Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction

by Gary B. Ferngren

An essential examination of the historical relationship between science and religion. Since its publication in 2002, Science and Religion has proven to be a widely admired survey of the complex relationship of Western religious traditions to science from the beginning of the Christian era to the late twentieth century. In the second edition, eleven new essays expand the scope and enhance the analysis of this enduringly popular book. Tracing the rise of science from its birth in the medieval West through the scientific revolution, the contributors here assess historical changes in scientific understanding brought about by transformations in physics, anthropology, and the neurosciences and major shifts marked by the discoveries of Copernicus, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and others. In seeking to appreciate the intersection of scientific discovery and the responses of religious groups, contributors also explore the theological implications of contemporary science and evaluate approaches such as the Bible in science and the modern synthesis in evolution, which are at the center of debates in the historiography, understanding, and application of science. The second edition provides chapters that have been revised to reflect current scholarship along with new chapters that bring fresh perspectives on a diverse range of topics, including new scientific approaches and disciplines and non-Christian traditions such as Judaism, Islam, Asiatic religions, and atheism. This indispensible classroom guide is now more useful than ever before. Richard J. Blackwell, Peter J. Bowler, John Hedley Brooke, Glen M. Cooper, Edward B. Davis, Alnoor Dhanani, Diarmid A. Finnegan, Noah Efron, Owen Gingerich, Edward Grant, Steven J. Harris, Matthew S. Hedstrom, John Henry, Peter M. Hess, Edward J. Larsen, Timothy Larson, David C. Lindberg, David N. Livingstone, Craig Martin, Craig Sean McConnell, James Moore, Joshua M. Moritz, Mark A. Noll, Ronald L. Numbers, Richard Olson, Christopher M. Rios, Nicolaas A. Rupke, Michael H. Shank, Stephen David Snobelen, John Stenhouse, Peter J. Susalla, Mariusz Tabaczek, Alan C. Weissenbacher, Stephen P. Weldon, and Tomoko Yoshida

Genres: History, Science, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion, History Of Science, Theology

500 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2002

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A SHORT SUMMARY FOR PEOPLE WHO WILL NEVER READ THIS BOOK

1) Science and religion : is the relationship one of conflict or complexity?

As a general point, the authors of these essays strive mightily to say that there really wasn't that much of a conflict between religion and science. But then they have to honestly report that well, on a number of occasions, there kind of was.

2) Islam

The cliche is that their science flourished brilliantly until around 1200 then fell into steep decline for reasons we do not fully comprehend. This book concludes - cliche is still true! Okay, don't hold the front page. For further information about this very point see an excellent book called Destiny Disrupted : A History of the World through Islamic Eyes by Tamim Ansary.

3) Heliocentricity

The first big showdown between the god squad in the red corner and the wise guys in the blue corner. It was Copernicus that did it. He first said the earth goes round the sun. And the Pope decreed - as long as he discusses this in purely hypothetical terms, that's okay! A key (and very cute) contemporary phrase attributed to Cardinal Baronius was :

The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go

So Copernicus didn't get fried, he died a peaceful death in his own bed, and frightful demons did not drag him down to hell as far as we know. Science 1, God 0.

4) Galileo

Then Galileo came along shortly thereafter. The famous dispute is not "you say the earth moves, God says it doesn't, you are hereby plagued with boils". Copernicus invented the heliocentric theory and Galileo stuck a couple of knobs on it and promoted it. So the dispute was more specific. The Church was saying - can you prove heliocentricity? So Galileo tried, but couldn't. Okay, then, the bishops said, if you can't prove it, you must only ever describe this theory (once again) hypothetically. If you ever prove your theory, we will re-interpret the key Biblical passages which indicate a geocentric reality as figurative. Deal?

Here we have a possibly unintentional stab of deadpan comedy in this otherwise unfunny book:

Despite these complications, Galileo's views in the Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina (1615) have since become commonplace in biblical exegesis and were accepted by the Catholic Church in 1983.

So, surprisingly, the score for the Galileo game was God 1, Science 1.

By the way : a complaint about jargon : readers of certain sections of this book have to contend with sentences like :

Deism can be seen, therefore, as an extreme version of the tradition of attributing natural efficacy to secondary causes, at the opposite end of the potentia absoluta et ordinata spectrum from occasionalism.

So you have been warned.

