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Science and Religion in Early America: Cotton Mather's Christian Philosopher

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Winton U. Solberg
Winton U. Solberg
Affiliation:
Professor of history in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. This is his presidential address delivered at the annual meeting of the American Society of Church History, 29 December 1986.
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Extract

Science and religion both constitute vital dimensions of experience, but people differ in their views on proper relations between the two. In modern times, when science increasingly dominates the outlook of society, many regard science and religion as incompatible and strive to maintain them in watertight compartments. In 1972, for example, the National Academy of Sciences, responding to a demand that creationism be given equal time with the theory of evolution in biology classrooms and textbooks, adopted a resolution stating that “religion and science are … separate and mutually exclusive realms of human thought whose presentation in the same context leads to misunderstanding of both scientific theory and religious belief.” The battle over creationism continues, with the National Academy of Sciences and orthodox religious groups both insisting on the incompatibility of the two spheres.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 1987 , pp. 73 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1987

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References

1. The text of the 1972 resolution is given in Austin, William H., The Relevance of Natural Science to Theology (London, 1976), pp. 1–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar On the continuing conflict, see Committee on Science and Creationism, National Academy of Sciences, Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D.C., 1984),Google Scholar and New York Times, 2 September. 1986, p. 13.Google Scholar See also Peacocke, A. R., Creation and the World of Science: The Bampton Lectures,1978 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 1–7.Google Scholar

2. Foster, M.B., “The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science,” Mind 43 (1934): 446–468;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and “Christian Theology and Modern Science of Nature,” ibid. 45 (1936): 1–27.

3. Ferré, Frederick, “Design Argument,” in Wiener, Philip P., ed., Dictionary of the History of Ideas (New York, 1973), 1:670–677;Google ScholarHurlbutt, Robert H.III, Hume, Newton, and the Design Argument, rev. ed. (Lincoln, Neb., 1985);Google Scholar and McPherson, Thomas, The Argument from Design (London, 1972).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. Webb, Clement C.J., Studies in the History of Natural Theology (Oxford, 1915).Google Scholar Natural religion, defined as moral and religious beliefs based upon reason and tied to the notion of nature, may be distinguished from natural theology. But the two terms are often used interchangeably, and that is the practice in this paper. See Hurlbutt, , Design Argument, pp. 65–78.Google Scholar

5. Gore, Charles, The Reconstruction of Belief, new ed. (London, 1926), pp. 5–6;Google ScholarRaven, Charles E., Organic Design: A Study of Scientific Thought from Ray to Paley (London, 1954), pp. 9–15.Google Scholar

6. In 1713 Richard Waller, secretary of the Royal Society, informed Mather of his election to the Society, but through an error the council and body of fellows did not vote on the election at the time. So in the technical sense Mather was not a Fellow of the Royal Society until he was duly elected in 1723.

7. See my essay, “Cotton Mather, The Christian Philosopher, and the Classics,” in a forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the American Antiquanan Society.

8. Taylor, Alfred E., Platonism and Its Influence (New York, 1963), pp. 3–56,Google Scholar passim; Hurlbutt, , Design Argument, pp. 95–99.Google Scholar The influence of the Platonist-Augustinian tradition on American Puritanism is emphasized in Miller, Perry, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1939).Google Scholar

9. Raymond, of Sebonde, , Theologia naturalis: sive liber creaturarum (Deventer, 1484).Google Scholar Chapter 71 is entitled “De omnipotentia, sapientia, et bonitate Dei.” The library of the Mathers possessed a copy of Sebonde's book published at Frankfurt in 1635.

10. On this and the following paragraph, see Hunter, Michael, Science and Society in Restoration England (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 59–86;Google ScholarHurlbutt, , Design Argument, pp. 3–42;Google ScholarRaven, , Organic Design, p. 8;Google Scholar and Ellegrd, Alvar, “The Darwinian Theory and the Argument from Design,” Lychnos 16 (1956): 176–177Google Scholar(the quotation is at p. 176).

11. Jacob, Margaret C., The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720 (Ithaca, 1976).Google Scholar

12. Hunter, , Science and Society, pp. 162–187;Google ScholarJacob, , The Newtonians, pp. 201–270.Google Scholar

13. Jacob, , The Newtonians, pp. 22–71, 100–200.Google Scholar

14. Mather, Cotton, The Christian Philosopher: A Collection of the Best Discoceries in Nature, with Religious Improvements (London, 1721), p. 4.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 3.

16. Raven, Charles E., John Ray, Naturalist: His Life and Works, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1950), pp. 452–457, 466–467Google Scholar(the quotations are at pp. 452 and 467).

