ABSTRACT This paper examines the oldest existing museum in the Philippines, the University of Santo Tomas Museum of Arts and Sciences, as a cabinet of curiosity and a catalyst of conversion. By Spanish royal decree, its early collection acquired through colonial expeditions, complex evangelical networks and commercial expositions formed the classroom materials for the Natural History course taught by Dominican friars. By 1877, the fauna, flora and mineral collections – from the minute to the monumental, from the ordinary to the odd – were inventoried in a three-volume catalogue raisonné. Its collection has since elicited a sense of wonder in nature's perfection and diversity. Within the broader philosophical contexts of natural and revealed theology and the revival of Thomism after Charles Darwin's publication of his theory of evolution through natural selection, the museum's pursuit of scientific knowledge masked its pursuit of sacred truth, engendering an epiphany through the embalmed and serving the divine through the drama of its dioramas. Operating as a mode of signification and translation of the Word, the museum became a biblical exegesis of the origin of species to archive God, preserving faith in formaldehyde as a means of maintaining the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines.

中文翻译：

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对甲醛的信仰：在菲律宾最古老的好奇柜中进行转换

摘要 本文考察了菲律宾现存最古老的博物馆，圣托马斯大学艺术与科学博物馆，作为好奇心的柜子和转化的催化剂。根据西班牙皇家法令，通过殖民探险、复杂的福音派网络和商业展览获得的早期收藏构成了多米尼加修士教授的自然历史课程的课堂材料。到 1877 年，动物、植物和矿物收藏品——从微小到巨大，从普通到奇特——都在一个三卷本的目录中进行了盘点。从那以后，它的系列引起了人们对大自然的完美和多样性的惊叹。在更广泛的自然和启示神学哲学背景下，以及查尔斯·达尔文之后的托马斯主义复兴 随着他的自然选择进化论的发表，博物馆对科学知识的追求掩盖了对神圣真理的追求，通过防腐处理产生了顿悟，并通过立体模型的戏剧性为神圣服务。博物馆作为圣经的意义和翻译模式运作，成为对物种起源的圣经解经以存档上帝，保留对甲醛的信仰，作为维持菲律宾罗马天主教会权威的一种手段。