When Science and Christianity Meet

by David C. Lindberg (Editor)

Have science and Christianity been locked in mortal combat for the past 2000 years? Or has their relationship been one of peaceful coexistence, encouragement, and support? Both opinions have been vigorously defended, widely disseminated, and hotly debated. And both have been rejected by knowledgeable historians as unacceptable oversimplifications of the historical reality.

This book steps back from those debates, abandoning, for the present, the attempt to formulate or defend generalizations of such breadth and scope. Its authors believe that every encounter had its own peculiar shape and that each must be examined uniquely before broader attempts at generalization are likely to succeed. This book, in language accessible to the general reader, investigates twelve of the most notorious, most interesting, and most instructive cases, aiming to tell each story in its historical specificity and local particularity.

Among the episodes treated in When Science and Christianity Meet are the Galileo affair, the 17th-century clockwork universe, Noah's ark and flood in the development of natural history, struggles over Darwinian evolution, debates about the origin of the human species, and the Scopes trial. Readers will be introduced to St. Augustine, Roger Bacon, Pope Urban VIII, Isaac Newton, Pierre-Simon de Laplace, Carl Linnaeus, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley, Sigmund Freud, and many other participants in the historical drama of science and Christianity.

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

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 29, 2003

About the author

David C. Lindberg was an American historian of science. His main focus was in the history of medieval and early modern science, especially physical science and the relationship between religion and science. Lindberg was the author or editor of many books and received numerous grants and awards. He also served as President of the History of Science Society and, in 1999, was recipient of its highest prize for lifetime scholarly achievement: the Sarton medal.

Reviews

[Vincent Nistico · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lindberg and Numbers provide a ton of context for various interactions between science (and its predecessor) and religion. The problem is that certain key pieces of historical evidence are absent, which allows them to consistently paint science as some sort of aggressive force. Whereas religion is continually given excuses and has its actors put in forgiving context, sometimes selective context.

Where is reference to Galileo's certificate that proved he was not presented with an injunction? Or any mention of his time before the inquisition for holding atomist beliefs? How about the way the Pope was being criticized as not being orthodox enough in his beliefs and his solution was to make a sham trial to show how dedicated he was to orthodox catholicism?

I can appreciate a discussion of Darwin's religious views, but Livingstone goes on to present a slew of different perspectives in an attempt to allay fears of fundamental contradictions between evolution and Christianity. Later efforts at "placing" events in historical context to get a better sense for the particiapants is a noble goal, but when looking at two locales that have different responses to a situation, the response that is perpetuated throughout history is the significant one.

How can we discuss Scopes without any mention of his acquittal in front of the state Supreme Court? More time is spent comparing a movie to reality than discussing the impact and context of reality. Why talk about the criminal case of Scopes, with did not inform laws or policy, but not look at precedent setting cases like Epperson v. Arkansas or Edwards v. Aguillard?

"Under the naturalistic gaze of social scientists the soul dissolved into nothingness, God faded into an illusion [...]" blah blah blah. Is this book a serious attempt at scholarship or just waxing poetically to paint Christians as reasonable? This one paragraph towards the end of chapter 12 is sufficient evidence that the latter is the case. After all, we apparently get to cherry pick facts to back up our positions.

TL;DR: Feel free to read the book, just ignore any explanations the authors offer and know that you need to do more research on the subjects to grasp the complete context of events.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve chapters, by authorities on the subjects, explore the complex interplay between science and Christianity through history. The chapters focus fairly narrowly but on important subjects -- the Classical tradition, Galileo, the mechanistic universe, the Enlightenment's acceptance of forces, Noah's flood, 19th-century geology, human antiquity, Darwinism, the "prayer-gauge" debate, psychoanalysis, the Scopes Trial, and scientific naturalism. All show the complexity of the issues involved, and if you have heard only a little about any of these subjects (particularly Galileo, the Scopes Trial, and naturalism), you are likely to come away with a new view of what really went on and how people at the time saw the issues involved.

[Gigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

as with any collection of essays, some are winners and some are not, but this was overall a great resource! read it for a class.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

This joins a list of rather interesting books on the history of the "clash" between science and religion. The book consists of 12 separate articles, each written by a distinguished scholar/historian, on various episodes and movements in the history of science and religion.

At least two of these are well worth the price of the book:

Chapter 2, "Galileo, the Church and the Cosmos" by David Lindberg is arguably the best exposition of the Galileo episode in print. Yes, I really mean this. It is very well written, engaging, historically accurate, and clearly establishes why this episode is more than the stereotype often portrayed of the poor, helpless Galileo slammed by the big mean Church. Lindberg points out how other developments at the time, notably the breakaway of the Lutheran movements, etc., greatly changed the atmosphere in which Galileo operated. Many details are included, and you will learn much no matter how much you already know.

Chapter 11, "The Scopes Trial in History and Legend" by Edward Larson, is almost as good in its detailed description and analysis of the Scopes trial. His writing is so vivid we are almost transported to Dayton, TN during those hot, sultry days in 1925 when history was made. And Larson helps us get the history right.