17. Willey, Basil, The Eighteenth Century Background: Studies on the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period (New York, 1940), pp. 39–42;Google ScholarAtkinson, A. D., “William Derham, F.R.S.,” Annals of Science 8 (1952): 368–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18. Both the Dictionary of Scientific Biography and the Dictionary of National Biography have brief accounts of Harris. See also Jacob, , The Newtonians, pp. 145, 159, 163, 179;Google Scholar and Collison, Robert, Encyclopaedias: Their History Throughout the Ages (New York, 1964), p. 99;Google Scholar and Bradshaw, Lael Ely, “John Harris's Lexicon Technicum,” in Notable Encyclopedias of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Nine Predecessors of the Encyclopedie, ed. Kafker, Frank A. (Oxford, 1982), pp. 107–121.Google Scholar

19. The DSB and the DNB both discuss Cheyne and Grew.

20. Both the DSB and The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge treat Alsted. See also Ong, Walter J., Ramus, Method, and the Decay of Dialogue: From the Art of Discourse to the Art of Reason (Cambridge, Mass., 1958), pp. 160, 163–165, 298–299,Google ScholarWebster, Charles, The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1616–1660 (London, 1975), pp. 5–13Google Scholar passim, 32; and Mather, Cotton, Manuductio ad Ministerium: Directions for a Candidate of the Ministry (Boston, 1726), p. 33Google Scholar(the quotation).

21. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 8.Google Scholar

22. On Arndt see The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia; Schaeffer, Charles F., Introduction to Arndt's True Christianity, new American ed. (Philadelphia, 1868), pp. xi–xxxviii,Google Scholar and Oberman, Heiko A. and Erb, Peter in the preface and introduction to the latter's edition of Arndt, True Christianity (New York, 1979).Google Scholar

23. Schiller, , Coelum stellatum Christianum concauvum (Augsburg, 1627).Google Scholar

24. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 36.Google Scholar

25. Ibid., pp. 43, 45.

26. Mather surveys nature according to the classification then in vogue. Even at that time, some of the these topics would have been considered as part of natural history.

27. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 64.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., p. 75. Donald Fleming, “The Judgment upon Copernicus in Puritan New England, ” in Mélanges Alexandre Koyré, vol. 2, L'Aventure de l'Esprit ( Paris, 1964), pp. 160–175.

29. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 77.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., p. 82. Clarke's Boyle lectures of 1704 and 1705 were first published separately and afterwards together as A Discourse Concerning the Being and Attributes of God, the Obligations of Natural Religion, and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian Revelation (London,1706).

31. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 85.Google Scholar

32. Ibid., p. 97.

33. Ibid., p. 104.

34. Ibid., p. 111. Mather quotes Boyle's Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion (London, 1675). I am indebted to Professor Richard Jerrard of the University of Illinois for help on the mathematical examples.

35. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 125.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., p. 169.

37. Ibid., p. 161.

38. Rorario, Girolamo, Quod animalia bruta ratione utantur melius homine (Paris, 1648).Google Scholar The book apparently had been written in the 1540s.

39. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 225.Google Scholar

40. Ibid., p. 244.

41. Ibid., p. 291.

42. Ibid., p. 292.

43. Ibid., pp. 294, 296.

44. Ibid., p. 300.

45. Walker, D. P., The Decline of Hell: Seventeenth-Century Discussions of Eternal Torment (Chicago, 1964), pp. 3–23Google Scholar passim; The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2d ed. s.v. “Origen”; New Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Origen and Origenism.”

46. Mather, , Christian Philosopher, p. 56.Google Scholar

47. Stearns, Raymond P., Science in the British Colonies of America (Urbana, 1970), p. 426.Google Scholar

48. To confirm you in your piety and gratitude to Divine Providence, Franklin wrote, reflect upon the fact that animals which drink water from the ground have long necks if they have long legs in order to reach their drink without kneeling. “But man, who was destined to drink wine, ought to be able to carry the glass to his mouth.” Franklin then described how the distance of the hand from the elbow either facilitates or impedes drinking. Since things are as they are, anatomically, “we are in a condition to drink at our ease, the glass coming exactly to the mouth. Let us adore then, glass in hand, this benevolent wisdom; let us adore and drink.” Amacher, Richard E., Franklin's Wit ∧Folly: The Bagatelles (New Brunswick, 1953), p. 135.Google Scholar I am indebted for this point to a seminar paper written under my direction by Elizabeth Dunn.

49. Smith, Norman Kemp, ed., Hume's Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (New York, 1948), p. 30,Google Scholar n. 2; Ellegård, , “The Darwinian Theory,” pp. 189–190; 173–175.Google Scholar

50. James, William, The Will to Believe (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), pp. 42–43.Google Scholar

51. Ellegård, , “The Darwinian Theory,” p. 191.Google Scholar

52. Raven, , Organic Design, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar