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Granville Penn

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Granville Penn (9 December 1761 – 28 September 1844) was a great-grandson of Admiral Sir William Penn, a British author, and scriptural geologist.

Biography

He was born 9 December 1761 in Spring Gardens, London, the second surviving son of Thomas Penn and his wife, Lady Juliana Fermor, fourth daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Pomfret. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not complete his degree. He then became an assistant clerk in the war department.

In 1834 he succeeded his brother, John Penn, in the estates of Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, and Pennsylvania Castle, Portland.[1]

When he died at Stoke Park on September 28, 1844.[1]

Writings

Penn, fluent in French, Greek, Latin and Hebrew, was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and wrote several books dealing with Biblical criticism and published a number of competent translations of ancient Greek works, including a critical revision of the English version of the New Testament. He also wrote some theological works particularly related to Biblical chronology (past and future) and the early history of post-Flood mankind. In 1833 he wrote theLife of Admiral Sir William Penn, on his great-grandfather.[1]

A Comparative Estimate

His major work as a scriptural geologist[2] was A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, published in 1822. Penn added a supplement in 1823 in response to Buckland's theory on Kirkdale Cave, and then revised and enlarged it to two volumes in 1825 in response to criticisms. Like most Scriptural geologists, Penn, whose name became indelibly associated with Scriptural geology, participated only transiently with it during his career. For example, between the production of his book when he was 62 and his death in 1844 he focusing on philological scholarship.[3]

In the rhetoric of enlightened inquiry pitted against clerical dogmatism, Penn used the example of Galileo to protest against what he saw as over-zealous attacks on his attitude towards biblical and scientific authority long before Lyell and Buckland took it up. The idea of Penn as a latter-day Galileo might strike a modern reader as risible, but in the context of geological debate in the early 1820s his point was both serious and justified. The image of science struggling against bigotry proved useful on both sides of the cosmological divide, helping both the Scriptural geologists and the new geologists to claim the moral high ground.[4]

Attitude toward geology

Penn made no claim to be a geologist, but he was well read in the geological literature of his day.[5] He considered geology to be a delightful study and mineralogy a sound and valuable science, saying, “The science of Geology, … has this remarkable character above all the preceding physical sciences; that, it not only conducts the intelligence, like them, to the discernment of the God of Nature, but advances it further, to a distinct recognition of that God of Nature in the God of Scripture.”[6]

While discussing the relationship between scripture and geology Penn said that the Bible did not include "a SYSTEM [i.e., science] of physical truth," it was not a scientific text, as Conybeare (and others) claimed that people such as Penn and Andrew Ure did believe.[7]

"No system of physics, is imparted to us; but, fundamental physical facts are most certainly imparted to us, in order that we may have a secure and certain basis on which to found the system which, … we may construct, and which could, otherwise, never have acquired any secure and certain basis at all.” Our reason is, indeed, to work; but, it is set right in the first instance, that it might not necessarily work wrong. … We have, therefore, no physical system, but, we have grounding physical facts.. . . those simple grounding principles which the Mosaical revelation alone either does or can supply . . . opening to us . . . the true foundation on which the historical science of Geology must ultimately rest.[8]

Penn argued that the God of Scripture was also the God of Nature. He had communicated certain historical facts about the original creation of the earth and the Flood. It would not be prudent to disconnect them from the geological study of the surface of the earth. Penn repeatedly stressed that geology was different from other sciences in that it dealt with past history, rather than merely presently observable processes. Therefore, expertise in the study of the latter, was no guarantee of accuracy in the reconstruction of the former.

View on Creation

Penn held two rules for proper interpretation of Genesis: 1) all of Genesis is strictly historical and 2) this history was adapted to the comprehension of the common man by the use of phenomenological language. Moses described "the effects of creation optically, or, as they would have appeared to the eye; and without any assignment of the physical causes."[9] He believed that God’s creative acts were antecedent to the laws of nature, which were then set in operation. And that the "Days" of Genesis 1 were literal twenty-four hour periods.

Works

  • Critical Remarks on Isaiah vii. 18, 1799.
  • Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind and of the Arts of Cultivated Life, 1799.
  • A Greek Version of the Inscription on the Rosetta Stone, containing a decree of the priests in honor of Ptolemy the Fifth, 1802.
  • The Bioscope. Or Dial of Life, explained. To which is added, a Translation of St.Paulinu's Epistle to Celantia, on the Rule of Christian Life; and an Elementary View of General Chronology, 1814.
  • A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, 1822
  • Life of Admiral Sir William Penn, 1833

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Charlotte Fell-Smith, Penn, Granville (1761–1844), rev. Richard Smail, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 29 August 2009
  2. ^ Livingstone, Hart & Noll 1999, pp. 178–179
  3. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 372–373
  4. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 369–370
  5. ^ His book contains many long and well documented quotes from the most recent geological books and journals of his day, such as: Buckland--Bridgewater Treatise (1836), Conybeare--Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales (1822), Macculloch, Hutton (Playfair's version), Kirwan--Geological Essays (1799), Jameson, Greenough, Bakewell, Brande, Parkinson, Cuvier--Theory of the Earth (1813), D'Aubuisson, Humboldt--Voyage aux Regions Equinoxiales (1814), Saussure, and Deluc. Journal de Physique, Bibliothéque Universelle, Philosophical Transactions, Annals of Philosophy, and Geological Transactions.
  6. ^ Penn, Granville, A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, 1822, p. I:xiv.
  7. ^ William D. Conybeare and William Phillips, Outlines of the Geology of England and Wales (1822), li.
  8. ^ Penn, Granville, A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, 1822, p. I:xxvi-xxvii. (italics his)
  9. ^ Penn, Granville, A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, 1822, p. I:162-3. (italics his)

References

  • Livingstone, David; Hart, Darryl G.; Noll, Mark A. (1999). Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195115570.
  • O’Connor, Ralph (2007). "Young-Earth Creationists in Early Nineteenth-century Britain? Towards a reassessment of 'Scriptural Geology'" (PDF). History of Science. 45 (150). Science History Publications Ltd: 357–403. ISSN 0073-2753. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)


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