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Malthus, Jesus, and Darwin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

John M. Pullen
John M. Pullen
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, The University of New England, Australia
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Extract

Malthus' theological ideas were most clearly presented in the final two chapters of the first edition (1798) of his Essay on the Principle of Population. They can be classified under eight main headings. (i) He admitted that the pressure of population causes much misery and evil, but he did not accept that this in any way impugned the benevolence of the Creator. He situated the population problem within the general context of the problem of evil, and argued that population pressure is permitted and ordained by the Creator as a means of stimulating mankind to attain a higher good. (ii) He opposed the traditional Christian notion that this world is a state of trial, with population pressure being one aspect of that trial. He believed that this notion of a state of trial is inconsistent with the notion of an omniscient Creator, and that it is therefore necessary to reject the notion of a state of trial in order to save the notion of Divine omniscience. (iii) Instead of viewing this world as a state of trial, he viewed it ‘as the mighty process of God, not for the trial, but for the creation and formation of mindr. This notion of the growth of mind is the central aspect of Malthus' theology. (iv) He expressed doubts about the omnipotence of the Creator, arguing that God did not have the power to create perfect human beings instantaneously, but required a certain process or a certain time to form beings with ‘exalted qualities of mind’. Malthus seemed to argue that Divine omnipotence and Divine benevolence are incompatible – because a truly benevolent creator would not have subjected mankind to the miseries of this world if He had the power to create a perfect world. Malthus was prepared to sacrifice the notion of Divine omnipotence in order to save the notion of Divine benevolence. (v) He saw the principle of population as part of the Divine plan for the replenishment of the earth, i.e. its full cultivation and peopling. (vi) His attitude to worldly pleasures and comforts was distinctly unpuritanical, and leaning towards hedonism. His ethics were world-enhancing, rather than world-denying and retreatist. (This point is discussed more fully in Part II below.) (vii) He gave a naturalistic interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of original sin, describing original sin as the original state of torpor and sluggishness of every human being at the moment of birth. The purpose of the principle of population, and of the other difficulties encountered in life, is to stimulate man to raise himself out of this original state. (viii) Finally, Malthus' theology included the doctrine of annihilationism (or conditional immortality), according to which eternal life is not an essential part of the human soul at birth, but is granted only to those who attain during life on earth an adequate growth of mind. The others are, at death, not condemned to eternal suffering, but are annihilated, body and soul.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1987 , pp. 233 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

page 233 note 1 Malthus, T. R., An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798;Google Scholar reprinted under the title First Essay on Population, (London: Macmillan, 1926), p. 353.Google Scholar

page 233 note 2 Ibid. p. 352.

page 235 note 1 For a more detailed discussion of Malthus' theology, see LeMahieu, D. L., ‘Malthus and the Theology of Scarcity’, Journal of the History of Ideas, XL (1979), 467–74;CrossRefGoogle ScholarPullen, J. M., ‘Malthus' Theological Ideas and Their Influence on His Principle of Population’, History of Political Economy, XIII (1981), 39–54;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Santurri, E. N., ‘Theodicy and Social Policy in Malthus' Thought’, Journal of the History of Ideas, LXIII (1982), 315–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 235 note 2 Young, R. M., ‘Malthus and the Evolutionists: The Common Context of Biological and Social Theory’, Past and Present, XLIII (1969), 119.Google Scholar

page 235 note 3 Op. cit. p. 474.Google Scholar

page 235 note 4 Ibid. pp. 471, 468.

page 236 note 1 Op. cit. pp. 210–14.Google Scholar

page 236 note 2 Op. cit. p. 472.Google Scholar

page 236 note 3 Malthus, T. R., Principles of Political Economy, 1820, pp. 463–4.Google Scholar In the second, posthumous, edition (1836), ‘the leisure of a certain portion of society’ was altered to ‘the leisure or personal services of a certain portion of society’.

page 237 note 1 Op. cit. pp. 473–4, 482–3.Google Scholar These pro-leisure statements by Malthus might not be widely known because they were not reproduced in the second edition of the Principles, which is the edition currently in print. The first edition has never been reprinted and is extremely rare. The omission of these pro-leisure statements from the posthumous second edition of the Principles could have been the decision of the editor. Even if the omission was Malthus' decision, it does not necessarily mean that Malthus altered his views on this question.

page 237 note 2 Principles of Political Economy, 2nd ed. 1836, pp. 402, 336, 329, 326.Google Scholar

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page 238 note 2 Ibid. p. 359.

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