5) Geology

Onward to geology - this really threw down the gauntlet. Or did it? Because Bill Bryson's chapter on geology in A Short History of Nearly Everything tells us that a great number of people in 18th century (i.e. pre-geology) cheerfully accepted the great age of the earth.

6) We Come from Monkeys

The next Big One was of course Evolution. How interesting that Christians both Protestant and Catholic managed to make some accommodation with Darwin's theories by the turn of the 20th century (aside from local flareups like the Monkey Trial) and everything was pretty cool until the evangelical insurrection in the Midwest and Southern States in the last 30 years, which revived a literalist tradition last heard of in 1830.

Essentially, two big religious stumbling block with evolution are not especially the origin and mutability of species, i.e. the mechanics of it, but clear corollaries of it all, which is that a) that humans evolved from animals, something that is considered flat-out unacceptable becaue people are qualitatively different from sea urchins or spiny echidnas; and b) that the whole process is unguided and purposeless, that all of creation is not evolving towards some some greater reality - it's not going from somewhere to somewhere morally or spiritually better. It just is. No divine plan. No plan at all. Oh, and c) no human soul. This is what really stuck in the craw of everyone but the radicals. But here's Pope John-Paul II in October 1996 :

...new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis. It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of the work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favour of this theory.

That surprised me!

And now a short note on why academics should be kidnapped and tortured by being made to read books written in good English. On Page 262, on one single paragraph, we have the following words:

conversionism
activism
biblicism
crucicentrism
pietism
skepticism
revivalism
evangelicalism

7) Creationism

Creationists have been quite creative! They came up with several zany anti-evolution theories. One was that there has been TWO creations - an original one which formed the planet and mountains and seas and stuff - hence the Earth is very extremely quite old, much older than 6000 years. but then God made Life in six days, so the Bible is ALSO true. Now that's clever stuff! Also, finding fossils of sea creatures on the top of mountains is not proof that the mountains were once the sea floor but an indication of the high water mark of Noah's flood. Evidently.

Anyway, a nice collection of essays, could have been a bit sexier, tried to be a little too nice to everyone, but I liked it a lot.

[Jeffrey Romine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I believe this is number five or six for me. As I'm teaching on the topic, I've undertaken a campaign to read a number of books, and without question, this one is the best. I found it not only informative, well written, and thorough, but also objective. The latter is hard to find in this genre, but Ferngren has done a fantastic job of pulling together a treatise that well warrants the reading.

[Joseph Bianchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

As comprehensive and nuanced as possible in a short space.

[Jadzia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the textbook for a course I am taking on the histroy of science and religion. Read all but the following essays:
17- Roman Catholicism since Trent,
20-Judaism,
25-Causation,
26-The Modern Synthesis in Evolution,
27-Anthropology,
30- Ecology and the Environment.
It is a dense read with very heavy academic writing. For anyone attempting to read this I highly recommend being fully alert and/or having some caffeine (tea or coffee) on hand.
As an introduction to the subject matter I think it could use some work (in being more accessible to those unfamiliar with the topics) but it is incredibly comprehensive and interesting!

[Howe-Siang Tan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good collection of relevant essays on the general topic of how Science and Religion interacted through the ages. Contrary to most narratives of them being in constant battle, the situation is much more nuanced and complicated. Non of the essays go too technical, and if you have some basic background of western philosophy and history, and some knowledge of history of science, it will be a good read.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not an easy book to read. The contributors assume the reader is coming in with a base knowledge of philosophy. I'd recommend reading a chapter or two and then setting the book aside for a while. But it will make you curious to learn more about the complex relationship of science and religion in world history. This is an excellent primer for grad students and teachers looking to train themselves in the history of science, philosophy, and religion.

[Osama K Mahmood · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a required reading for one of my freshman year classes at NYU. Thoroughly uninteresting and dry.

[Danielle Camorlinga · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Not a cover to cover read)

[Eric C 1965 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic coverage of the religious contributions to the progress of science.

