who successfully rebuffed attempts to have his book on evolution placed in the Index of Prohibited Books. William L. Poteat was an American biologist who as President of a leading Protestant Baptist University in the United States, who successfully defended his evolutionary perspective against members of his denomination who wished to prohibit the teaching of Darwinism. Mohammed Abduh, modernizer and Mufti of Egypt, used the concept of ijtihad (independent interpretation) as a means of making modern scientific ideas compatible with Islamic culture and tradition.