It's interesting, because one of the things that struck me when I was watching Clive's performance is how much he's portraying the "gentleman scientist" via the route of disgraced scholar.

I mention that because a lot of the content relates directly to this trope: the '30s were a time when life sciences were aiming for positivism, and religious and spiritual matters were fairly abhorrent to be bringing into science. The lines that Clive speaks do indeed touch on technobabble, but a fair amount of them are also laden with spiritual meaning.