Editing A Devil's Chaplain

{{short description|Book by Richard Dawkins}}
{{other uses|Devil's Chaplain (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = A Devil's Chaplain
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = A Devil's Chaplain.jpg
| border        = yes
| caption       = First edition cover
| author        = [[Richard Dawkins]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United Kingdom
| language      = English
| subject       = [[Evolutionary biology]]
| published     = 2003 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin)
| media_type    = Print
| pages         = 264 pp.
| isbn          = 0-618-33540-4
| dewey= 500 21
| congress= QH366.2 .D373 2003
| oclc= 52269209
| preceded_by   = [[Unweaving the Rainbow]]
| followed_by   = [[The Ancestor's Tale]]
}}
'''''A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love'''''  is a 2003 book of selected essays and other writings by [[Richard Dawkins]]. Published five years after Dawkins's previous book ''[[Unweaving the Rainbow]]'', it contains essays covering subjects including [[pseudoscience]], [[genetic determinism]], [[memetics]], [[terrorism]], [[religion]] and [[creationism]]. A section of the book is devoted to Dawkins' late adversary [[Stephen Jay Gould]].

The book's title is a reference to a quotation of [[Charles Darwin]], in a letter to [[Joseph Dalton Hooker|J.D. Hooker]] dated 13 July 1856, made in reference to Darwin's lack of belief in how "a perfect world" was [[teleological argument|designed]] by God (and a reference to Reverend [[Robert Taylor (Radical)|Robert Taylor]]):
"What a book a devil's chaplain might write on the clumsy, wasteful, blundering low and horridly cruel works of nature!"<ref>This was written in 1856 as Darwin worked towards the [[Publication of Darwin's theory#Struggle for existence|publication of his theory]], and has been related to his memories of [[Charles Darwin's education#Second year doldrums|his time at university]] when an "Infidel home missionary tour" by the Reverend [[Robert Taylor (Radical)|Robert Taylor]] warned Darwin of the dangers of dissent from church doctrine. While Taylor was subsequently nicknamed "the devil's chaplain," the term goes back further, and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] has [[The Parson's Prologue and Tale|his Parson]] say "Flatereres been the develes chapelleyns, that syngen evere placebo" in a reference to [[Placebo (at funeral)]]."</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Darwin|first=Charles|date=13 July 1856|title=Letter to J D Hooker|url=https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-1924.xml|access-date=8 January 2021|website=Darwin Project, University of Cambridge}}</ref><ref>[http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/scienceandnature/story/0,6000,892495,00.html "Darwin's child"], profile by Simon Hattenstone, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 10 February 2003.</ref>

==Reception==
Robin McKie reviewed the book for ''[[The Observer]]'' and stated that the book contained a mixture of touching essays and "the good, old knockabout stuff at which Dawkins excels".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/09/scienceandnature.highereducation|first=Robin|last=McKie|title=Dawkins versus the priests and New Age shamans? No contest|newspaper=The Observer|date=9 March 2003}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Argument from poor design]]
*[[Great Ape Project]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote|Richard Dawkins#A Devil's Chaplain (2003)|A Devil's Chaplain}}

* Review by [[Michael Ruse]], 2003. "[http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/through-a-glass-darkly Through a Glass, Darkly]." ''[[American Scientist]]''.
* Review by [[Richard Holloway]], 2003. "[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/feb/15/scienceandnature.highereducation1 A callous world]." ''[[The Guardian]]''.

{{Richard Dawkins}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Chaplain, A}}
[[Category:2003 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books by Richard Dawkins]]
[[Category:Books critical of religion]]
[[Category:English-language books]]
[[Category:English essay collections]]
[[Category:Houghton Mifflin books]]
[[Category:Biology books]]