{"id":581,"date":"2014-11-18T23:54:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T03:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/?page_id=581"},"modified":"2014-11-30T16:37:42","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T20:37:42","slug":"rosemary-jann-scientific-imagination-and-natural-christianity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/flatland\/critical-attention\/rosemary-jann-scientific-imagination-and-natural-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Rosemary Jann: Scientific Imagination and “Natural Christianity”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jann argues that, conscious of the popular debate in Victorian society about the validity of hypotheses, Flatland is Abbott\u2019s attempt at furthering his ideas about a sort of \u201cNatural Christianity\u201d (i.e. a Christianity that is able to work in concert with modern science). He does this\u00a0by\u00a0arguing for the importance of imagination in scientific thought, which he then equates to leaps of faith taken with religion, Christianity specifically. Jann says: \u201che argued (as had Arnold) that if we could believe and depend upon scientific concepts simply because they \u201cworked\u201d, not because we could \u201cprove\u201d them, we could just as confidently believe in religious concepts so long as these worked\u201d (Jann, 481). Abbott uses primitive religions to prove the existence of spirituality in people, and then interprets God as having set us out to seek the truth, while subtly steering us there. He then makes the leap to say that if we can use imaginative reasoning to advance the principles of the scientific world, that we should also be able to use this same principle for understanding the spiritual and religious world. He attributes the word of the Gospels to disciples who took the metaphors of Jesus too literally, because, as a product of their time, they could not possibly understand fully what Jesus was saying to them through metaphor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Flatland is then essentially used, in Jann\u2019s own words, as an allegory to discredit dogmatic faith and demonstrate a new way of thinking that allowed Christianity and science to work in concert. The square encourages us to be better, by striving for higher existence. He is a prophet, tasked with the teachings of Spaceland, but because no one is able to imagine something they cannot see, he ends in total defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n

N. Garvey<\/p>\n

\n

In her essay \u201cAbbott’s\u00a0Flatland<\/em>: Scientific Imagination and \u2018Natural Christianity\u2019\u201d, Jann argues that\u00a0Flatland<\/em>\u00a0is Abbott\u2019s critique of the rigidity of dogmatic scientific or religious thought, as well as a demonstration of how scientific \u201creality\u201d and religion require similar leaps of faith outside of what is observable from the believer. She reasons that the novel is an allegorical warning against close-mindedness\u00a0and a failure to appreciate the ability of imagination to lead to growth, and states that\u00a0Flatland<\/em>\u00a0operates on the principle that \u201cthe idea of imagination working through appearances to higher truth is for Abbott the fundamental mechanism of both scientific and religious thought\u201d (478). A\u00a0Square\u2019s experiences in being confronted with theoretical evidence of a higher plane of existence mirror the human struggle to accept the validity of science (specifically, scientific theory\/hypothesis) and religion at the same time. Additionally, the Square\u2019s analogy for thinking about the 4th<\/sup>\u00a0and above Dimensions illustrates how humanity makes use of imagination to fill in the gaps of observation. The Sphere\u2019s response to this analogy points out the hypocrisy of validly engaging with imagination in regards to either science or religion, but not the other. Jann continues to say that Abbott\u2019s Christianity threw off this hypocrisy, affording imagination, science, and religion equal legitimacy. She ultimately summarizes her argument and the purpose of\u00a0Flatland<\/em>\u00a0in the following quote: \u201cFlatland<\/em>\u00a0becomes an allegory aimed at correcting the arrogance of the materialist intellect and dogmatic faith and at demonstrating the progressive force of imagination\u201d (486). On the whole I agree with Jann\u2019s interpretation of the text, having also noticed the parallels between the Flatlanders and those who fervently disregard either science or religion in the favor of the other. I felt her references to religion, such as use of the word \u201cprophet\u201d to describe the bringer of the news of the Third Dimension or A\u00a0Square\u2019s comparison of himself and Prometheus and his initial assumption that the Spaceland people were Gods, were also fitting evidence for her ideas. I think Abbott definitely was attempting to satirize Victorian religion, and Jann\u2019s article was very convincing.<\/p>\n

V. Mooney<\/p>\n

Jann, Rosemary. “Abbott’s “Flatland”: Scientific Imagination and “Natural Christianity””Victorian Studies<\/i>\u00a028.3 (1985): 473-90. Print.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stable URL: http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/3827305<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jann argues that, conscious of the popular debate in Victorian society about the validity of hypotheses, Flatland is Abbott\u2019s attempt at furthering his ideas about a sort of \u201cNatural Christianity\u201d (i.e. a Christianity that is able to work in concert with modern science). He does this\u00a0by\u00a0arguing for the importance of imagination in scientific thought, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2423,"featured_media":499,"parent":170,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-581","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":677,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/581\/revisions\/677"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/scalexan-vsf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}