Religion always has to interact with the assumptions of the cultures with which it deals. To understand an ancient religion like Christianity (and Judaism, on which it is based) it is essential that we know the “ancient and medieval world views” that were prevailing when its sacred scriptures were written and its basic theology was developed.
The documents shown here help to explain the cosmology of those days, the things that may seem strange to us but which everyone assumed without question at the time.
A Critique to Astrology from “De Civitate Dei”
Book excerpt 4500 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God concerning the topic of astrology. Augustine uses the issues of twins to criticize astrology from a practical standpoint, but he also attacks astrology from a theological standpoint. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from Inters.org. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from The City of God (book V), from the full text available via Google Books. … Continue reading →
Abbess St. Hildegard of Bingen OSB (1098-1179), Doctor of the Church
Article (blog post) 800 words Level: all audiences St. Hildegard of Bingen was canonized a saint and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, with reference to her scientific work, among other things. This article, written by Br. Bob Macke, S. J. (an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory) and posted on the V.O.’s Sacred Space Astronomy/The Catholic Astronomer blog, provides an overview of her life and work. Macke writes that her scientific work focused on medicine, pharmacology, and plants and animals. Click here to access this article from Sacred Space Astronomy. … Continue reading →
Anselm of Canterbury and Nicholas of Cusa
Source page with links to many articles More than 100 articles linked Level: university A source page, with many links, prepared by the University of Minnesota philosopher Jasper Hopkins, about two key philosophers of nature during the scholastic era: Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), often called the Father of Scholasticism, was born in Aosta, in the Kingdom of Burgundy. Today Aosta belongs to Italy, specifically to the region of Val d’Aosta. Anselm later became prior (1063), and then abbot (1078), of the Monastery of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy, France. In 1093 he was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in England. As an intellectual, he is known above all for his three works the Monologion, the Proslogion, and the Cur Deus Homo. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), sometimes misleadingly referred to as the first “modern” philosopher, was born in Kues, Germany (today Bernkastel-Kues). He became a canon lawyer and a cardinal. His two best-known works are De Docta Ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) and De Visione Dei … Continue reading →
Antecedents to Modern Science
“From Plato to Newton the contest as to what part mathematics has had in coming to a scientific understanding of the universe took place in a religious framework. Today, after a period of what might be called “atheistic rationalism,” we again hear the refrain of discovering “the mind of God” coming from scientists.
Continue reading →Apostolic Letter Proclaiming Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Church
Article (letter) 3500 words Level: high school and above In this Apostolic Letter of 2012, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Universal Church. Pope Benedict mentions St. Hildegard’s scientific work in various places. He writes: [T]he attribution of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church to Hildegard of Bingen has great significance for today’s world and an extraordinary importance for women. In Hildegard are expressed the most noble values of womanhood: hence the presence of women in the Church and in society is also illumined by her presence, both from the perspective of scientific research and that of pastoral activity. Her ability to speak to those who were far from the faith and from the Church make Hildegard a credible witness of the new evangelization. Click here to access this letter (English version) from the Vatican website. … Continue reading →
Book Review – Opportunities lost
Article 800 words Level: all audiences Fr. Paul Mueller, S. J., of the Vatican Observatory reviewed the book The Abacus and the Cross, The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages, by Nancy Marie Brown. The book concerns Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, a mathemetician at the end of the first millennium. Fr. Mueller’s review appeared in Physics World, Volume 24, Number 10: The Abacus and the Cross is a book with a hero and a villain. The hero is Gerbert of Aurillac, the 10th century shepherd boy who became monk, schoolmaster, scientist, mathematician, and abbot, and then reigned at the turn of the first millennium as Pope Sylvester II. Gerbert was the first to introduce Arabic numerals to Europe, using them on his abacus; he wrote a leading textbook on geometry, which was supplanted only after 200 years when full translations of Euclid became available in the West; and he constructed and used astronomical instruments such as armillary spheres and astrolabes. Little remains of his own writings. Evidence for his genius can be … Continue reading →
Book: The Irrational Augustine
Book 240 pages Level: university A book suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher, Oxford University Press: The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine’s earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion. The novelty of her book lies in taking seriously the nature of these early works as performances, through which multiple questions can be raised and multiple options explored, both in words and through their dramatic framework. The theological consequences are considerable. A very human Augustine emerges, talking and playing with friends and family, including his mother – and a very sympathetic set of ideas is the result. Click here for a preview, available from Google Books. … Continue reading →
Copernicus and the “High Seas”
Article (blog post series) 3600 words Level: all audiences In this series of posts, written for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses “Two Spheres Theory” regarding the shape and composition of the Earth. The Two Spheres Theory was a medieval idea that came to be taken as scientific evidence for existence of, and direct action in the world of, God. However, the Two Spheres Theory was soundly disproven by, among other things, Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the lands now known as the Americas. Click here to read Part I of this series on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Click here to read Part II of this series. Click here to read Part III. … Continue reading →
Copernicus’s On the Revolutions—A Book That Continues to Challenge
Article (blog post) 2000 words Level: all audiences In this post for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney writes about the groundbreaking 1543 book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium, or On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, written by Nicolas Copernicus, a cleric at the cathedral in Frombork, Poland. The post discusses Copernicus’s arguments for the counter-intuitive supposition that the Earth moves around the sun, over the more common-sense supposition that the sun moves around the Earth; it introduces objections to the Copernican system, and Copernicus’s invoking of the power of God to answer those objections; it also discusses how the Copernican system has implications for an evolving universe and life on other worlds. Graney concludes, “And so even five centuries after Nicolaus Copernicus wrote it, De Revolutionibus continues to challenge all who engage with its bold claims. It is a remarkable work. Few other books can match its boldness and its impact.” Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the … Continue reading →
Crowe: Theories of the World – from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution
Book 256 pages Level: high school and above From the publisher, Dover: This newly revised edition this accessible and enlightening book by Professor Michael J. Crowe of the University of Notre Dame (USA) recreates one of the most dramatic developments in the history of thought: the change from an earth-centered to a sun-centered conception of the solar system. Written in a clear and straightforward manner, the work is organized around a hypothetical debate: Given the evidence available in 1615, which planetary system (Ptolemaic, Copernican, Tychonic, etc.) was most deserving of support? Beginning with an introductory chapter on celestial motions, Dr. Crowe proceeds to a discussion of Greek astronomy before Ptolemy, mathematical techniques used by ancient astronomers, the Ptolemaic system, the Copernican and Tychonic systems, and the contributions of Kepler and Galileo. In an epilogue, quotes from writers, philosophers, and scientists reveal the impact of Copernican thought on their work. Easily within the reach of anyone with a background in high school mathematics, … Continue reading →
Everybody knows – Culture and Cosmology
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website. He discusses how our culture’s “cosmology” what “everybody knows” colors the way we understand history and astronomy, and how that has changed with time. The first post introduces the idea of the “everybody knows” fallacy.
