Re: textbooks

George Murphy (gmurphy@raex.com)
Sun, 07 Dec 1997 13:03:55 -0500

Steven Schimmrich wrote:
>
> At 06:36 AM 12/7/97 EST, RDehaan237 wrote:
>
> >Does anyone know of a secular scholar of the history of science who gives
> >credit to Christianity for its role in the founding of science? Years ago I
> >read an article in *Science* about the origination of science in Western
> >society. There was nary a word about the part played by Christianity.
>
> When they do mention Christianity, they usually talk about the Middle
> Ages and how Christianity stifled science while science flourished in the
> Arab would under Islam.

Probably Ted Davis & others can point out other counterexamples,
but here are 2.
The collection of readings _The Rise of Modern Science_ (D.C.
Heath, Lexington MA, 1968), a volume in the "Problems in European
Civilization" series, includes essays by Reijer Hooykaas, "Science and
Reformation", and Francois Russo, "Catholicism, Protestantism, and
Science". Both give a generally positive view of the role of
Christianity.
John Heilbron's _Elements of Early Modern Physics_ (sorry -
can't locate it or publishing info right now) discusses this factor &
says, among other things, "The single most important contributor to the
support and study of physics in the seventeenth century was the Catholic
Church and, within it, the Society of Jesus."
George Murphy