The Father of Electricity and the Power of God
How Michael Faraday’s Biblical Faith inspired the physics of force fields and the creation of electricity.
Image: Michael Faraday, sciencesensei.com
If you use electricity on a daily basis then your life has been deeply impacted by the scientific thought and work of Michael Faraday. One of the most prolific and wide-ranging experimental scientists who ever lived, Faraday envisioned a reality of force that existed beyond mere matter and mechanism. Paving the way for the work of James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, and Max Planck, Faraday introduced the concept of force fields into physics, established the field of electromagnetism, and discovered how to harness the power of electricity.
Faraday’s work in chemistry and physics propelled science and technology forward into a new era that was unimaginable in the generation before his birth. Yet, for all of his ingenious insights, inventions, and innovations, Faraday remained profoundly humble and “sought no financial gain from his discoveries, content to reveal God’s presence through the design of nature.” 1 He believed that his work was simply a scientific expression of a deeper theology of creation, and—as a man of science—he always viewed himself as merely a servant of God.
Humble Beginnings
Born in 1791, Michael Faraday was the son of a blacksmith whose failing health prevented him from raising his family out of poverty. The days of Faraday’s youth were materially poor and his formal education consisted of very little. “My education,” said Faraday, was “little more than the rudiments of reading, writing, and arithmetic at a common day school.” 2 While impoverished in worldly things, Faraday yet considered himself rich in spiritual things.
He reflected that his family's poverty was not a cause of suffering for him, but rather a blessing bestowed by God. Indeed, Faraday credited his later scientific success to his family’s spiritual wealth amid their material poverty. As he once reflected: “The reason I was so adamant in pursuing my relentless efforts devoted to science was because of the parallel positive—the fathomlessly loving, nurturing, and shaping influences from my Heavenly Father, as well as my earthly father.” 3
At age 13 Faraday began to work as an errand boy for a bookbinder and bookseller and became an apprentice the following year. Surrounded by books in his new place of apprenticeship, he “saw a mine of knowledge, and resolved to explore it.” 4 Faraday devoured every book he got his hands on, and the volume Improvement of the Mind, by Isaac Watts, made a particularly profound impact on him. In Watts’ work, Faraday found a “common-sense guide to learning, with detailed advice on how best to benefit from lectures, reading, conversation, and observation.” 5
Watts advised keeping a notebook of one’s thoughts and observations, recommended attending lectures, participation in discussion groups, and exchanging letters with persons of similar interests. In the same year that he read Watts’ book, Faraday began to systematically follow all of his advice. Faraday likewise adopted Watts’ philosophical framework for learning which emphasized “the importance of observed facts” and warned against being “too hasty to erect general theories from a few particular observations.” 6
From Laboratory Apprentice to Scientific Master
Image: Humphry Davy, thefamouspeople.com
As Faraday’s book-binding apprenticeship was coming to a close in 1813, and he was preparing to go into the trade independently, a customer gave him tickets to attend a series of scientific lectures by the Royal Institution’s professor of chemistry, Sir Humphry Davy. Faraday gratefully attended, took meticulously detailed notes, and soon afterward handed a three-hundred-page copy of his lecture notes (bound in leather by his own hands) to Sir Humphry. Davy immediately recognized Faraday’s efforts with words of encouragement, and he offered Faraday work as his lab assistant.
Faraday aided Davy—who was partially blind because he had damaged his sight in an explosion—in performing experiments in his laboratory at the Royal Institution in London, and his new job allowed him to earn an income while learning science at the same time. Eventually, Sir Humphrey permitted Faraday to pursue his own research and perform his own experiments, and soon afterward Faraday made a number of important findings in both physics and chemistry. He discovered benzene, isolated and identified new compounds of chlorine and carbon, conducted the first experiments on the diffusion of gases, discovered isobutylene, succeeded in liquefying several gases, was the first to describe nanoparticles, invented the Bunsen burner, investigated the alloys of steel, and created several new kinds of specialized glass for various optical purposes.
Then, in 1821, Faraday made a discovery that would forever change the world—he found that an electric current produces a magnetic field that can be used to generate force. In other words, Faraday discovered how to put the power of electricity to work. Revealing the phenomena of electromagnetic rotation (the rotation of a current-carrying wire around a magnet) and succeeding in producing mechanical motion by means of a permanent magnet and an electric current, Faraday harnessed this newly revealed power to create the first electric motor. Ten years later he would use this same principle to invent the world’s first electrical generator.