[Craig Werner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this anthology of introductory essays in conjunction with John Hedley Brooke's Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives, and the comparison between the two is interesting. Brooke's book, which replaces "conflict" and "convergence" models of the science-religion relationship with a "complexity thesis" is certainly the more important contribution academically. But, as my GR review indicated, it frequently bogs down a bit in detail and will scare off all but truly dedicated readers. In contrast, Ferngren's anthology, which includes essays by major scholars including David Lindberg, Owen Gingrich, Richard Westfal, Ronald Numbers and Brooke himself, is reasonably accessible. For the most part, its approach is based on Brooke's; you won't find many grand pronouncements and all of the writers are aware of the dangers of generalization. It's divided into seven sections, the first five chronological, the last two addressing themes that cross eras and contemporary issues. (The contemporary issues chapters--on Gender, the Social Construction of Science, and Postmodernism--haven't aged well since 2002. Readers who don't know the turf are probably better off skipping them.) The chronological chapters address intellectual issues such as Natural Theology, Mechanical Philosophy and evolutionism, as well focusing on major figures: Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin. Almost all of the chapters are solid, some of them very good. But the anthology doesn't read particularly well as an overview. There's a huge amount of repetition, a side effect, probably inevitable, of the editorial decision to make each chapter stand alone. Reading them with Brooke fresh in mind also makes it clear when complexities are elided, again an inevitable by-product of the format. The best use for Ferngren's book is probably as a quick reference for those familiar with the issues or as a source of brief introductions to particular topics for students just entering the field.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, before you read When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?, you need to read this one to get a historical perspective. Why read this stuff, you ask? Well, consider that you won't live on this planet for more than, ohhh, 75 years at best, if you live in a developed country like the US. Elsewhere, much less. If you're not asking questions about your existence, then you are dumb. Sorry. I don't hold back the punches. Want lovin' go see your boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other. The Hindu says we all begin selfish. It's expected. Just think of the infant, what do they think about all day. Themselves! Then as you grow you see siblings, peers, community, town, state, country, world, worlds . . . and it is here where most turn to religion or spirituallity. It's a natural progression. If you resist, that's your call. But if you go with the natural inclination, and most do, then you need to read. Read books on science and religion and get questioning. Because there's nothing worse than getting to the Big Cul-de-sac of life and going, "Whoops! This sucks! Should have researced this after life thing . . . ." Poof!

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my first time teaching a course on religion and science, I perused several introductory texts and settled on this one to assign for historical background. It is not an enjoyable read—most of the articles were written for an encyclopedia and are thus meant for a more academic audience. My freshmen weathered the articles, and perhaps picked up some info here and there. I described it as our “meat and potatoes” in a course mostly full of deserts. However, the collection is better for professors like me, hoping to catch up in a new area of study. The text takes issue with the “conflict” theory of religion and science, and admirably shows how religious institutions have been engines for scientific inquiry more than a hindrance. While there are chapters on gender and postmodernism the glaring deficiency is that the rest of the text, besides a short chapter on Islam, are all Western sources. I’d love to see an introductory text with pictures, more narrative, and more geographic diversity.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of numerous recently published books on the topic of the history of the "war" between science and religion. This book is a collection of no less than 30 separate essays on the historical conflict. The chapters range all the way from Aristotle and the early Christian period to medieval writers such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to the Copernican revolution, Galileo and Newton, and on to the modern period, with geology, biology, evolution, physics, astronomy, cosmology, and finally a chapter on postmodernism and its relation to science.

This book certainly covers the ground. But I personally found it a bit unsatisfying. Because none of these authors really had the room to explore their topic in depth, the result is a collection of a lot of short vignettes that really don't provide all that much new information. I'll keep reading.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent scholarly work surveying science and religion interactions through history. The book has a strong historical slant to it providing background and circumstances regarding the origin of various conflicts between science and religion. The essays also explore philosophical reasons and challenges, but do not delve too deeply into the philosophical implications. The authors are diverse in their experience and perspectives going each chapter a fresh look at different topics.

Definitely a must read for someone interested in science and religion. The authors challenge the reader with insights and historical framework that makes one think. Topics that I initially thought would dull I ended up enjoying thoroughly as I read through them and saw the reasoning.

[Chase · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m very honored to have studied under Gary. He’s an excellent man and scholar. Upstanding in all ways, consistent, humble, charitable, kind, and honoring of others. A highly respectable Christian intellectual at one of the most liberal universities in the nation.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good general introduction. A book I considered using for a course on Science and Religion.

[Madeleine Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super helpful book on the historical relationship between the categories "science" and "religion".
Helps to understand the ways both interact in and impact educational systems and modern research.