Galileo. Newton. Darwin. These giants are remembered for their great contributions to science. Often forgotten, however, is the profound influence that Christianity had on their lives and works. This study explores the many ways in which religionits ideas, attitudes, practices, and institutionsinteracted with science from the beginnings of the Scientific Revolution to the end of the nineteenth century. Both scientists and persons of faith sometimes characterize the relationship between science and religion as confrontational. Historian Richard G. Olson finds instead that the interactions between science and religion in Western Christendom have been complex, often mutually supportive, even transformative. This work explores those interactions by focusing on a sequence of major religious and intellectual movementsfrom Christian Humanist efforts to turn science from a primarily contemplative exercise to an activity aimed at improving the quality of human life, to the widely varied Christian responses to Darwinian ideas in both Europe and North America during the second half of the nineteenth century. 20 halftones, 3 line drawings.
IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsChronology of Events1. Introduction: Galileo and the Church-Or, How Do Science and Religion Interact?The Conflict ModelThe Case of the Galileo AffairThree Additional Special Cases of ConflictModern Claims That Religion Supports Science2. Religion and the Transition to ""Modern"" Science: Christian Demands for Useful KnowledgeThe Starting Point: Late Medieval ScienceChallenge to Medieval ScienceChristian Humanism and the Hermtic CorpusThe Life and Works of ParacelsusChristian Utopias and the Institutions for Modern Science3. Science and Catholicism in the Scientific Revolution, 1550-1770Science and the Council of TrentJesuit ScienceCatholics and the Mechanical Philosophy: Mersenne, Descartes, and GassendiThe Special Case of Blaise Pascal4. Science and Religion in England, 1590-1740The Anglican Focus on Natural TheologyThe Puritan Approach to Natural KnowledgeThe Origins of Anglican Mechanical PhilosophyThe Anti-Materialist Response to Hobbes5. Newton's Religion, Newtonian Religions, and Eighteenth-Century ReactionsNewton's Science and ReputationNewton and Prophecy InterpretationNewtonian ReligionJohn Locke and the Rise of DeismReactions against Newtonian Natural Theology6. Scientific Understanding of Religion and Religious Understanding of Science, 1700-1859Early Anthropological Approaches to ReligionReligion and the EmotionsImmanuel Kant's Separation of Scientific Knowledge from Religious FaithThe Post-Kantian Tradition in German Theology- Schleiermacher and HegelA New Anthropology of Religion- FeuerbachDavid Strauss and the Use of Science to Reject Evangelical ChristianityAuguste Comte's ""Religion of Humanity""Scottish Common Sense Philosophy Calls for a Scientific Religion and a Religious Science7. Back to the Beginnings-of the Earth, of Life, and of Humankind, 1680-1859Mosaid GeologySecular Geology and the Age of the EarthAccounting for Change Over TimeBuffonLamarckThe Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation8. What to Do about Darwin?The Character of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of SpeciesInitial Anglo-American Religious Responses to DarwinDarwinism and Concerns about Scientific NaturalismAnglo-American Protestant Responses to Darwin after 1875Anglo-American Catholic and Jewish Responses to EvolutionConclusionPrimary Sources1. Hermes Trismagistus, Hermetica2. Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity in Eight Books3. Robert Boyle, ""A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Conceived Notion of Nature""4. John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creations5. Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth6. David Hume, The Natural History of Religion7. Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity8. John William Draper, History of the Conflict between Religion and Science9. James McCosh, The Religious Aspect of EvolutionAnnotated BibliographyIndex
""The book can be warmly recommended to anyone interested in the various ways in which religion interacted with science from the beginning of the Scientific Revolution to the end of the 19th century.""