Continue reading →Exploring Our Origins: C.S. Lewis and the Fight for Meaning in Genesis
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “…trying to impose a superficial understanding of creation upon the book Genesis is missing the central point the text is trying to communicate ”
Continue reading →Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
Ibn Al-Haytham: First Scientist
Book 128 pages Level: high school and above This book by Bradley Steffens concerns Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, who lived around the year 1000 in Basra in what is now Iraq, as well as in Egypt. Ibn al-Haytham did work in a number of areas of science and mathematics, especially in the field of Optics. His optics work became well-known and well-regarded in Europe (where he was known as “Alhazen” or “Alhacen”). Ibn al-Haytham argued that, “for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge”. Like many Christian thinkers, he developed a strong appreciation for the work and insights of Aristotle. From the publisher: Ibn al-Haytham, also known in the West as Alhazen, who lived from approximately 950 to 1040, was a pioneer in several scientific and mathematical fields, including physics, optics, astronomy, and analytical geometry. His experiments on how light is refracted … Continue reading →
Irenaeus of Lyons and the Opulence of God.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “In regard to God and creation, Irenaeus used a number of striking metaphors to explore this relationship such as God as Master Architect and God as Master Artist… These and other images of God were central to his theological understanding of the Economy of God, or the slow working out of the plan of salvation.”
Continue reading →John Philoponus – Impetus
Article excerpt (PDF) 850 words Level: high school and above One of the first people to develop something like the modern (Newtonian) scientific theory of motion was John Philoponus of Alexandria, who lived in the sixth century. This brief excerpt from the on-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces Philoponus and his ideas about impetus in physics. Click here to access this article directly from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Translations of Philoponus’s work on physics and Aristotle are available from Bloomsbury Publishing. Click here for information from Bloomsbury. Click here for information from Google Books. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
La astronomía de Ptolomeo y el caso Galileo: dos aportes histórico-epistemológicos
Article 31 pages Level: university In this article by Gonzalo L. Recio of the Universidad de Quilmes-Conicet, Argentina and published in the journal Scientia et Fides in 2017, the author uses the example of Ptolemy, astronomy, and physics to analyze the debate over the Copernican system in the early seventeenth century. The author discusses the extent to which Ptolemy believed that astronomy could tell us much about the structure of the universe, and what that tells us about Galileo. Recio writes: La incoherencia no es buena amiga de la ciencia. Eso, sin embargo, no significa que no puedan vivir juntas. De hecho, al menos desde hacía trece siglos ambos cuerpos teóricos, la astronomía ptolemaica y la física aristotélica, habían convivido en las comunidades científicas musulmanas y cristianas. Esta convivencia despertaba, como vimos, rispideces. No obstante ello, la experiencia mostraba que no era suficiente para derrumbar a ninguna de las dos partes. Ambos paradigmas existían juntamente. El advenimiento de la hipótesis … Continue reading →
Mass, Speed, Direction: John Buridan’s 14th century concept of momentum
Article 3 pages Level: high school and above This is a short discussion of John Buridan, a scholar at the University of Paris, who developed the concept of momentum centuries prior to Isaac Newton. This article by Christopher Graney appeared in The Physics Teacher in 2013. Graney writes: In the 14th century the French thinker John Buridan developed a theory of motion that bears a strong resemblance to Newtonian momentum. Buridan’s ideas include a quantity of motion which is determined by an object’s mass, speed, and direction; in the absence of resistive effects, this quantity remains with the object. Buridan’s work is an interesting story in the history of physics. Buridan’s insights have value for introducing concepts of inertia and momentum to physics students. Click here to access this article from The Physics Teacher. Click here to access a free version of this article via ArXiv at Cornell University. … Continue reading →
Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Nicolaus Copernicus – Making the Earth a Planet
Book 128 pages Level: high school and above This book by Owen Gingerich and James MacLachlan is part of the Oxford Portraits in Science series for young adults. The general editor of this series is Gingerich, a historian of science with Harvard University, and an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This book discusses both the astronomical work of Nicolaus Copernicus (including some technical detail) and his life as a canon in the Cathedral of Frombork, Poland. Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, Oxford University Press: Born in Poland in 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus launched a quiet revolution. No scientist so radically transformed our understanding of our place in the universe as this curious bishop’s doctor and church official. In his quest to discover a beautiful and coherent system to describe the motions of the planets, Copernicus placed the sun in the center of the system and made the earth a planet traveling around the sun. … Continue reading →
Nicole Oresme
Article 3600 words Level: high school and above An article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) on the 14th-century philosopher Nicole Oresme. Oresme discussed, among other things, non-Aristotelian Concepts of Place, Space, and Time; a Theory of Motion; Cosmology, Astronomy, and Opposition to Astrology; and Mathematics. Oresme also served as Bishop of Lisieux. From the SEP: Without a doubt Oresme is one of the most eminent scholastic philosophers, famous for his original ideas, his independent thinking and his critique of several Aristotelian tenets. His work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science. Furthermore he is generally considered the greatest medieval economist. By translating, at the behest of King Charles V of France, Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics, and On the Heavens, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics, from Latin into French, he exerted a considerable influence on the development of French prose, particularly its scientific and philosophical vocabulary. Click here for the article from the SEP. … Continue reading →
On the prudence and openness in interpreting sacred Scripture, when biblical passages deal with our knowledge of nature
Book excerpt 750 words Level: high school and above An excerpt on the book of Genesis, from Augustine of Hippo’s The Literal Meaning of Genesis. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: These passages from St. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram suggest how theologians should behave when different interpretations of sacred Scripture are possible in matter of our knowledge of nature. Prudence is recommended to avoid presenting specific readings, susceptible of further deepening, as if they were absolute and unquestionable. In so doing we keep away from the risk that scholars who are experts in natural knowledge deride Christians for their ingenuousness, and then underestimate the value of the whole Scripture. Galileo Galilei quoted these passages from Augustine in his famous Letter to Madame Christine of Lorraine … Continue reading →
One Comment by St. Albert the Great becomes a whole Blog Post
Article (blog post) 1300 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer about St. Albert the Great and his thoughts on the nature of the universe of stars. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. … Continue reading →
