Why did Science Emerge in the West in the 1600s? - A book review

IMAGE: Dalle was asked

"paint a picture... representing Science came from The Reformation."

 

 The Origin of Modern Science

 

It is well-known that modern science emerged in Europe in the 1600s. By science we do not mean technology. Previous cultures had technology without science. An ancient society with culture might be able to build firework rockets (technology) but never consider the question, can I predict the trajectory? Are their laws which might be used? (science).

 

But why in Europe and why in the 1600s?

 

Many books have been written to explain these two factors - Europe & the 1600s.

 

The Europe Bit

It is pretty well established that the Christian world-view that dominated Europe for many centuries was a major contributing factor. The Judeo-Christian or Biblical view of the world included factors like this:

• time runs in one direction, from creation to judgement (in some world cultures time is cyclical returning to an orignal point resulting in a sort of time-dyslexia). Scientific cause and effect requires time to run in one direction only, so that cause at t=0 results in effect at t=0+X, where X>0.
  
• the universe was created by an orderly Creator, so we should discover orderly laws 
• since the same God made the universe and us, perhaps we can understand the world, perhaps there is a common language (there is, it's called mathematics)
  
• and so on....
  

The 1600s bit

But what about the 1600s part of the story? Well that's where Peter Harrison's book comes in. Before the Reformation, texts were all too often interpreted allegorically, which means that the words or stories were not to be taken literally but said to refer to something else. So for example, the Exodus really stood for the concept of freedom. Don't worry the historical details of the event, what matters is liberty, man.

This allegorical method in turn arose out of certain strands of Greek philosophy which prized intellectual concepts over the real touchable living world. A horse is only a poor reflection, you see, of a theoritical horse that exists in abstract space.

This allegorical way of interpreting texts was used by the Greeks to explain away their Greek fables and heroes which they were now embarassed by. 

And, guess what, little lamb church followed Mary Philosopher, and before long "christian" teachers had adopted the allegorical method of interpreting the Bible.

(One moral of the story? Never copy the interpretive methods of the world).

One more thing.

This allegorical method of interpreting texts had also been adopted in the natural world. So every material object, animate or inanimate pointed somewhere else. For example, a hyena might represent greed, or the sun and moon might represent the two human eyes, so don't bother about studying hyenas, the sun or the moon themselves; after all a road sign's importance lies only in the thing (speed, miles, city, danger) it refers to. 

Back to the 1600s... 

One of the great outcomes of the Reformation was a return to the real meaning of the Bible. Out went allegorical, in came the literal.

Now words meant what words meant. They were no longer regarded as symbols which pointed to something else. Now they simply meant what they meant.

The outcome?

The Proetstant reformation, and...

...the change from allegorical to literal in the literary world had a direct knock on effect in the natural world. Now objects were studied for what they actually were, rather than what they pointed to.

And this, argues Peter Harrison, was yet another way the Reformation contributed and sped the rise of modern science in the 1600s.

A new attention to natural objects in and of themselves fed the new world-view that birthed the rise of modern science. 

A present application

The church is always trying to ape the world, whether in interpretative methods, sexual ethics, gender or so-called inclusiveness. The church simply absorbs the thinking of the world uncritically and in due time this both dims its witness and corrupts its doctrine and practice. 

A new reformation is then required.

What areas of worldliness are found in  the present evangelical world that need reforming? I can think of many, but that's a blog for another day.....