Science in Theistic Contexts

by Brooke, John Hedley

• ISBN13: 9780226075655
• ISBN10: 0226075656
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

It is a widely shared assumption that science and religion are fundamentally opposed to each other. Yet, recent historiography has shown that religious belief needs to be added to the social, economic, political, and other cultural factors that went into the making of modern science. This new collection shows religious ideas not only motivated scientific effort but also shaped the actual content of major scientific theories. The fourteen studies contained in this volume concentrate on such topics as the theological facets of modern astronomy in the works of Galileo, Kepler, and Newton; the retention of teleology in the natural philosophy of Boyle; and the theistic and teleological associations of the modern theory of evolution authored by Darwin and Wallace. While the majority of the contributions focus on the Christian traditions, the collection also contains case-studies of Judaic and Islamic influences. Reflecting the fecundity of contemporary scholarship, the current volume should be of extraordinary interest to historians of science, scientists, as well as anyone intrigued by the many ways in which relations between religion and science have been constructed. Contributors include: Peter Barker, John Hedley Brooke, Geoffrey Cantor, Margaret G. Cook, Michael J. Crowe, Thomas Dixon, Noah J. Efron, Richard England, Martin Fichman, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Menachem Fish, Bernard R. Goldstein, Bernard Lightman, Margaret J. Osler F. Jamil Ragep, Phillip R. Sloan, Stephen Snobelen, Jitse M. van der Meer, Stephen J. Wykstra,

Author Biography

Elizabeth A. Kaye specializes in communications as part of her coaching and consulting practice. She has edited Requirements for Certification since the 2000-01 edition.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction
Religious Belief and the Content of the Sciences	3	(26)
John Hedley Brooke
Religious Beliefs, Metaphysical Beliefs, and Historiography of Science	29	(20)
Stephen J. Wykstra
CASE STUDIES
Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science	49	(23)
F. Jamil Ragep
Astronomical Exegesis: An Early Modern Jewish Interpretation of the Heavens	72	(16)
Noah J. Efron
Menachem Fisch
Theological Foundations of Kepler's Astronomy	88	(26)
Peter Barker
Bernard R. Goldstein
Science, Religion, and the Historiography of the Galileo Affair: On the Undersirability of Oversimplification	114	(19)
Maurice A. Finocchiaro
Divine Artifice and Natural Mechanism: Robert Boyle's Mechanical Philosophy of Nature	133	(18)
Margaret G. Cook
Whose Ends? Teleology in Early Modern Natural Philosophy	151	(18)
Margaret J. Osler
``God of gods and Lord of lords'': The Theology of Isaac Newton's General Scholium to the Principia	169	(40)
Stephen D. Snobelen
Astronomy and Religion (1780--1915): Four Case Studies Involving Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life	209	(18)
Michael J. Crowe
Science in Theistic Contexts: A Case Study of Alfred Russel Wallace on Human Evolution	227	(24)
Martin Fichman
``The Sense of Sublimity'': Darwin on Nature and Divinity	251	(19)
Phillip R. Sloan
Natural Selection, Teleology, and the Logos: From Darwin to the Oxford Neo-Darwinists, 1859--1909	270	(18)
Richard England
The Psychology of the Emotions in Britain and America in the Nineteenth Century: The Role of Religious and Antireligious Commitments	288	(33)
Thomas Dixon
Quarker Responses to Darwin	321	(22)
Geoffrey Cantor
Victorian Sciences and Religions: Discordant Harmonies	343	(24)
Bernard Lightman
Notes on Contributors	367	(2)
Index	369