Science and Religion in the Modern Era (Winter 2026)
Section outline
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Instructors:
Karl Hall (Office hours: Tuesday 14-15, Wednesday 13:30-15:30; Thursday 14-15; and by appointment)
Time: TBALocation: TBA
Zoom option: If you require Zoom access for visa reasons or other extenuating circumstances, use this link. Please alert the instructor beforehand if you cannot attend in person; online access is not available without prior permission.
Course description: The course studies the historical relationship between science and religion in the modern era. Are they incompatible, independent, compatible, or cooperative? How have they come to be seen as metaphysically distinct? We will survey various scholarly theses about this issue and examine the senses in which "science" could encompass the overlapping concerns of theology and natural philosophy in centuries past, and then turn our attention to the ways that science has become a form of knowledge that occasionally challenges religious doctrines. How did individuals of diverse scholarly communities and confessions read and write scientific texts and produce scientific knowledge? What were the specifically disciplinary challenges to religious belief as the concepts and institutions of science expanded? We will investigate these questions primarily with respect to Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, and eventually Orthodox), but with occasional comparisons to Islam.
Course goals: We aim to read and analyze texts that enable us to understand scientific and religious concepts in interaction. In studying the tropes of conflict, mutual isolation, and reconciliation, we will investigate the argumentative and rhetorical strategies of religious and scientific figures, and in the modern period, we will also see how the historical sciences themselves became participants in, and not just chroniclers of, these encounters.
Learning outcomes: Students will gain familiarity with modern conceptions of science and religion, with the evolving bounds of knowledge in modern science, and with the methods, sources, leading figures, and institutional contexts that have informed the science-religion relationship.
Advanced certificates: May be applied to the Religious Studies advanced certificate.
Requirements and assessment: The grade is based on one class presentation [20%], one time serving as discussion leader [10%], a review essay [50%], and general class participation [20%].
Note on class presentations: For purposes of this course, a presentation is neither a formal mini-lecture nor a PowerPoint slide show, but rather an exercise in accountability. Whereas a discussion leader will only be responsible for assigned texts, the class presentation may require modest additional preparation. Decisions about scope will be determined by student interests in prior consultation with the instructors, but will likely be driven by a given session topic.
Review essay due April 6. Topic should be chosen in consultation with the instructors. Length: 8-9 pages double-spaced.
Class Attendance
Regular attendance is mandatory in all classes. A student who misses more than two units (two 100-minute sessions) in any 2 or 4 credit class without a verified reason beyond the student's control must submit an 8-10-page paper assigned by the professor, which as a rule covers the material in the class missed. The paper is due no later than 3 weeks after the missed class.
Class Etiquette
Please put away your phones. Laptops are fine, insofar as they are used to refer to assigned readings and to take notes. The instructor is uninterested in policing other activities, but the concrete expectation is that students will not be using the internet during classroom time.
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Opens: Wednesday, 1 April 2026, 1:00 AMDue: Monday, 6 April 2026, 5:00 PM
Please upload review essay here.
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For further general bibliographic resources, please scroll to the bottom of the course web page.
In these brief lectures Professor Hall introduces the "conflict model" which we will discuss in the first session of the course. We recommend viewing them as background to your reading.
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Assigned reading:
John W. Draper, "Preface," The History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1875), v-xvi.
You are free to read the preface in any one of many contemporary translations. If you do so, be sure to jot down any neologisms or curious phrasings that you think might bear comparison in class. (Czech translation) (German translation) (Ahmet Midhat's partial Ottoman Turkish translation) (Zafer Ali Khan's 1910 Ottoman Turkish translation) (Polish translation) (Russian translation) (Ukrainian translation) (Dutch translation) (French translation) (Italian translation) (Spanish translation) (Japanese translation) (English, French, Russian, and Polish versions were available in Vilnius.)
Peter Harrison, "'Science' and 'religion': Constructing the boundaries," Journal of Religion 86 (2006): 81-106.
Suggested readings:
The "conflict thesis" is ubiquitous (e.g. Ferngren, Brooke); consult for further references.
Andrew Dickson White, History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896).
Ronald L. Numbers, ed., Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion (2009).
M. Alper Yalcinkaya, "Science as an ally of religion: a Muslim appropriation of 'the conflict thesis'," British Journal for the History of Science 44 (2011): 161-181. -
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Presentation: Emily
Assigned reading:
Osiander's anonymous introduction to Copernicus, De Revolutionibus (1543).