Sir Humphrey retired in 1827, and Faraday was chosen to succeed him as professor of chemistry at the Royal Institution. In this position, Faraday continued to devise ingenious experiments and make groundbreaking discoveries. He discovered electrolysis (the use of electricity to separate matter) and the two laws that govern electrolysis, invented the Faraday cage, (a device that blocks electricity and electromagnetic waves), and revealed the first evidence that light and electromagnetism are related through his discovery of the “Faraday effect.”7
The Force Awakens
As Faraday pursued his inquiries into electrical currents, electricity, and magnetism, he was perplexed by the issue of how the influences of electricity and magnetism were actually transmitted. One common explanation, proposed by the chemist John Dalton, was that atoms were causing the forces. The other explanation was the idea of action-at-a-distance where “bodies are attracted to one another without any intermediate bodies to pass on the effects down a chain.” 8 Faraday rejected both of these options as insufficient because neither of them could account for what he witnessed in his lab.
Having revealed that electricity is a force related to magnetism, and not some sort of indescribable and mysterious fluid (as was believed at the time), Faraday developed his theory of force fields as a type of mechanical agency that transports energy across a distance. Observing the pattern created by magnetic filings surrounding a magnet, Faraday introduced the idea of magnetic ‘lines of force’, and developed the concept of ‘magnetic fields’ to describe the overall structure of the pattern. While Faraday initially saw “lines of force” as simply a model of representation, by the early 1850s he had clearly come to believe that they are “not just symbols but fundamental entities in nature.” 9
Like Isaac Newton, Faraday believed that force transcended the properties of ordinary matter. Unlike Newton, Faraday did not believe that force was an ephemeral principle (likely to decay without replenishment), but that force was as enduring and stable as matter itself. In Faraday’s view, space was “full of forces and powers and the balance of reality was not so much in isolated bodies of matter as in the space between (and within) them.”10 Faraday's explanation of magnetism, electricity, and light in terms of lines of force established the basis of modern field theory and gave physicists a way of defining these connections more precisely. His discoveries led to James Clerk Maxwell creating the first unified field theory in physics, as Maxwell modeled Faraday's law in mathematical terms in one of his four famous equations.11
Biblical Faith as the Fount of Faraday’s Science
Faraday’s approach to science was founded on his faith in Scripture, and he spoke of “the book of nature” as “written by the finger of God.”12 Faraday viewed “nature as God's creation and the Bible as God's revealed word.”13 While Faraday believed that “humans could only come to know God through his self-revelation in Scripture,” he likewise affirmed that “on the basis of that faith they could also view nature as a book of signs manifesting the Creator's eternal power and Godhead.”14 From the first day that he fell in love with science, Faraday’s investigations “were more than a joyous commune with nature; they were a sincere attempt to discern God’s invisible qualities through the very design of the world.”15
Faraday’s well-constructed observations and experiments sought to understand nature’s diverse phenomena in light of a fundamental unity of the universe which bore witness to the Divine signature. Faraday anchored the unity of nature in the unity of God, and he attributed the intelligibility of nature to the fact that human reason corresponded with the Divine because humans are actually created in the image of God. For him, “the competence of human reason for comprehending nature was guaranteed by the Biblical doctrine of creation; it was not just a useful fiction.”16
Faraday’s “faith was central to the practice of his science in terms of the knowledge he produced and how he communicated and applied it.”17 His “deepest intuitions about the physical world sprang from this religious faith in the Divine origin of nature.”18 For instance, Faraday’s “theology of an all-powerful God led him to the idea of point centres and thus of fields around them.”19 And “since force was a divinely created entity, it could neither be augmented nor diminished by natural causes”20 He was “encouraged to think in terms of the primacy of force by his association of active powers in the universe with the activity of God.”21
As Faraday’s biographer Pearce Williams explains, “The startling boldness of Faraday’s theorizing about the spatial ordering of magnetic fields was facilitated by his deep belief that nature’s laws were themselves the product of a rational mind. The biblical idea of creation implied that there was an underlying order and unity to the phenomena of nature—by virtue of the forces impressed on matter by the Creator—and that the human mind, fallible as it was, could, when guided by experiments, formulate ideas that reflected those laws.”22
A Humble Public Servant of God and Science
Because Faraday had not been given the benefit of much formal learning, he valued public education and endeavored to teach science to those who had no money or access to schools. An engaging public speaker famous for his erudition and clarity, he gave free popular lectures on scientific subjects and laid a foundation for the continuance of such scientific education for children and laypeople. Faraday was likewise engaged in advising and educating the British military, where his wisdom was sought in matters ranging from the quality of foods at sea to the best strategy for defending the country. He employed science and new technologies that he developed to help ensure the safe navigation of ships around the British Isles. Faraday also created electrical systems for lighthouses and invented a type of highly focused lens so that their light could be seen at greater distances.23
For much of his scientific work and experimentation, Faraday refused to receive money. For example in 1857, Mr. Cyrus Field—who created the Atlantic Telegraph Company and laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean—inquired of Faraday whether he thought a great telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean would be able to transmit a message. Field offered Faraday a generous amount of money to test the feasibility of a transatlantic cable, but Faraday declined the money. Nevertheless, he still undertook the necessary experiments, and on their completion reported to Field, “It can be done, but you will not get an instantaneous message.” Field anxiously asked “How long will it take?” and Faraday responded “Oh, perhaps a second,” to which Field replied, “Well, that's quick enough for me.”24
Although a number of Faraday’s discoveries had practical applications that could have made him rich, he did not patent them or manufacture any of them for financial gain. “To pursue research, he gave up a significant income derived from providing commercial and legal scientific advice.”25 Faraday’s approach to money was grounded in the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:19, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” and he once wrote to a friend that “money is no temptation to me. In fact, I have always loved science more than money.”