Saint Ephrem the Syrian: Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius
Book 393 Pages Level: university Click here for a preview of this book, Selected Prose Works: Saint Ephrem the Syrian, from Google Books. The book’s publisher, Catholic University of America Press, writes: This volume presents for the first time in the Fathers of the Church series the work of an early Christian writer who did not write in either Greek or Latin. It offers new English translations of selected prose works by St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. A.D. 309-373). The volume contains St. Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius. The translators have enhanced the volume with a general introduction, extensive bibliography, and specific introductions to each of the works. Together these features provide an overview of the major scholarship on St. Ephrem and Syriac Christianity. St. Ephrem, the “Harp of the Spirit,” composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillfull charmand grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching … Continue reading →
Science, Intelligibility, Creation: How the Doctrine of Creation Unites, Delineates, and Ennobles Modern Science
Article 19 pages Level: university This article (by Scott G. Hefelfinger, published in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture in 2011) provides an overview of ancient science, contrasts ancient science with modern science, and comments on philosophy and modern science while promoting the idea of Creation as a means of tying all these together in a meaningful manner. Hefelfinger writes: If the province of modern science seems today to be all encompassing, a quick survey of the situation will prove otherwise. Science can often seem to have no room for philosophy, no time for the immaterial, and no patience with God. Through all of these factors it seems we are left with no hope for reconciliation between science and philosophy, science and theology, and ultimately, science and ordinary life. If a “theological doctrine” were to come to the rescue and serve to make sense of the divide between ancient and modern science that would indeed be something. This … Continue reading →
St. Albert the Great: Champion of Faith and Reason
Book 187 pages Level: high school and above Pope Pius XI described Albert the Great as having “an insatiable thirst for truth, a patient, tireless energy of inquiring into natural phenomena, a vivid imagination joined to a tenacious memory,” and an esteem for the wisdom of the past. This 2011 biography of St. Albert the Great was written by Kevin Vost, who writes: St. Albert has been described as a scientist by temperament, a philosopher by choice, and a theologian by mood. When a natural explanation appeared to explain an observable phenomenon or process, such as the operation of our senses, Albert did not feel the need to interject a supernatural cause. Thus for Albert there was never conflict between science and religion, faith and reason, the material and the spiritual realms; indeed, as we saw earlier, for him “the whole world was theology,” because “the heavens proclaim the Glory of god.” And as St. Albert made clear in his … Continue reading →
St. Anselm – God is not in place or time but all things are in Him
Article (book excerpt) 1200 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from the eleventh-century Proslogion of Anselm of Canterbury on the mind-bending nature of God and God’s existence beyond space and time. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Anselm writes: And You are the being who exists in a strict and absolute sense because You have neither past nor future existence but only present existence; nor can You be thought not to exist at any time. And You are life and light and wisdom and blessedness and eternity and many suchlike good things; and yet You are nothing save the one and supreme good, You who are completely sufficient unto Yourself, needing nothing, but rather He whom all things need in order that they may have being … Continue reading →
St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Bonaventure – on the value of sensing and measuring the world
Articles (book excerpts) 5200 words total Level: university Two excerpts from the twelfth-century The Mind’s Road to God of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, both of which focus on the use of the senses to study the world. St. Bonaventure writes of the use of the sense to observe the world, noting measurements of size, type, number, order etc. of the created things of this world. And, he writes, the …creatures of this sensible world signify the invisible things of God, partly because God is the Origin, Exemplar and End, of every creature, and (because) every effect is a sign of a cause, and an example of an exemplar, and a way for the end, towards which it leads: partly from itsown representation; partly from a prophetic prefiguration; partly from angelic activity; partly from a superadded institution. For every creature by [ex] its nature is a certain likeness and similitude of that eternal Wisdom, and especially those things which have been assumed in the book of … Continue reading →
St. Macrina the Younger on Science and Technology
Article (book excerpt) 3100 words Level: high school and above A fourth-century discourse by St. Macrina the Younger on how human beings use observation, calculation, and reasoning to study the natural world and to develop technology—and what these things tell us about both God and the human soul and mind. (St. Macrina’s discourse is taken from a much larger dialogue between her and her brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, recorded in his On the Soul and the Resurrection. Click here for On the Soul and the Resurrection, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access it courtesy of New Advent.) [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution
Book 264 pages Level: university This book by Dennis Danielson tells the story of Georg Joachim Rheticus, the only person to “study heliocentrism” under Nicolaus Copernicus, and the person largely responsible for getting Copernicus’s book De Revolutionibus (On the Revolutions) published. As the book’s Prologue states, “No Rheticus, No Copernicus”. But Rheticus did not work in isolation—he was a member of a community of scholars who were motivated to study the universe. Rheticus notes: It is absurd to presume that God the Architect established these wondrous and precisely regulated manifold motions [of celestial bodies] in vain. It is fitting therefore that we should cultivate the science of these motions… God gave the human race shadows to be schoolmistresses of these things; moreover, he gave us numbers and measures so that we might discern how great a mind has constructed this amazing machine, and so that we should seek and cherish him. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
The mathematical world
Article 2500 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2014 by James Franklin, professor of mathematics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and author of the book An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. What is mathematics about? We know what biology is about; it’s about living things. Or more exactly, the living aspects of living things – the motion of a cat thrown out of a window is a matter for physics, but its physiology is a topic for biology. Oceanography is about oceans; sociology is about human behaviour in the mass long-term; and so on. When all the sciences and their subject matters are laid out, is there any aspect of reality left over for mathematics to be about? That is the basic question in the philosophy of mathematics. People care about the philosophy of mathematics in a way they do not care about, … Continue reading →
The Mind’s Road To God: St. Bonaventure and String Theory.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. Modern science is not inconsistent with the spiritual ascent of Saint Bonaventure from the standpoint of the beginning of our ascent to God. However, we need to avoid an implicit reduction of our defense of God’s existence to only the scientific.
