Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:18:04.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Christianity and the rise of science, 1660–1815

from PART III - MOVEMENTS AND CHALLENGES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Louis Châtellier
Edited by
Stewart J. Brown  and
Timothy Tackett
Stewart J. Brown
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Timothy Tackett
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine
Get access

Summary

The period from 1660 to the beginning of the nineteenth century was distinguished not only by significant technical and scientific progress, but also by the spread of a new way of thinking that drew for its effectiveness on scientific reasoning. English intellectuals such as Samuel Clarke were inspired by Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687), while the huge impact of Leibniz’s Essais de Théodicée (1710) was due largely to the author’s mathematical knowledge. In France, the Encyclopédie (1751–72) represented not only an inventory of modern science, but an initiation into a new method of analysis, which was applied to the entire range of physical and metaphysical phenomena. That, indeed, was how d’Alembert, writing in his Discours préliminaire to the Encyclopédie, explained the sub-title of the Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers.

Christianity, in principle, was not hostile towards scientific thought. Had not Saint Augustine written in his On Christian Doctrine, ‘All the sciences fight on behalf of the Christian religion’? Many theologians – such as Nicholas of Cusa at the close of the Middle Ages – had been passionate practitioners of mathematics. During the sixteenth century, all universities, both Catholic and Protestant, taught mathematics. From 1550 on, the secondary schools of the Society of Jesus, founded in the part of Europe still faithful to the Roman Church also did so, and this new religious order played an important role in the teaching of mathematics during the period of the Catholic Reformation. Nevertheless, there was a boundary beyond which neither Luther nor the papacy could step: the teachings of the Bible, whether scientific or theological, could in no way be questioned.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Christianity , pp. 249 - 264
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnauld, A. and Nicole, P., Logique de Port-Royal ou Art de penser, ed. Clair, P. and Girbal, F. (Paris: Vrin, 1993).Google Scholar
Benz, E., Theologie der Elektrizität. Zur Begegnung und Auseinandersetzung von Theologie und Naturwissenschaft im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert (Mayence: Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1971).Google Scholar
Beretta, F., ‘Le siège apostolique et l’affaire Galilée: relectures d’une condamnation célèbre’, Roma moderna e contemporanea, 7/3 (1999).Google Scholar
Berkeley, George, The works of George Berkeley, ed. Fraser, Alexander Campbell, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901), vol. 3.Google Scholar
Blunt, W., The complete naturalist: A life of Linnaeus (London: G. Rainbird, 1971)Google Scholar
Buffon, Georges-Louis , Les époques de la nature (Paris, 1778), new edn, ed. Roger, J. (Paris: Editions du Museum, 1988).Google Scholar
Châtellier, Louis, ‘Buffon, le temps et Dieu’, in Religions en transition dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, ed. Châtellier, L. (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2000–2002).Google Scholar
Châtellier, Louis, ‘La limite entre le fini et l’infini chez les savants et les théologiens du XVIIe siècle’, Le Temps des savoirs. Revue interdisciplinaire de l’Institut universitaire de France, 3 (2001).Google Scholar
Châtellier, Louis, Les espaces infinis et le silence de Dieu. Science et religion, XVIe–XIXe siècle (Paris: Aubier-Flammarion, 2003).Google Scholar
Cohen, I. Bernard, Introduction to Newton’s ‘Principia’ (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohn, J., Histoire de l’infini. Le problème de l’infini dans la pensée occidentale jusqu’à Kant, trans. Seidengart, J. (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1994).Google Scholar
Coleman, W., Georges Cuvier, zoologist: A study in the history of evolution theory (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, William R., Georges Cuvier zoologist: A study in the history of evolution theoryCambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corsi, P., Lamarck. Genèse et enjeux du transformisme (1770–1830) (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2001).Google Scholar
Cuvier, Georges, Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe et sur les changements qu’elles ont produits dans le règne animal (Paris, 1828)Google Scholar
d’Alembert, Jean Rond, Discours préliminaire de l’Encyclopédie, ed. Malherbe, M. (Paris: Vrin, 2000).Google Scholar
Davillé, L., Leibniz historien (Paris, 1909).Google Scholar
Descartes, René, Le Monde, l’Homme. René Descartes, ed. Bitbol-Hespériès, Annie (Paris: Seuil, 1996).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Œuvres, ed. Versini, Laurent (Paris: R. Laffont, 1994), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Dietrich, Paul Heinrich, d’Holbach, Baron, [under pseudonym of Mirabaud, M. ], Système de la nature ou Des loix du monde Physique et du monde moral (London, 1771).Google Scholar
Frängsmyr, Tore (ed.), Linnaeus: The man and his work (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984).Google Scholar
Gandt, François , ‘Présentation’, Newton, Isaac, De la gravitation suivi de du mouvement des corps (Paris: Gallimard, 1995).Google Scholar
Gillispie, C. C., Genesis and geology: A study in the relations of scientific thought, natural theology and social opinion in Great Britain, new edn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)Google Scholar