Nicolas Copernicus, dedication and book 1 of De Revolutionibus (1543). (Latin original) (German translation) (Polish translation) (Russian translation) (Hungarian excerpts)
Owen Gingerich, "The Copernican Revolution," in Ferngren, ed., Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, 95-104.
Further reading:
Robert S. Westman, The Copernican Question: Prognostication, Skepticism, and Celestial Order (2011), 1-9, 109-140.
George Saliba, Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance (2007).
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Copernican Revolution (1957).
Ludwik Birkenmajer, Mikołaj Kopernik, Cz. 1, Studya nad pracami Kopernika oraz materyały biograficzne (1900).
Michal Kokowski, Różne oblicza Mikołaja Kopernika (2009).
A visual aid for thinking about the shift from geocentric to heliocentric systems.(Click on image for larger version.) -
Presentation: Ilya
Assigned reading:
Bruce T. Moran, Distilling Knowledge. Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005, Introduction and Ch. 4.Further resources:
[Pseudo?-] Paracelsus, "Concerning certain particular signs of natural and supernatural things," Concerning the Nature of Things (c. 1537), from The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hohemheim, called Paracelsus, vol. 1, ed. A. E. Waite (1894), 188-194. [This is a brief excerpt, and you need not spend much time puzzling over the substance of it. But for purposes of class discussion, ask yourself why churchmen might be concerned about the way that "signs" function in this work.]
Brian P. Copenhaver, "Natural magic, hermetism, and occultism in early modern science," in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge, 1990), 261-301.
Stephen Gaukroger, The Emergence of a Scientific Culture: Science and the Shaping of Modernity 1210-1685 (2006).
Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (Chicago, 1964).
Allen G. Debus, Man and Nature in the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1978). [Borrow at archive.org]Brian P. Copenhaver, Hermetica : the Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a new English translation, with notes and introduction (1992). [available at Medieval Library]
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Presentation: Ni
Assigned reading:
Galileo Galilei, "Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany" (1615)Maurice A. Finocchiaro, "Science, religion, and the historiography of the Galileo Affair: On the undesirability of oversimplication," Osiris, 2nd Series, 16 (2001): 114-132.
J. J. Bono, The Word of God and the Languages of Man (1995), 193-198.
Further reading:
Peter Harrison, The Bible, Protestantism and the Rise of Natural Sciences (1998).
Stephen Gaukroger, The Emergence of a Scientific Culture: Science and the Shaping of Modernity 1210-1685 (2006).
Mario Biagioli, Galileo Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (Chicago, 1993).
J. L. Heilbron, Galileo (Oxford, 2010).
Some of the burgeoning histories of Galileo from the nineteenth century, many of them drawing on the lengthy project to publish his works in their entirety, and via a dialectic of critical and apologetic views, creating our modern image of him as suffering for science:
David Brewster, The Martyrs of Science; or, the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841).
R. Caspar, Galileo Galilei : Zusammenstellung der Forschungen und Entdeckungen Galilei's auf dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaft, als Beitrag zur Geschichte der neueren Physik (1854).
Galileo Galilei: sein Leben und seine Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der Naturwissenschaft (1856).
Emil Wohlwill, Der Inquisitionsprocess des Galileo Galilei (1870).
Karl von Gebler, Galileo Galilei und die römische Curie : nach den authentischen Quellen (1876).
Gaston Tissandier, Les Martyrs de la Science (1891 [1882]). (Russian translation)
Alajos Czógler, "Galilei," A fizika története életrajzokban (1882).
József Lukscsics, A Galileo-kérdés (1910).
J. N. Frank, Proces inkwizycyjny Galileusza podług najnowszych badan (1881).
Artur Wołyński, "Dwukrotny proces Galileusza," Przewodnik naukowy i literacki (1885): 16 ff. (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8) (part 9) (part 10) (part 11)
František Studnička, "Galileo Galilei," Bohatýrové ducha (1898).
P. A. Forner, Galileo a jeho spor s církví (1910).
V. I. Assonov, Галилей перед судом инквизиции: Очерк его жизни и трудов (1870).
O. Ia. Pergament, Галилео Галилей, его жизнь и научная деятельность (1897).
Е. А. Predtechenskii, Галилей, его жизнь и научная деятельность: Биографический очерк (1892).