Continue reading →The Multiverses of Robert Grosseteste
Article 2400 words Level: high school and above This 2019 article on the ideas of Robert Grosseteste was published by Lapham’s Quarterly, but is an excerpt from the book The Number of the Heavens: A History of the Multiverse and the Quest to Understand the Cosmos, by Tom Siegfried (published by Harvard University Press). Grosseteste was the bishop of Lincoln, England, in the thirteenth century, and he developed a unique theory for the formation of the universe, based on some simple assumptions about the nature of light and of matter. Siegfried provides an outline of this theory, along with background information to help the reader to understand the theory. Most of what Siegfried outlines comes from Grosseteste’s De Luce (On Light). For the reader with further interest in Grosseteste’s ideas, The Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (INTERS) has a translation of De Luce available, as does Archive.org. Click here for the Tom Siegfried article from Lapham’s Quarterly. Click here … Continue reading →
The nature of light according to Thomas Aquinas
Book excerpt 2800 words Level: university This discussion of light from the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of light. For example, St. Thomas argues that light is not a body, which agrees with modern ideas. He also argues that light travels instantaneously, which does not agree with modern ideas. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: When speaking about light, faithful to his method, Thomas Aquinas’ starting point is terminology: he wants to clarify the use of the word “light” in all its different meanings, hoping to avoid misunderstanding, and this offering us a lesson in a scientific method which seems particularly valid even today (see a.1). Properly speaking, the original meaning of the word “light” is … Continue reading →
The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure On Creation – Étienne Gilson
Article (book excerpt) 2800 words Level: university The twentieth-century French philosopher Étienne Gilson writes on St. Bonaventure and Aristotle: All order, in fact, starts from a beginning, passes through a middle point and reaches an end. If then there is no first term there is no order; now if the duration of the world and therefore the revolutions of the stars had no beginning, their series would have had no first term and they would possess no order, which amounts to saying that in reality they do not in fact form a series and they do not precede or follow one another. But this the order of the days and seasons plainly proves to be false…. In St. Bonaventure’s Christian universe there is, in reality, no place for Aristotelian accident; his thought shrinks from supposing a series of causes accidentally ordered, that is to say, without order, without law and with its terms following one another at random. Click here … Continue reading →
The Pope and the Comet
Article 4 pages Level: all audiences This brief article (published in 1908 in Popular Astronomy) by Fr. William F. Rigge, S. J., an astronomer at Creighton University, debunks the story that Pope Callixtus III invoked his papal authority against Halley’s comet. Rigge writes that “it seems that no article can be written on Halley’s comet without bringing in the oft-told story of the bull which Pope Callixtus III so ineffectually launched against it….” Rigge cites several pieces of evidence against this story, the strongest being that not that many documents were produced during the short papacy of Callixtus III, and Fr. Rigge was able to read them all. “It was an easy task for me to read all the documents of this pope,” he writes, “and I can attest from my own personal knowledge that not only is there no bull against or concerning a comet, there is not even a paragraph, nor a phrase, nor a word, which might be … Continue reading →
Thomas Aquinas – On Creation and Time
Book excerpt 1600 words Level: university This discussion on creation and time, from the Summa contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas, contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of the origin of the universe as described in the “Big Bang” theory (in which neither matter, nor time, nor space exist prior to the “bang”). For example, St. Thomas argues that the act of creation is not a change of one thing that exists into another thing. Rather, appealing to both reason and to St. Basil, St. Thomas argues that both material things and time itself were formed when God created the universe, a process which St. Thomas argues was instantaneous. He says, “And so it is that holy Scripture proclaims the creation of things to have been effected in an indivisible instant; for it is written: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ (Gen. 1:1). And Basil explains that this beginning is ‘the beginning of time’.” This excerpt … Continue reading →
Twelve Lectures on the Connection Between Science and Revealed Religion – Nicholas Wiseman
Book (and book excerpt) 448 pages (excerpt is 3200 words) Level: high school and above Nicolás Patricio Esteban Wiseman was Cardinal and first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. His discussions of religion and science in the early nineteenth century became well-known. The complete text of Wiseman’s lectures is available from Google Books (click here). Click here for an excerpt selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. In this excerpt Wiseman defends Rome as a center of learning and writes of various early figures in the church who promoted the study of mathematics or the natural world, including Clement of Alexandria: Clement of Alexandria … devoted several chapters of his learned Stromata to the vindication of his favorite studies. He observes very justly, that “varied and … Continue reading →
Was St. Paul Converted by a Meteorite Fall?
A post by Br. Guy Consolmagno on The Catholic Astronomer examines the suggestion that the conversion experience of St. Paul was actually triggered by the fall of a meteorite and the fallacy of forcing material explanations for subjecting but real experiences.
Continue reading →Was the Bible Meant to be Taken Literally?
Video 4 minutes Level: all audiences This excerpt from a longer interview in 2008 features Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. of the Vatican Observatory discussing the question of taking the Bible or other texts “literally”. Click here for information on the full interview. … Continue reading →
We Have Always Been Tiny
A post by historian of science Christopher Graney on The Catholic Astronomer, pointing out that the idea of an immense universe is not merely a concept of modern science but can be found also in ancient cosmologies, based on their own observations.
Continue reading →We Saw His Star in the East: BBC Radio Sunday Worship for Epiphany
This program first aired on BBC Radio’s Sunday religious program for Ephiphany.
Continue reading →A Critique to Astrology from “De Civitate Dei”
Book excerpt 4500 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God concerning the topic of astrology. Augustine uses the issues of twins to criticize astrology from a practical standpoint, but he also attacks astrology from a theological standpoint. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from Inters.org. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from The City of God (book V), from the full text available via Google Books. … Continue reading →
Abbess St. Hildegard of Bingen OSB (1098-1179), Doctor of the Church
Article (blog post) 800 words Level: all audiences St. Hildegard of Bingen was canonized a saint and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI, with reference to her scientific work, among other things. This article, written by Br. Bob Macke, S. J. (an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory) and posted on the V.O.’s Sacred Space Astronomy/The Catholic Astronomer blog, provides an overview of her life and work. Macke writes that her scientific work focused on medicine, pharmacology, and plants and animals. Click here to access this article from Sacred Space Astronomy. … Continue reading →
Anselm of Canterbury and Nicholas of Cusa
Source page with links to many articles More than 100 articles linked Level: university A source page, with many links, prepared by the University of Minnesota philosopher Jasper Hopkins, about two key philosophers of nature during the scholastic era: Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109), often called the Father of Scholasticism, was born in Aosta, in the Kingdom of Burgundy. Today Aosta belongs to Italy, specifically to the region of Val d’Aosta. Anselm later became prior (1063), and then abbot (1078), of the Monastery of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy, France. In 1093 he was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in England. As an intellectual, he is known above all for his three works the Monologion, the Proslogion, and the Cur Deus Homo. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), sometimes misleadingly referred to as the first “modern” philosopher, was born in Kues, Germany (today Bernkastel-Kues). He became a canon lawyer and a cardinal. His two best-known works are De Docta Ignorantia (On Learned Ignorance) and De Visione Dei … Continue reading →
Apostolic Letter Proclaiming Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Church
Article (letter) 3500 words Level: high school and above In this Apostolic Letter of 2012, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed Saint Hildegard of Bingen a Doctor of the Universal Church. Pope Benedict mentions St. Hildegard’s scientific work in various places. He writes: [T]he attribution of the title of Doctor of the Universal Church to Hildegard of Bingen has great significance for today’s world and an extraordinary importance for women. In Hildegard are expressed the most noble values of womanhood: hence the presence of women in the Church and in society is also illumined by her presence, both from the perspective of scientific research and that of pastoral activity. Her ability to speak to those who were far from the faith and from the Church make Hildegard a credible witness of the new evangelization. Click here to access this letter (English version) from the Vatican website. … Continue reading →
Book Review – Opportunities lost
Article 800 words Level: all audiences Fr. Paul Mueller, S. J., of the Vatican Observatory reviewed the book The Abacus and the Cross, The Story of the Pope Who Brought the Light of Science to the Dark Ages, by Nancy Marie Brown. The book concerns Gerbert of Aurillac, later Pope Sylvester II, a mathemetician at the end of the first millennium. Fr. Mueller’s review appeared in Physics World, Volume 24, Number 10: The Abacus and the Cross is a book with a hero and a villain. The hero is Gerbert of Aurillac, the 10th century shepherd boy who became monk, schoolmaster, scientist, mathematician, and abbot, and then reigned at the turn of the first millennium as Pope Sylvester II. Gerbert was the first to introduce Arabic numerals to Europe, using them on his abacus; he wrote a leading textbook on geometry, which was supplanted only after 200 years when full translations of Euclid became available in the West; and he constructed and used astronomical instruments such as armillary spheres and astrolabes. Little remains of his own writings. Evidence for his genius can be … Continue reading →
Copernicus and the “High Seas”
Article (blog post series) 3600 words Level: all audiences In this series of posts, written for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney discusses “Two Spheres Theory” regarding the shape and composition of the Earth. The Two Spheres Theory was a medieval idea that came to be taken as scientific evidence for existence of, and direct action in the world of, God. However, the Two Spheres Theory was soundly disproven by, among other things, Christopher Columbus’s voyage to the lands now known as the Americas. Click here to read Part I of this series on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. Click here to read Part II of this series. Click here to read Part III. … Continue reading →
Copernicus’s On the Revolutions—A Book That Continues to Challenge
Article (blog post) 2000 words Level: all audiences In this post for The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney writes about the groundbreaking 1543 book, De Revolutionibus Orbium Cœlestium, or On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, written by Nicolas Copernicus, a cleric at the cathedral in Frombork, Poland. The post discusses Copernicus’s arguments for the counter-intuitive supposition that the Earth moves around the sun, over the more common-sense supposition that the sun moves around the Earth; it introduces objections to the Copernican system, and Copernicus’s invoking of the power of God to answer those objections; it also discusses how the Copernican system has implications for an evolving universe and life on other worlds. Graney concludes, “And so even five centuries after Nicolaus Copernicus wrote it, De Revolutionibus continues to challenge all who engage with its bold claims. It is a remarkable work. Few other books can match its boldness and its impact.” Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the … Continue reading →
Everybody knows – Culture and Cosmology
A post by Fr. Paul Gabor on the Catholic Astronomer website. He discusses how our culture’s “cosmology” what “everybody knows” colors the way we understand history and astronomy, and how that has changed with time. The first post introduces the idea of the “everybody knows” fallacy.
Continue reading →Exploring Our Origins: C.S. Lewis and the Fight for Meaning in Genesis
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “…trying to impose a superficial understanding of creation upon the book Genesis is missing the central point the text is trying to communicate ”
Continue reading →Irenaeus of Lyons and the Opulence of God.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “In regard to God and creation, Irenaeus used a number of striking metaphors to explore this relationship such as God as Master Architect and God as Master Artist… These and other images of God were central to his theological understanding of the Economy of God, or the slow working out of the plan of salvation.”
Continue reading →John Philoponus – Impetus
Article excerpt (PDF) 850 words Level: high school and above One of the first people to develop something like the modern (Newtonian) scientific theory of motion was John Philoponus of Alexandria, who lived in the sixth century. This brief excerpt from the on-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces Philoponus and his ideas about impetus in physics. Click here to access this article directly from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Translations of Philoponus’s work on physics and Aristotle are available from Bloomsbury Publishing. Click here for information from Bloomsbury. Click here for information from Google Books. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
La astronomía de Ptolomeo y el caso Galileo: dos aportes histórico-epistemológicos
Article 31 pages Level: university In this article by Gonzalo L. Recio of the Universidad de Quilmes-Conicet, Argentina and published in the journal Scientia et Fides in 2017, the author uses the example of Ptolemy, astronomy, and physics to analyze the debate over the Copernican system in the early seventeenth century. The author discusses the extent to which Ptolemy believed that astronomy could tell us much about the structure of the universe, and what that tells us about Galileo. Recio writes: La incoherencia no es buena amiga de la ciencia. Eso, sin embargo, no significa que no puedan vivir juntas. De hecho, al menos desde hacía trece siglos ambos cuerpos teóricos, la astronomía ptolemaica y la física aristotélica, habían convivido en las comunidades científicas musulmanas y cristianas. Esta convivencia despertaba, como vimos, rispideces. No obstante ello, la experiencia mostraba que no era suficiente para derrumbar a ninguna de las dos partes. Ambos paradigmas existían juntamente. El advenimiento de la hipótesis … Continue reading →
Nicole Oresme
Article 3600 words Level: high school and above An article from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) on the 14th-century philosopher Nicole Oresme. Oresme discussed, among other things, non-Aristotelian Concepts of Place, Space, and Time; a Theory of Motion; Cosmology, Astronomy, and Opposition to Astrology; and Mathematics. Oresme also served as Bishop of Lisieux. From the SEP: Without a doubt Oresme is one of the most eminent scholastic philosophers, famous for his original ideas, his independent thinking and his critique of several Aristotelian tenets. His work provided some basis for the development of modern mathematics and science. Furthermore he is generally considered the greatest medieval economist. By translating, at the behest of King Charles V of France, Aristotle’s Ethics, Politics, and On the Heavens, as well as the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics, from Latin into French, he exerted a considerable influence on the development of French prose, particularly its scientific and philosophical vocabulary. Click here for the article from the SEP. … Continue reading →
On the prudence and openness in interpreting sacred Scripture, when biblical passages deal with our knowledge of nature
Book excerpt 750 words Level: high school and above An excerpt on the book of Genesis, from Augustine of Hippo’s The Literal Meaning of Genesis. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: These passages from St. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram suggest how theologians should behave when different interpretations of sacred Scripture are possible in matter of our knowledge of nature. Prudence is recommended to avoid presenting specific readings, susceptible of further deepening, as if they were absolute and unquestionable. In so doing we keep away from the risk that scholars who are experts in natural knowledge deride Christians for their ingenuousness, and then underestimate the value of the whole Scripture. Galileo Galilei quoted these passages from Augustine in his famous Letter to Madame Christine of Lorraine … Continue reading →
One Comment by St. Albert the Great becomes a whole Blog Post
Article (blog post) 1300 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer about St. Albert the Great and his thoughts on the nature of the universe of stars. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. … Continue reading →
Science, Intelligibility, Creation: How the Doctrine of Creation Unites, Delineates, and Ennobles Modern Science
Article 19 pages Level: university This article (by Scott G. Hefelfinger, published in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture in 2011) provides an overview of ancient science, contrasts ancient science with modern science, and comments on philosophy and modern science while promoting the idea of Creation as a means of tying all these together in a meaningful manner. Hefelfinger writes: If the province of modern science seems today to be all encompassing, a quick survey of the situation will prove otherwise. Science can often seem to have no room for philosophy, no time for the immaterial, and no patience with God. Through all of these factors it seems we are left with no hope for reconciliation between science and philosophy, science and theology, and ultimately, science and ordinary life. If a “theological doctrine” were to come to the rescue and serve to make sense of the divide between ancient and modern science that would indeed be something. This … Continue reading →
St. Anselm – God is not in place or time but all things are in Him
Article (book excerpt) 1200 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from the eleventh-century Proslogion of Anselm of Canterbury on the mind-bending nature of God and God’s existence beyond space and time. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Anselm writes: And You are the being who exists in a strict and absolute sense because You have neither past nor future existence but only present existence; nor can You be thought not to exist at any time. And You are life and light and wisdom and blessedness and eternity and many suchlike good things; and yet You are nothing save the one and supreme good, You who are completely sufficient unto Yourself, needing nothing, but rather He whom all things need in order that they may have being … Continue reading →
St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Macrina the Younger on Science and Technology
Article (book excerpt) 3100 words Level: high school and above A fourth-century discourse by St. Macrina the Younger on how human beings use observation, calculation, and reasoning to study the natural world and to develop technology—and what these things tell us about both God and the human soul and mind. (St. Macrina’s discourse is taken from a much larger dialogue between her and her brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, recorded in his On the Soul and the Resurrection. Click here for On the Soul and the Resurrection, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access it courtesy of New Advent.) [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
The mathematical world
Article 2500 words Level: all audiences An article published in Aeon in 2014 by James Franklin, professor of mathematics at the University of New South Wales in Sydney and author of the book An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics. Click here to access this article directly from Aeon. What is mathematics about? We know what biology is about; it’s about living things. Or more exactly, the living aspects of living things – the motion of a cat thrown out of a window is a matter for physics, but its physiology is a topic for biology. Oceanography is about oceans; sociology is about human behaviour in the mass long-term; and so on. When all the sciences and their subject matters are laid out, is there any aspect of reality left over for mathematics to be about? That is the basic question in the philosophy of mathematics. People care about the philosophy of mathematics in a way they do not care about, … Continue reading →
The Mind’s Road To God: St. Bonaventure and String Theory.
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. Modern science is not inconsistent with the spiritual ascent of Saint Bonaventure from the standpoint of the beginning of our ascent to God. However, we need to avoid an implicit reduction of our defense of God’s existence to only the scientific.
