The key to understanding the response of liberal intellectuals to the constraints that faced them in the post-Origin of Species era lies in an examination of the world of Victorian periodicals. Macmillan’s Magazine was one of several new monthlies that, beginning in the 1860s, altered the dynamics of the public space for debating the issue of the relationship between science and religion. These journals were founded just as the evolution issue sparked discussions about this relationship. In effect, journals like Macmillan’s Magazine sought to expand the bounds of permissibility through the creation of a new format that encouraged the toleration of unorthodox views. They provided an outlet for Darwinians who sought to establish themselves as respectable, cultural authorities while challenging the conventions of polite debate. The period after the publication of Darwin’s Origin was also characterized by the founding of new popular science journals. This paper mainly asks, how did popular science journals treat the topic of the relationship between science and religion from the 1860s to the early 1880s in light of the creation of new spaces for debate in the general periodical press? An analysis of eight of the new popular science journals founded in this period reveals the adoption of four different strategies for maintaining open debate on controversial scientific theories. In each case, these periodicals rejected or avoided the idea that science and religion were in conflict.