Gillispie, Charles Coulston, Fox, Robert, and Grattan-Guinness, Ivor, Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827): A life in exact sciencePrinceton: Princeton University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Gillispie, Charles Coulston, Genesis and geology: A study in the relations of scientific thought, natural theology and social opinion in Great BritainCambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Gohau, G., Les Sciences de la Terre aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: naissance de la géologie (Paris: Albin Michel, 1990).Google Scholar
Golinski, Jan, Science as public culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760–1820Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Gusdorf, Georges, La révolution galiléenne, vol. 1 (Paris: Payot, 1969).Google Scholar
Hahn, Roger, The anatomy of a scientific institution: The Paris Academy of Science, 1666–1803 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971)Google Scholar
Hall, A. Rupert, Isaac Newton, adventurer in thought new edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, A. Rupert, Philosophers at warCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, James R., André-Marie Ampère: Enlightenment and electrodynamicsCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Horizonte. Nikolaus von Kues in seiner Welt. Eine Ausstellung zur 600. Wiederkehr seines Geburtages (Trier: Bischöfliches Dom-und Diözesanmuseum Trier, 2001).
Laplace, P. S., Essai philosophique sur les probabilités (Paris, 1820).Google Scholar
Laplace, Pierre-Simon , Exposition du système du monde (1796), new edn (Paris: Fayard, 1984)Google Scholar
Larson, James L., Reason and experience: The representation of natural order in the work of Carl von Linné (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971)Google Scholar
Laudan, R., From mineralogy to geology. The foundation of a science, 1650–1830 (Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurent, G. (dir.), Jean-Baptiste Lamarck 1744–1829 (Paris: Editions du CTHS, 1997)Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W., Die philosophischen Schriften, new edn, 7 vols. (Hildesheim and Zurich: Georg Olms Verlag, 1996), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Linné, Carl [Linneus], Philosophie botanique, trans. Quesné, François A. (Paris, 1788).Google Scholar
Mancosu, P., Philosophy of mathematics and mathematical practice in the seventeenth century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996).Google Scholar
Manuel, Frank E., Isaac Newton, historian (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963).Google Scholar
Manuel, Frank E., The religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar
Mersenne, Marin, Correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne religieux minime, ed. Tannery, Madame Paul and Waard, Cornelis, 18 vols. (Paris: PUF, then CNRS, 1945–88), vol. 1.Google Scholar
Metzger, Hélène, Newton, Stahl, Boerhaave et la doctrine chimique (Paris: Alcan, 1930).Google Scholar
Monnoyeur, F. (ed.), Infini des mathématiciens, infini des philosophes (Paris: Belin, 1992).Google Scholar
Morveau, L. B. Guyton et al., Méthode de nomenclature chimique, ed. Bensaude-Vincent, Bernadette (Paris: Seuil, 1994).Google Scholar
Neveu, Bernard, Erudition et religion aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris: Albin Michel, 1994).Google Scholar
Newton, I., La Méthode des fluxions et des suites infinies, ed. and trans. Buffon, M., new edn (Paris: Blanchard, 1966).Google Scholar
Newton, I., The Principia: Mathematical principles of natural philosophy, trans. Cohen, I. Bernard and Whitman, Anne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Œuvres philosophiques de Buffon, ed. Piveteau, J. (Paris: PUF, 1954).Google Scholar
Pascal, Blaise, Œuvres complètes, ed. Mesnard, J., 4 vols. (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1964–92), vol. 3Google Scholar
Pascal, Blaise, Pensées, ed. Sellier, Philippe (Paris: Mercure de France, 1976).Google Scholar
Pomeau, René, La religion de Voltaire new edn, Paris: Nizet, 1969.Google Scholar
Prodi, P. (ed.), Disciplina dell’anima, disciplina del corpo e disciplina della società tra medioevo ed étà moderna (Bologna: società editrice il Mulino, 1994).Google Scholar
Proust, Jacques, Diderot et l’EncyclopédieParis: Armand Colin, 1962.Google Scholar
Radelet-deGrave, P., ‘L’Univers selon Huygens, le connu et l’imaginé’, Revue d’histoire des sciences, 56 (2003).Google Scholar
Recueil de diverses pièces sur la Philosophie, la Religion Naturelle, l’Histoire, les Mathématiques etc. par Mrs Leibniz, Clarke, Newton et autres auteurs célèbres, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1740), vol. 1.
Redondi, Pietro, Galileo eretico (Turin: Einaudi, 1988).Google Scholar
Robinet, A., Architectonique disjonctive, automates systémiques et idéalité transcendantale dans l’Œuvre de G. W. Leibniz (Paris: Vrin, 1986).Google Scholar
Rodis-Lewis, Geneviève, Descartes: Biographie (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1995).Google Scholar
Roger, Jacques, ‘Buffon et l’introduction de l’histoire dans l’Histoire naturelle ‘, in Buffon 88, ed. Gayon, Jean (Paris: Vrin, 1992).Google Scholar
Roger, Jacques, Les sciences de la vie dans la pensée française du XVIIIe siècleParis: Armand Colin, 1964.Google Scholar
Romano, Antonella, La Contre-Réforme mathématique. Constitution et diffusion d’une culture mathématique jésuite àlaRénaissance (Rome: Ecole française de Rome, 1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, ed. Cope, Jackson I. and Jones, Harold Whitmore (London: Routledge, 1959).Google Scholar
Stafleu, Frans Antonie, Linnaeus and the Linnaeans: The spreading of their ideas in systematic botany: 1735–1789Utrecht: A. Oosthoek’s Uitgeversmaatschappij, 1971.Google Scholar
Taton, René and Wilson, Curtis (eds.), Planetary astronomy from the renaissance to the rise of astrophysics. Part. B: The eighteenth and nineteenth centuriesCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Voltaire, , Elemens de la philosophie de Newton, mis à la portée de tout le monde (Amsterdam, 1738).Google Scholar
Westfall, Richard S., Never at rest: A biography of Isaac NewtonCambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Whiston, William, A new theory of the earth (London, 1696).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×