earth science

George Frederick Wright

George Frederick Wright is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George Frederick Wright rather than just read about it. In short: George Frederick Wright (January 22, 1838 – April 20, 1921) was an American geologist and a professor at Oberlin Theological Seminary, first of New Testament language and literature (1881 – 1892), and then of "harmony of science and revelation" (until retirement in 1907). He wrote prolifically, publishing works in geology, history, and theology.

Key takeaways

George Frederick Wright belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George Frederick Wright to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George Frederick Wright from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Frederick Wright (January 22, 1838 – April 20, 1921) was an American geologist and a professor at Oberlin Theological Seminary, first of New Testament language and literature (1881 – 1892), and then of "harmony of science and revelation" (until retirement in 1907). He wrote prolifically, publishing works in geology, history, and theology. Early in his career he was an outspoken defender of Darwinism, and later in life he emphasised his commitment to a form of theistic evolution.

Early life and education G. F. Wright was born in Whitehall, New York. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1859 and received an M.A. from Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1862. In 1887 he obtained a D.D. from Brown University and an LL.D. from Drury College. He was made a Fellow of the Geological Society of America in 1890.

Career

Army service In 1861, during the Civil War, he served in the Union army for 5 months.

Pastoral career He pastored Congregational churches in Bakersfield, Vermont (1861 – 1872) and Andover, Massachusetts (1872 – 1881). He then accepted a professorship of New Testament language and literature at Oberlin Theological Seminary. In 1892 he took a newly created professorship in "harmony of science and revelation". In 1907 he was made professor emeritus and retired on a Carnegie Pension. He also frequently lectured at the Lowell Institute. He was assistant geologist with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey in 1881 and 1882, and with the USGS from 1884 to 1892. He was president of the Ohio Historical Society from 1907 until shortly before he died. His geology interests took him all over the world — Alaska, Greenland, China, Mongolia, Manchuria, Siberia, Turkestan, and the Caucasus and Lebanon mountains — gathering original information for the books he published. In 1900 he travelled with his son Fred Wright to Egypt where he met Moses B. Cotsworth and Mrs Mabel Bent. They travelled together until an unfortunate incident in which Mabel's horse rolled on her and broke her leg. Wright and Cotsworth remained friends and often corresponded about geology; particularly ice ages and glaciers. Wright helped Cotsworth to formulate his theory of the perpetual movement of continents.

Views on evolution Early in life, Wright arose as a leader of the Christian Darwinists. During his time pastoring in Andover, Wright developed a friendship with Christian Darwinist Asa Gray, and encouraged him to publish more openly on his views harmonizing their common evangelical Calvinist faith with the new biology and geology. He also helped edit Gray's collection of essays, Darwiniana. Wright apparently believed that humanity might still be an act of special creation, but he otherwise taught that the biblical creation stories were meant to teach theological truths, and thus should not be expected to reveal scientific knowledge. However, after a crisis of faith in the 1890s brought on by Charles Augustus Briggs' higher criticism, he readjusted his views on origins to line up more closely with a literalist reading of the biblical creation stories. In his later writings, including the chapter he wrote for The Fundamentals, he accepted geologic time, but argued that human origins required divine intervention, and that biological variation extending to form new species would be evidence of design. He stated "By no stretch of legitimate reasoning can Darwinism be made to exclude design. Indeed, if it should be proved that species have developed from others of a lower order, as varieties are supposed to have done, it would strengthen rather than weaken the standard argument from design." That is, he subscribed to theistic evolution.

Bibliography Logic of Christian Evidences (Andover, 1880) Introduction to Historical Sketches of Andover, Massachusetts (Andover, 1880) Studies in Science and Religion (1882) An Inquiry concerning the Relation of Death to Probation (Boston, 1882) The Divine Authority of the Bible (1884) The Glacial Boundary in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky (Cleveland, 0., 1884) The Ice Age in North America, and its Bearings upon the Antiquity of Man (New York, 1889; 5th ed., 1911) Charles Grandison Finney (Boston, 1891) online version Man and the Glacial Period (New York, 1892) Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic (1896) Scientific Aspects of Christian Evidences (1898) Asiatic Russia' (1902) Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History (Oberlin, 0., 1907) Early Man: How to Promote Peace in a Family Origin and Antiquity of Man (1912) "The Mosaic Authorship Of The Pentateuch", in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Chapter 2. "The Testimony of the Monuments to the Truth of the Scriptures, in The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, Chapter 16. "The Passing of Evolution", In The Fundamentals: A Testimony to Truth, Chapter 69. Many articles in Bibliotheca Sacra Edited:

Bibliotheca Sacra (1884 – c. 1920) Records of the Past (1905 – c. 1920)

Notes

References "Wright, George Frederick", Christian Classics Library, 1907 G.F. Wright, "G. Frederick Wright Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine", Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical, 1917. Peter Collopy, "Darwiniana", Everything2 Ron Numbers, "George Frederick Wright: From Christian Darwinist to Fundamenalist", Isis 79(1988):624–645. Ronald L. Numbers (1992). The Creationists: The Evolution of Scientific Creationism. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-40104-0. "Sketch of George Frederick Wright" . Popular Science Monthly. Vol. 42. December 1892.

External links Media related to George Frederick Wright (geologist) at Wikimedia Commons Works by or about George Frederick Wright at Wikisource Works by George Frederick Wright at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Illustrations

George Frederick Wright: George Frederick Wright — George Frederick Wright

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Frederick Wright

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Frederick Wright claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George Frederick Wright before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George Frederick Wright ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George Frederick Wright

In research: George Frederick Wright appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George Frederick Wright in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George Frederick Wright is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1838 births, 1921 deaths, American Christian writers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Frederick Wright outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George Frederick Wright in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George Frederick Wright means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George Frederick Wright out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George Frederick Wright in simple terms?

Why does George Frederick Wright matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George Frederick Wright?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George Frederick Wright.