Faraday avoided priority disputes over scientific discoveries and instead viewed the scientific community as “a band of brothers” who should work together to relieve suffering and expand human knowledge. With regard to the attainment of knowledge, Faraday, following Scripture, took human error and fallibility as a given, and thus never staked his ego on the correctness or acceptance of his own ideas. As his biographer Alan Hirshfeld writes: “He was a scientific pilgrim, inching his way toward the heart of a complex universe. Whether his chosen path proved mistaken was of little consequence; there was always another path.”
Faraday never strove for, nor wanted, worldly success, and he rejected all civil honors from Britain because he believed they were “tarnished by association with party politics and were not awarded for merit.” He actively sought out the company of those in poverty, prayed with the poor members of the community, loved them, and cared for them both spiritually and materially. Humble and unassuming, he turned down offers to become President of the Royal Society (twice). Eschewing power and personal fortune Faraday remained a simple scientific servant of the Royal Institution. Rejecting the honor of being knighted “Sir Michael” by Queen Victoria, he was insistent on remaining “plain Mr. Faraday to the end.”
Alan Hirshfeld, The Electric Life of Michael Faraday (Bloomsbury, 2009).
Ian Hutchinson, “Michael Faraday: Scientist and Non-conformist,” The Faith of Great Scientists (MIT, 2003).
Tai L. Chow, “The Father of Electricity: Michael Faraday (1791–1867),” Challenger (Jul-Sep, 2017)
Cornelius Varley, Faraday’s lifelong friend, quoted in Silvanus Thompson, Michael Faraday: His Life and Work (Cassell and Company, 1901).
Hutchinson, “Michael Faraday: Scientist and Non-conformist.”
Hutchinson, “Michael Faraday: Scientist and Non-conformist.”
Susan Borowski, “The genius of Michael Faraday” Scientia (AAAS, 11 September 2012).
Colin Russel, “Science and Faith in the life of Michael Faraday” in Has Science Killed God?: The Faraday Papers on Science and Religion Ed, Dennis Alexander (SPCK, 2019).
Christopher B. Kaiser, Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science: The Creationist Tradition from Basil to Bohr (Leiden: Brill, 1997) 363.
Kaiser, Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science, 363.
Borowski, “The genius of Michael Faraday.”
Geoffrey Cantor, Michael Faraday: Sandemanian and Scientist: A Study of Science and Religion in the Nineteenth Century, (St. Martin's, New York, 1991) 200.
Kaiser, Creational Theology and the History of Physical Science, 364.
Christopher B. Kaiser, Creation and the History of Science, (Marshall Pickering, 1991) 282.
Alan Hirshfeld, The Electric Life of Michael Faraday, (Walker, 2006) 5.
Christopher B. Kaiser, Creation and the History of Science, 278.
Frank A. J. L James, Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2010) 2.
L. Pearce Williams, Michael Faraday: A Biography (Basic Books, 1965) 4.
Colin A. Russell, Michael Faraday: Physics and Faith, (Oxford University Press, 2001) 100.
Kaiser, Creational Theology, 363.
Kaiser, Creational Theology, 364; Williams Michael Faraday: A Biography, 103.
Kaiser, Creational Theology, 365.
Cantor , Michael Faraday: Sandemanian and Scientist, 156.
James Kendall, Michael Faraday, Man of Simplicity (Faber and Faber, 1957).
James, Michael Faraday: A Very Short Introduction.
Thank you for this beautiful overview of Faraday's life and achievements. We need more of these bright minds and spirits in modern science.