Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition

Self Cite

Historians of science and religion have given little attention to how historical‐critical scholarship influenced perceptions of the relationship between science and religion in the nineteenth century. However, the so‐called “cofounders” of the “conflict thesis,” the idea that science and religion are fundamentally and irrevocable at odds, were greatly affected by this literature. Indeed, in his two‐volume magnum opus, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896), Andrew D. White, in his longest and final chapter of his masterpiece, traced the development of the “scientific interpretation” of the Bible. In this article, I argue that developments in biblical criticism had a direct impact on how White constructed his historical understanding of the relationship between science and religion. By examining more carefully how biblical criticism played a significant role in the thought of White and other alleged cofounders of the conflict thesis, this article hopes to relocate the origins, development, and meaning of the science–religion debate at the end of the nineteenth century.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As I have argued elsewhere, White rejected the conventional view of the conflict between “science and religion.” Rather, he believed that conflict occurred between contending theological traditions (Ungureanu 2019). But this view only makes sense if we understand the dramatic changes in theology that occurred in the nineteenth century.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

From Divine Oracles to the Higher Criticism: Andrew D. White and the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom

Ungureanu¹

2021

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“…This way of thinking about religion—as something deeply personal, private, and seemingly noncognitive—would have immense power and appeal in Schleiermacher's time up to our own. James Ungureanu is thus right to highlight the importance of Schleiermacher, for example, when seeking to understand Andrew Dickson White and the origins of the conflict narrative of religion and science (2019, 79–81, 2021). The separation of faith and reason, of philosophy and theology, and finally of science and religion—these separations have become part of the air we breathe.…”

Section: Schleiermacher Theology and Science In The Research Univermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Ungureanu shows, the myth of science‐and‐religion was crucial in shaping the history of science itself. Moreover, even the scholarly story about the conflict myth of science and religion is itself another myth (2019, 249–259). So, the discipline designed to provide a genuine history of science began as an adjunct to one of the myths, about science and religion, that historical study must inevitably explode.…”

Section: Arkhementioning

confidence: 99%

Science and Religion: An Origins Story

Loncar¹

2021

In recent scholarship, the science and religion debate has been historicized, revealing the novelty of the concepts of science and religion and their complex connections to secularization and the birth of modernity. This article situates this historicist turn in the history of philosophy and its connections to theology and Scripture, showing that the science and religion concept derives from philosophy's earlier tension with theology as it became an academic discipline centered in the medieval, then research university, with the centrality of Scripture changing under the influence of historical criticism. Looking at Thomas Aquinas and Friedrich Schleiermacher on theology and Scripture's connection to science, it offers a new framework for theorizing science and religion as part of the history of philosophy.

“…His friend and strident defender, Huxley, structured his whole critique of Victorian Christianity on the conclusions of biblical critics (Desmond 1997, 571; Larsen 2011, 196−218). Similarly, Draper confessed that early in life he had sincerely believed the “miraculous acts of Jesus Christ, those of his disciples and followers, as well as those of the prophets and patriarchs,” but when he became “familiar with what the great German writers had done,” he could no longer trust the biblical miracles (Ungureanu 2019, 61).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to the Symposium on Science, Religion, and the Rise of Biblical Criticism

Ungureanu¹

2021

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This is an introduction to the Symposium on “Science, Religion, and the Rise of Biblical Criticism,” which has been designed as a thematic section for Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. The Symposium demonstrates the importance of and need for greater interdisciplinary collaboration between philosophers, theologians, scholars of religion, and historians in tracing the origins and development of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion. Often neglected is the role biblical criticism played in guiding and constructing narratives of conflict. This series of articles thus attempts to redress this gap in the scholarship by explicitly focusing on the advent of historical‐critical scholarship of the Bible and how it changed perceptions about “science” and “religion.”