---
title: 'Chaney’s Planetarium'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2019-12-11
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2019-chaneys-planetarium
---

# Chaney’s Planetarium

[James McDonald Chaney](/authors/james-mcdonald-cheney) (1831-1909) was a Presbyterian minister best-known for authoring *William the Baptist*. This fictional dialogue between an immersionist and a Presbyterian minister remains a classic presentation of the Biblical view of baptism.

![](https://assets.confessional.org/images/chaney-james-mcdonald-photo.gif)However, Chaney was a man of varied interests. Besides *William the Baptist* and its sequel, *Agnes, Daughter of William the Baptist, or The Young Theologian*, he wrote other works of science fiction, such as *Poliopolis and Polioland, or A Trip to the North Pole* (1900) and *Mac or Mary, or The Young Scientists* (1900) \[these works are not yet available at Log College Press, although the former can be read online [here](http://freeread.com.au/@RGLibrary/JMChaney/Novels/Poliopolis.html)\].

Moreover - in the vein of John Calvin who wrote “Let us mark well Job’s intent here is to teach us to be astronomers, so far as our capacity will bear… \[for\] God intends to make us astronomers, so far as each man’s capacity will bear it” (Sermon 33 on Job 9:7-15) - Chaney invented a small-scale planetarium. It is described for us here in an 1896 publication.

![Source: The Observer (March 1896), p. 123.](https://assets.confessional.org/images/chaney-james-mcdonald-planetarium-description-title-page.jpg)Source: The Observer (March 1896), p. 123.A “greatly improved” edition of this planetarium is pictured in another journal the following year.

![Source: Popular Science (January 1897), p. vi.](https://assets.confessional.org/images/chaney-james-mcdonald-planetarium-photo.jpg)Source: Popular Science (January 1897), p. vi.It is not known by this writer whether any of [Chaney’s](/authors/james-mcdonald-cheney) planetariums still exist. But his love of science remains an inspiration to those who heed the counsel of Ovid, as quoted by John Calvin: “While other animals look downwards towards the earth, he gave to man a lofty face, and bade him look at heaven, and lift up his countenance erect towards the stars” (Calvin’s commentary on Isaiah 40:26).