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** Class is online **
Presentation: Doha
Assigned reading:
René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy (1644), trans. Jonathan Bennett. [Concentrate for present purposes on Part 1, 1-12; Part 2, 36; Part 3, 1-4; Part 4, 207]Robert Boyle, The Christian Virtuoso: Shewing, That by being addicted to Experimental Philosophy, a Man is rather Assisted, than Indisposed, to be a Good Christian (1690-91), The Works of Robert Boyle, M. Hunter and E. B. Davis, eds., vol. 11 (2000), 291-327. [The full text is included here, but it is OK if you do not read past p. 309. Boyle's English sounds archaic to our ears, so it will take you a little while to work through the text, but his reasoning is still frequently easier to appreciate than that of Descartes. An especially important term: "Artificer," meaning God considered as the Creator of the universe, but with connotations of artisan and craftsman.]
W. B. Ashworth, “Christianity and the Mechanistic Universe,” When Science and Christianity Meet, 61-84.
Further reading:
Margaret Osler, Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy: Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World (1994).
Saul Fisher, Pierre Gassendi's Philosophy and Science: Atomism for Empiricists (2005).
Marie Boas , "The Establishment of the Mechanical Philosophy," Osiris 10 (1952): 412-541.
Peter Harrison, The Bible, Protestantism and the Rise of Natural Sciences (1998).
Simon Schaffer, "Godly men and mechanical philosophers: Souls and spirits in Restoration natural philosophy," Science in Context 1 (1987): 55-85.
Margaret G. Cook, "Divine artifice and natural mechanism: Robert Boyle's mechanical philosophy of nature," Osiris 16 (2001): 133-150.
Harold J. Cook, The Young Descartes: Nobility, Rumor, and War (2018).
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Assigned reading:
William Whiston, A New Theory of the Earth, From its Original, to the Consummation of all Things (1696) (and full text).Isaac Newton, fragments from a Treatise on Revelation [you may also want to consult The Newton Project]
Margaret Jacobs, "Christianity and the Newtonian worldview," God and Nature (1986).
Suggested reading:
Isaac Newton, extract from the ‘General Scholium’ from the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, vol. 2 (London, 1729).
Sir Isaac Newton, "Query 31" from OPTICKS: OR, A TREATISE OF THE Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours OF LIGHT, 4th ed., corrected (London, 1730), 376-406 (abridged).
Frank Manuel, The Religion of Isaac Newton (1974).
Rob Iliffe, "The religion of Isaac Newton," The Cambridge Companion to Newton, 2d ed., 485-523.
Rob Iliffe, Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton (2017).
Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, The foundations of Newton's alchemy : or, "The hunting of the greene lyon" (1975).
Jed Z. Buchwald and Mordechai Feingold, Newton and the Origin of Civilization (2013).
David Kubrin, "Newton and the cyclical cosmos: Providence and the mechanical philosophy," Journal of the History of Ideas 28 (1967): 325-346.
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Assigned reading:Roger Boscovich, "Relating to metaphysics: The mind and God," §§539-558 in A Theory of Natural Philosophy (1922 [1763]), 379-391.
John Heilbron, "Science in the Church," Science in Context 3 (1989): 9-28. [Do you agree with Heilbron's "generalized" Merton Thesis? Does it remain specific to Christianity, or could you then apply it to another religion?]
Suggested reading:
Steven J. Harris, "Transposing the Merton Thesis: Apostolic spirituality and the establishment of the Jesuit scientific tradition," Science in Context 3 (1989): 29-65.Mordechai Feingold, "Jesuits: Savants," Jesuit Science and the Republic of Letters (Cambridge, Mass., 2003).
John Heilbron, The Sun in the Church: Cathedrals as Solar Observatories (1999).
Agustín Udías, Jesuit Contribution to Science (2015). (A work of apologetics.)
Nicolaidis, Science and Eastern Orthodoxy, chapter 12.
[in combination to be determined with]
Auguste Comte and Positivism, ed. G. Lenzer (1975), 71-86 = A. Comte, Introduction to Positive Philosophy, ed. F. Ferré (1988), 1-33. (Russian)
John Cardinal Newman, "Christianity and scientific investigation," The Idea of a University (1852, 1858). (See also PDF below.)
J. C. Greene, “Biology and social theory in the nineteenth century: Auguste Comte and Herbert Spencer," in Science, Ideology and World View (1981), 60-94.
Suggested reading:
M. Nanda, Prophets Facing Backward. Postmodern Critiques of Science and Hindu Nationalism in India (2003).
E. Renan, L’Islamisme et la science (1883).
M. Alper Yalcinkaya, "Science as an ally of religion: a Muslim appropriation of 'the conflict thesis'," British Journal for the History of Science 44 (2011): 161-181.
N. Keddie, “Imperialism, Science and Religion: Two essays by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, 1883” (electronic version).
Richard G. Olson, "August Comte and positivisms," Science and Scientism in Nineteenth-Century Europe, 62-86.
