Portrait of Dr. William Levison in military uniform Portraits Men

Digital Image

Group US Army military portrait including Dr. William Levison (top row, third from left); Schofield Barracks, Hawaii Portraits Groups Men

Digital Image

Portrait of Dr. William Levison smoking a corn pipe Portraits Men

Digital Image

Dr. William Levison celebrating Christmas Eve with U.S. Army buddies; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii Portraits Groups Men

Digital Image

Dr. William Levison with U.S. Army buddies; Schofield Barracks, Hawaii Portraits Groups Men

Digital Image

Leo Baeck with New York Mayor William O'Dwyer and Union of American Hebrew Congregations President Maurice N. Eisendrath, Oscar M. Lazrus and Rabbi Daniel L. Davis Portraits; Groups; Men

Page 12 of the "American Jewish Cavalcade" scrapbook of Leo Baeck in New York found in ROS 10 Folder 3

Finding revelation in anthropology: Alexander Winchell, William Robertson Smith and the heretical imperative

Anthropological inquiry has often been considered an agent of intellectual secularization. Not least is this so in the sphere of religion, where anthropological accounts have often been taken to represent the triumph of naturalism. This metanarrative however fails to recognise that naturalistic explanations could sometimes be espoused for religious purposes and in defence of confessional creeds. This essay examines two late nineteenth-century figures – Alexander Winchell in the United States, and William Robertson Smith in Britain – who found in anthropological analysis resources to bolster rather than undermine faith. In both cases these individuals found themselves on the receiving end of ecclesiastical censure and were dismissed from their positions at church-governed institutions. But their motivation was to vindicate divine revelation, in Winchell’s case from the physical anthropology of human origins and in Smith’s from the cultural anthropology of Semitic ritual.

Photograph - William Woodruff (1783-1860) and Margaret Clement Woodruff (1794-1882)

Pair of photographs, 17 ½ cm x 12 cm of William Woodruff, son of Ezekiel and a 17 ½ cm x 12 cm photograph of Margaret Clement Woodruff in a folding silver frame. These photographs were described by R. Band in 1990 – description is included.

Letter to William Dickson from K. Robertson

Letter to William Dickson from K. Robertson saying that the caravan in the square has been taken down but the materials have not been removed yet. Money has been deposited into Mr. Dickson’s account, Feb 11, 1854.