Abstract
In 1838, James M. Brown wrote a 56-page pamphlet entitled Reflections on Geology, in which he critiqued the geological views of William Buckland (expressed in his 1836 Bridgewater Treatise) and John Pye Smith (expressed in a letter in the December 1837 issue of Congregational Magazine). Brown opposed the unbiblical philosophical grid, rooted in Germany and France, used by the leading British geologists to interpret the geological evidence. He showed that the inferences of these geologists were unconvincing and not logically necessary. He criticized the way Buckland and Smith, in their attempts to harmonize Genesis and their geological theories, twisted and ignored the Scriptural data. Brown would not tolerate such trifling because he was convinced that the Bible was the inspired Word of God. He concluded that their views were 'a direct and real, though disavowed attack on the Mosaic narrative of the creation'. As a faithful pastor of rural parishes, Brown was motivated to write against the theories of Buckland and Smith out of a genuine concern for the spiritual condition of his people and for sound teaching of Scripture.