Continue reading →The nature of light according to Thomas Aquinas
Book excerpt 2800 words Level: university This discussion of light from the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of light. For example, St. Thomas argues that light is not a body, which agrees with modern ideas. He also argues that light travels instantaneously, which does not agree with modern ideas. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: When speaking about light, faithful to his method, Thomas Aquinas’ starting point is terminology: he wants to clarify the use of the word “light” in all its different meanings, hoping to avoid misunderstanding, and this offering us a lesson in a scientific method which seems particularly valid even today (see a.1). Properly speaking, the original meaning of the word “light” is … Continue reading →
The Philosophy of St. Bonaventure On Creation – Étienne Gilson
Article (book excerpt) 2800 words Level: university The twentieth-century French philosopher Étienne Gilson writes on St. Bonaventure and Aristotle: All order, in fact, starts from a beginning, passes through a middle point and reaches an end. If then there is no first term there is no order; now if the duration of the world and therefore the revolutions of the stars had no beginning, their series would have had no first term and they would possess no order, which amounts to saying that in reality they do not in fact form a series and they do not precede or follow one another. But this the order of the days and seasons plainly proves to be false…. In St. Bonaventure’s Christian universe there is, in reality, no place for Aristotelian accident; his thought shrinks from supposing a series of causes accidentally ordered, that is to say, without order, without law and with its terms following one another at random. Click here … Continue reading →
The Pope and the Comet
Article 4 pages Level: all audiences This brief article (published in 1908 in Popular Astronomy) by Fr. William F. Rigge, S. J., an astronomer at Creighton University, debunks the story that Pope Callixtus III invoked his papal authority against Halley’s comet. Rigge writes that “it seems that no article can be written on Halley’s comet without bringing in the oft-told story of the bull which Pope Callixtus III so ineffectually launched against it….” Rigge cites several pieces of evidence against this story, the strongest being that not that many documents were produced during the short papacy of Callixtus III, and Fr. Rigge was able to read them all. “It was an easy task for me to read all the documents of this pope,” he writes, “and I can attest from my own personal knowledge that not only is there no bull against or concerning a comet, there is not even a paragraph, nor a phrase, nor a word, which might be … Continue reading →
Thomas Aquinas – On Creation and Time
Book excerpt 1600 words Level: university This discussion on creation and time, from the Summa contra Gentiles of Thomas Aquinas, contrasts and compares in interesting ways with the modern understanding of the origin of the universe as described in the “Big Bang” theory (in which neither matter, nor time, nor space exist prior to the “bang”). For example, St. Thomas argues that the act of creation is not a change of one thing that exists into another thing. Rather, appealing to both reason and to St. Basil, St. Thomas argues that both material things and time itself were formed when God created the universe, a process which St. Thomas argues was instantaneous. He says, “And so it is that holy Scripture proclaims the creation of things to have been effected in an indivisible instant; for it is written: ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ (Gen. 1:1). And Basil explains that this beginning is ‘the beginning of time’.” This excerpt … Continue reading →
Twelve Lectures on the Connection Between Science and Revealed Religion – Nicholas Wiseman
Book (and book excerpt) 448 pages (excerpt is 3200 words) Level: high school and above Nicolás Patricio Esteban Wiseman was Cardinal and first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. His discussions of religion and science in the early nineteenth century became well-known. The complete text of Wiseman’s lectures is available from Google Books (click here). Click here for an excerpt selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. In this excerpt Wiseman defends Rome as a center of learning and writes of various early figures in the church who promoted the study of mathematics or the natural world, including Clement of Alexandria: Clement of Alexandria … devoted several chapters of his learned Stromata to the vindication of his favorite studies. He observes very justly, that “varied and … Continue reading →
Was St. Paul Converted by a Meteorite Fall?
A post by Br. Guy Consolmagno on The Catholic Astronomer examines the suggestion that the conversion experience of St. Paul was actually triggered by the fall of a meteorite and the fallacy of forcing material explanations for subjecting but real experiences.
Continue reading →We Have Always Been Tiny
A post by historian of science Christopher Graney on The Catholic Astronomer, pointing out that the idea of an immense universe is not merely a concept of modern science but can be found also in ancient cosmologies, based on their own observations.
Continue reading →Was the Bible Meant to be Taken Literally?
Video 4 minutes Level: all audiences This excerpt from a longer interview in 2008 features Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. of the Vatican Observatory discussing the question of taking the Bible or other texts “literally”. Click here for information on the full interview. … Continue reading →
We Saw His Star in the East: BBC Radio Sunday Worship for Epiphany
This program first aired on BBC Radio’s Sunday religious program for Ephiphany.
Continue reading →Antecedents to Modern Science
“From Plato to Newton the contest as to what part mathematics has had in coming to a scientific understanding of the universe took place in a religious framework. Today, after a period of what might be called “atheistic rationalism,” we again hear the refrain of discovering “the mind of God” coming from scientists.
Continue reading →John Philoponus – Impetus
Article excerpt (PDF) 850 words Level: high school and above One of the first people to develop something like the modern (Newtonian) scientific theory of motion was John Philoponus of Alexandria, who lived in the sixth century. This brief excerpt from the on-line Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy introduces Philoponus and his ideas about impetus in physics. Click here to access this article directly from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Translations of Philoponus’s work on physics and Aristotle are available from Bloomsbury Publishing. Click here for information from Bloomsbury. Click here for information from Google Books. [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
St. Macrina the Younger on Science and Technology
Article (book excerpt) 3100 words Level: high school and above A fourth-century discourse by St. Macrina the Younger on how human beings use observation, calculation, and reasoning to study the natural world and to develop technology—and what these things tell us about both God and the human soul and mind. (St. Macrina’s discourse is taken from a much larger dialogue between her and her brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, recorded in his On the Soul and the Resurrection. Click here for On the Soul and the Resurrection, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access it courtesy of New Advent.) [Click here to download PDF] … Continue reading →
The Pope and the Comet
Article 4 pages Level: all audiences This brief article (published in 1908 in Popular Astronomy) by Fr. William F. Rigge, S. J., an astronomer at Creighton University, debunks the story that Pope Callixtus III invoked his papal authority against Halley’s comet. Rigge writes that “it seems that no article can be written on Halley’s comet without bringing in the oft-told story of the bull which Pope Callixtus III so ineffectually launched against it….” Rigge cites several pieces of evidence against this story, the strongest being that not that many documents were produced during the short papacy of Callixtus III, and Fr. Rigge was able to read them all. “It was an easy task for me to read all the documents of this pope,” he writes, “and I can attest from my own personal knowledge that not only is there no bull against or concerning a comet, there is not even a paragraph, nor a phrase, nor a word, which might be … Continue reading →
Book: The Irrational Augustine
