69117 Heidelberg, Germany
James Woodrow studied at Heidelberg University wherein 1856 he took the degree of Ph.D.
60 S Lincoln St, Washington, PA 15301, United States
In 1849 James was graduated with the highest honors from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College).
Cambridge, MA, United States
James Woodrow studied at Harvard University under Louis Agassiz.
60 S Lincoln St, Washington, PA 15301, United States
In 1849 James was graduated with the highest honors from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College).
Cambridge, MA, United States
James Woodrow studied at Harvard University under Louis Agassiz.
69117 Heidelberg, Germany
James Woodrow studied at Heidelberg University wherein 1856 he took the degree of Ph.D.
James Woodrow was born on30 May 1828 in Carlisle, England. He was the son of Thomas Woodrow, a Presbyterian pastor, and Marion Williamson. His parents emigrated first to Canada and then, when Woodrow was nine years old, to Chillicothe, Ohio.
In 1849 James was graduated with the highest honors from Jefferson College (now Washington & Jefferson College).
He studied at Harvard University under Louis Agassiz and at Heidelberg University wherein 1856 he took the degree of Ph.D.
In 1853, after several years of teaching in Alabama academies, James Woodrow became a professor of natural science at Oglethorpe University, Milledgeville, Georgia.
He was also appointed as Professor of Chemistry, Geology, and Natural Philosophy at the University of Georgia, but never took the position. Instead, Woodrow took a position at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1861, becoming the first Perkins Professor of Natural Science.
During the Civil War, he was chief of the Confederate chemical laboratory at Columbia; from 1861 to 1872 he was treasurer of foreign missions of the Southern General Assembly. From 1861 to 1885 he was the editor of the Southern Presbyterian Review, a quarterly. From 1865 to 1893 he was the publisher of the weekly Southern Presbyterian.
Although he continued to hold his professorship in the theological seminary until 1886, he became associated with the University of South Carolina as a professor of science in 1869, subsequently becoming dean of the school of liberal arts and sciences and finally president, 1891-1897. He succeeded in maintaining the reputation of the college during the agrarian ascendency of Benjamin R. Tillman.
Woodrow courageously defended his views about evolution before the several synods responsible for the welfare of the Seminary and, on appeal, before several meetings of the General Assembly. His speech before the Synod of South Carolina in 1884 is one of the most enlightened expositions in the ecclesiastical history of the South. In the end, he was removed from his chair, and the General Assembly sustained the admonition of the responsible synods. Although his fight did not, unfortunately, settle the conflict of religion and science in the South, the cause of truth was greatly advanced. Woodrow's dismissal was not held to affect his good standing in the church, and thereafter on several occasions, he served as a commissioner to the General Assembly and in 1901 was a moderator of the Synod of South Carolina.
In 1860 James Woodrow became the first incumbent of the Perkins Professorship of Natural Science in Connection with Revelation at Columbia Theological Seminary. The appointment, the first of its kind at any theological seminary in the United States, was controversial among southern Presbyterian from the outset.
He received honorary degrees from three Southern colleges as well as from his alma mater and was a member of many scientific societies at home and abroad.
Along with studying science, Woodrow studied religion and in 1859 was ordained by the Hopewell Presbytery, then part of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
Woodrow had initially been opposed to evolution according to Charles Darwin's theory, yet eventually became convinced that evolution was true. Conservatives, led by Robert Lewis Dabney, feared that it would lead to the ascendance of natural science over revealed religion.
Woodrow gave such fears credence with his arguments that the Bible was never meant as a scientific text, and that there was, no real contradiction between revelation and natural science. Although he stressed that evolution was only a theory. Woodrow's enemies, led by Dabney, seized on his apparent sympathy for Darwinism and sought his ouster.
In 1857, James Woodrow married Felie Baker, the daughter of a fellow Presbyterian minister. The couple had five children.
