A 'Universal Struggle for Life'? A Comparative Study of the Regional Reception of Darwinism Among Religious Thinkers
The Middle East History and Theory Workshop will continue this Thursday (10/26) at 4PM in SSRB 302 when we will welcome Sacha Aellen, a MAPH student at UChicago, who will present his paper, "A 'Universal Struggle for Life'? A Comparative Study of the Regional Reception of Darwinism Among Religious Thinkers in the Second Half of the 19th Century." A published version of the article can be found here, reading is encouraged but not required for participation in the workshop.
Sacha Aellen
Master of Arts Program in the Humanities
The University of Chicago
"A “Universal Struggle for Life”? A Comparative Study of the Regional Reception
of Darwinism Among Religious Thinkers in the Second Half of the 19th Century"
Thursday, October 26th
4:00PM-5:30PM
SSRB 302
Aellen's study aims at analyzing the reception of Darwinism among religious intellectuals from the Anglo-Saxon world and the Middle East in the second half of the 19th century. It adopts a comparative approach, understood in its double meaning of individualizing operator and commonality revealer, in order to formulate hypotheses regarding the contextual and the general implications of Darwin’s theory. The main finding is that behind the distinctive politicization of Darwinism that framed the debates towards secularization in one case and towards the relation to the imperial power on the other, the ideas and preoccupations voiced by Anglo-Saxon and Middle Eastern religious thinkers demonstrate striking similarities, with regard to the intensity of the debate, the individuality of the experience, the inscription of Darwinism in the question of modernity and the types of fundamental questions raised. The overarching idea governing Aellen's article is that the relation between religion and Darwinism should not be understood as necessarily being in opposition.
Sacha Aellen received an MA in International History from the Graduate Institute of Geneva and served in various roles for the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), including as Emergency Coordinator in Türkiye following the 2023 earthquake. He is currently a MAPH student at the University of Chicago.
Best wishes,
Theo Knights & Darragh Winkelman