There was a real conflict between science and religion throughout the nineteenth century in Britain, and it was passed on by the nineteenth as a legacy to the twentieth century. Religious belief was defended by appeals to natural theology and the authority of the Bible, but the defence failed in both respects, while at the same time massive developments took place in the natural sciences. While scientific methods registered one success after another, it became increasingly evident that the popular natural theology was invalid and the Bible fallible. Scientific statements about the natural world were sometimes at variance with biblical assertions, and this shattered the simple and straightforward view of the Bible, that God had spoken to the inspired writers much as a father addresses his children, conveying truths to them which otherwise they could never discover but which are essential to their health and welfare. If God had conveyed untruths to his children then he lost face, just as a deceitful or careless earthly father does; but with the significant difference that a fallible God is no longer God, and the Scriptures no longer possess their unique character and authority.

Sometimes children play games which involve setting aside a given spot as ‘safe’, a kind of sanctuary where you cannot be caught or ‘tigged’. Without wishing to overstress the analogy one could say that British biblical scholars and theologians adopted a similar tactic in the later nineteenth century, deliberately limiting their work to the religious-cum-moral area of life and conceding the right of scientists to explore the natural world and come to their own legitimate conclusions.