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Assigned reading:
Charles Darwin, "The question of whether each particular variation has been pre-ordained," from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. 2 (1871), 430-432. (Polish translation [image 385]) (Russian translation) (German translation [image 574]) (Dutch translation) (French translation [image 469]) (Italian translation)Francis Darwin, "Religion," from Life of Charles Darwin (London, 1892), 55-65.
J. Hedley Brooke, “Darwin and Victorian Christianity,” The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, ed. J. Hodge and G. Radick (2009), 197-219.
Further reading:Phillip R. Sloan, "'The sense of sublimity': Darwin on nature and divinity," Osiris 16 (2001): 251-269.
D. B. Paul, “Darwin, Social Darwinism and Eugenics,” The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, ed. J. Hodge and G. Radick, (2009), 219-245.
T. Eagleton, Reason, Faith and Revolution, New Haven, 2009.
Adrian Desmond and James Moore, "Never an atheist," Darwin, The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (1991), 622-637.
David Livingstone, "Re-placing Darwin and Christianity," in Numbers and Lindberg, When Science and Christianity Meet.
Darwin is an obligatory topic in all the general surveys in the "Additional Resources" section.(Click on image for larger version.)
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Assigned reading:
Charles Darwin, "The question of whether each particular variation has been pre-ordained," from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. 2 (1871), 430-432. (Polish translation [image 385]) (Russian translation) (German translation [image 574]) (Dutch translation) (French translation [image 469]) (Italian translation)Francis Darwin, "Religion," from Life of Charles Darwin (London, 1892), 55-65.
J. Hedley Brooke, “Darwin and Victorian Christianity,” The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, ed. J. Hodge and G. Radick (2009), 197-219.
Further reading:Phillip R. Sloan, "'The sense of sublimity': Darwin on nature and divinity," Osiris 16 (2001): 251-269.
D. B. Paul, “Darwin, Social Darwinism and Eugenics,” The Cambridge Companion to Darwin, ed. J. Hodge and G. Radick, (2009), 219-245.
T. Eagleton, Reason, Faith and Revolution, New Haven, 2009.
Adrian Desmond and James Moore, "Never an atheist," Darwin, The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist (1991), 622-637.
David Livingstone, "Re-placing Darwin and Christianity," in Numbers and Lindberg, When Science and Christianity Meet.
Darwin is an obligatory topic in all the general surveys in the "Additional Resources" section.(Click on image for larger version.)
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Assigned reading:
Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1928). [Within your limited time constraints, page through the book to get an impression of his topical concerns, linger a bit on the chapter "Man's place in the universe," and then concentrate especially on the chapter "Science and mysticism."] (Hungarian review)
Matthew Stanley, "Religion in modern life: Science, philosophy, and liberal theology in interwar Britain," in Practical Mystic: Religion, Science, and A. S. Eddington (2007), 194-237.
Further reading:
Ernan McMullin, "Religion and cosmology," Encyclopedia of Cosmology: Historical, Philosophical, and Scientific Foundations of Modern Cosmology, ed. Norriss S. Hetherington (1993), 579-595.
Helge Kragh, "Religion, politics, and the universe," in Cosmology and Controversy: The Historical Development of Two Theories of the Universe (1996), 251-268.
Thomas Ryckman, "'A believing rationalist': Einstein and 'the truly valuable' in Kant," The Cambridge Companion to Einstein, eds. Michel Janssen and Christoph Lehner (2014), 377-397.
Robert Smith, The Expanding Universe: Astronomy's 'Great Debate' 1900-1931 (1982).
Loren R. Graham, "Cosmology and cosmogony," Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (1987), 380-427.
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Assigned reading:
Lynn White, "The historical roots of our ecologic crisis," Science 155 (1967): 1203-1207.
Robin Attfield, "Christian attitudes to nature," J. Hist. Ideas (1983): 369-386.
Suggested reading:
Thomas R. Dunlap, Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest (2004).
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R. G. Collingwood, The Idea of Nature (1945).
David C. Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science. The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context 600 BC to AD 1450 (1992).
A. Funkenstein, Theology and the Scientific Imagination from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century (1986).
Edward Grant, Science and Religion, 400 BC - AD 1550: From Aristotle to Copernicus (2004).
Gary B. Ferngren, ed., The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia (2000).
John Hedley Brooke, Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives (1991).
Edward Grant, The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages (1996).
Ronald L. Numbers and David C. Lindberg, When Science and Christianity Meet (2003).
Peter Harrison, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Science and Religion (2010).
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