"Science and theology, when each remains within its proper domain, are not enemies of one another."
Life and Thought
Andrew Dickson White was an American historian, educator, and diplomat, and one of the founders of Cornell University. He is best known for his two-volume work A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, in which he examined historical conflicts between religious institutions and scientific advances.
Andrew Dickson White was born in 1832 in Homer, New York. He studied at Homer Academy and later at Yale University, then pursued the study of history and the humanities in Europe. At the beginning of his professional career, White taught history and became an important figure in the development of modern higher education in the United States.
In 1865, White founded Cornell University with Ezra Cornell and served as its first president. He advocated broad, secular university education and sought to define the university as an institution independent of sectarian and religious constraints.
His most important work was A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, first published in 1896. The book presented his historical account of conflicts between certain theological views and scientific theories, including in such fields as cosmology, geology, and biology. The work influenced the widespread idea of a “conflict between science and religion,” although later historians of science criticized its simplifications of the complex relationship between science and religion.
White was also active in diplomacy and served as United States ambassador to Russia from 1892 to 1902. In his final years, he continued writing memoirs and historical studies, and died in 1918.