Book 240 pages Level: university A book suggested by our research team. This description is from the publisher, Oxford University Press: The Irrational Augustine takes the notion of St Augustine as rigid and dogmatic Father of the Church and turns it on its head. Catherine Conybeare reads Augustine’s earliest works to discover the anti-dogmatic Augustine, who values changeability and human interconnectedness and deplores social exclusion. The novelty of her book lies in taking seriously the nature of these early works as performances, through which multiple questions can be raised and multiple options explored, both in words and through their dramatic framework. The theological consequences are considerable. A very human Augustine emerges, talking and playing with friends and family, including his mother – and a very sympathetic set of ideas is the result. Click here for a preview, available from Google Books. … Continue reading →
Crowe: Theories of the World – from Antiquity to the Copernican Revolution
Book 256 pages Level: high school and above From the publisher, Dover: This newly revised edition this accessible and enlightening book by Professor Michael J. Crowe of the University of Notre Dame (USA) recreates one of the most dramatic developments in the history of thought: the change from an earth-centered to a sun-centered conception of the solar system. Written in a clear and straightforward manner, the work is organized around a hypothetical debate: Given the evidence available in 1615, which planetary system (Ptolemaic, Copernican, Tychonic, etc.) was most deserving of support? Beginning with an introductory chapter on celestial motions, Dr. Crowe proceeds to a discussion of Greek astronomy before Ptolemy, mathematical techniques used by ancient astronomers, the Ptolemaic system, the Copernican and Tychonic systems, and the contributions of Kepler and Galileo. In an epilogue, quotes from writers, philosophers, and scientists reveal the impact of Copernican thought on their work. Easily within the reach of anyone with a background in high school mathematics, … Continue reading →
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
Ibn Al-Haytham: First Scientist
Book 128 pages Level: high school and above This book by Bradley Steffens concerns Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham, who lived around the year 1000 in Basra in what is now Iraq, as well as in Egypt. Ibn al-Haytham did work in a number of areas of science and mathematics, especially in the field of Optics. His optics work became well-known and well-regarded in Europe (where he was known as “Alhazen” or “Alhacen”). Ibn al-Haytham argued that, “for gaining access to the effulgence and closeness to God, there is no better way than that of searching for truth and knowledge”. Like many Christian thinkers, he developed a strong appreciation for the work and insights of Aristotle. From the publisher: Ibn al-Haytham, also known in the West as Alhazen, who lived from approximately 950 to 1040, was a pioneer in several scientific and mathematical fields, including physics, optics, astronomy, and analytical geometry. His experiments on how light is refracted … Continue reading →
Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science
Book 304 pages Level: high school and above This 2015 book, published by Harvard University Press (HUP) and edited in part by Ronald Numbers, is a follow-up to the 2009 book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion which was also published by HUP and edited by Numbers. From HUP: A falling apple inspired Isaac Newton’s insight into the law of gravity—or so the story goes. Is it true? Perhaps not. But the more intriguing question is why such stories endure as explanations of how science happens. Newton’s Apple and Other Myths about Science brushes away popular misconceptions to provide a clearer picture of great scientific breakthroughs from ancient times to the present. Among the myths refuted in this volume is the idea that no science was done in the Dark Ages, that alchemy and astrology were purely superstitious pursuits, that fear of public reaction alone led Darwin to delay publishing his theory of evolution, and that … Continue reading →
Nicolaus Copernicus – Making the Earth a Planet
Book 128 pages Level: high school and above This book by Owen Gingerich and James MacLachlan is part of the Oxford Portraits in Science series for young adults. The general editor of this series is Gingerich, a historian of science with Harvard University, and an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. This book discusses both the astronomical work of Nicolaus Copernicus (including some technical detail) and his life as a canon in the Cathedral of Frombork, Poland. Click here for a preview from Google Books. From the publisher, Oxford University Press: Born in Poland in 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus launched a quiet revolution. No scientist so radically transformed our understanding of our place in the universe as this curious bishop’s doctor and church official. In his quest to discover a beautiful and coherent system to describe the motions of the planets, Copernicus placed the sun in the center of the system and made the earth a planet traveling around the sun. … Continue reading →
Saint Ephrem the Syrian: Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius
Book 393 Pages Level: university Click here for a preview of this book, Selected Prose Works: Saint Ephrem the Syrian, from Google Books. The book’s publisher, Catholic University of America Press, writes: This volume presents for the first time in the Fathers of the Church series the work of an early Christian writer who did not write in either Greek or Latin. It offers new English translations of selected prose works by St. Ephrem the Syrian (c. A.D. 309-373). The volume contains St. Ephrem’s Commentary on Genesis, Commentary on Exodus, Homily on Our Lord, and Letter to Publius. The translators have enhanced the volume with a general introduction, extensive bibliography, and specific introductions to each of the works. Together these features provide an overview of the major scholarship on St. Ephrem and Syriac Christianity. St. Ephrem, the “Harp of the Spirit,” composed prose commentaries and sermons of skillfull charmand grace, in addition to beautiful hymns, during the time he spent teaching … Continue reading →
St. Albert the Great: Champion of Faith and Reason
Book 187 pages Level: high school and above Pope Pius XI described Albert the Great as having “an insatiable thirst for truth, a patient, tireless energy of inquiring into natural phenomena, a vivid imagination joined to a tenacious memory,” and an esteem for the wisdom of the past. This 2011 biography of St. Albert the Great was written by Kevin Vost, who writes: St. Albert has been described as a scientist by temperament, a philosopher by choice, and a theologian by mood. When a natural explanation appeared to explain an observable phenomenon or process, such as the operation of our senses, Albert did not feel the need to interject a supernatural cause. Thus for Albert there was never conflict between science and religion, faith and reason, the material and the spiritual realms; indeed, as we saw earlier, for him “the whole world was theology,” because “the heavens proclaim the Glory of god.” And as St. Albert made clear in his … Continue reading →
Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution
Book 264 pages Level: university This book by Dennis Danielson tells the story of Georg Joachim Rheticus, the only person to “study heliocentrism” under Nicolaus Copernicus, and the person largely responsible for getting Copernicus’s book De Revolutionibus (On the Revolutions) published. As the book’s Prologue states, “No Rheticus, No Copernicus”. But Rheticus did not work in isolation—he was a member of a community of scholars who were motivated to study the universe. Rheticus notes: It is absurd to presume that God the Architect established these wondrous and precisely regulated manifold motions [of celestial bodies] in vain. It is fitting therefore that we should cultivate the science of these motions… God gave the human race shadows to be schoolmistresses of these things; moreover, he gave us numbers and measures so that we might discern how great a mind has constructed this amazing machine, and so that we should seek and cherish him. Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
Twelve Lectures on the Connection Between Science and Revealed Religion – Nicholas Wiseman
Book (and book excerpt) 448 pages (excerpt is 3200 words) Level: high school and above Nicolás Patricio Esteban Wiseman was Cardinal and first Archbishop of Westminster upon the re-establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales in 1850. His discussions of religion and science in the early nineteenth century became well-known. The complete text of Wiseman’s lectures is available from Google Books (click here). Click here for an excerpt selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. In this excerpt Wiseman defends Rome as a center of learning and writes of various early figures in the church who promoted the study of mathematics or the natural world, including Clement of Alexandria: Clement of Alexandria … devoted several chapters of his learned Stromata to the vindication of his favorite studies. He observes very justly, that “varied and … Continue reading →