Stokes: Victorian Britain's most important religious scientist?

Sir George Gabriel Stokes is justly recognized for his substantial contributions to mathematics and physics, particularly optics and hydrodynamics. Yet Stokes also had a particularly noteworthy involvement in the religious life of Victorian Britain, and especially in the relationship between science and religion. As an outspoken evangelical, a prominent religious scientist, a lecturer on natural theology, and a lay writer on widely-debated theological topics such as eternal punishment, Stokes made contributions unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. However, these have often been overlooked. This article redresses this situation, by explaining Stokes's religious life, his influence on debates over science and religion, his natural theology, and his promotion of the doctrine of conditional immortality. This article is part of the theme issue 'Stokes at 200 (Part 1)'.