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35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the great classics of "freethought", September 24, 2001
This review is from: A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom (Two Vomule Set) (Paperback)
Andrew Dickson White's _A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom_ is one of the two great, classic works on the history of science and freedom of thought in Christian Europe. (The other is William Edward Hartpole Lecky's _History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe_.) White was the first president of Cornell University, and he caused some consternation in mid-nineteenth-century America by determining that the university would not be beholden to any particular school of religious or theological thought. Naturally, there were complaints and public outcries. More or less by way of response, White wrote this massive two-volume work. Some of it is dated; White tends, for example, to treat then-current scientific theories as more firmly established than they turned out to be. But be that as it may, he sorts quite judiciously through the history of Christendom and argues forcefully that at every point, scientific progress was impeded by the tendency of theologians to overstep the proper bounds of their discipline. White's broadside takes all of Christendom as its target -- both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Of course he takes on the obvious enemies in Catholic history, but he does not spare the great figures of the Reformation (mainly Luther and Calvin). Judaism and Islam come in for a little bit of criticism too, but on the whole these two faiths fare rather well. Indeed, White points out repeatedly that adherents of each faith attempted to pursue scientific inquiries but found themselves stopped, even persecuted, by Christian authorities. Then, too, White has a healthy appreciation for the fact that the Psalms specifically call attention to the wonders of "nature" and recognizes that there is much in this marvelous poetry to spur scientific research. And he goes out of his way to appreciate, for example, the degree to which the sanitary and hygienic practices of Jewish civilization surpassed those of medieval Christendom. In short, though he is willing to criticize the other great Western religions when he finds it necessary to do so, the brunt of his attack is specifically Christendom itself, not "religion" generally. On the whole, then, although there are lots of specific passages with which I could take issue, White's massive work still stands as a salutary warning about the proper relations between free scientific inquiry, on the one hand, and religious (specifically Christian) interpretation of sacred texts, on the other. Religious thinkers who have no objections to science will for the most part find White likewise unobjectionable; but those who confine themselves to an untenable (and anti-biblical) "biblicism" will find in him an implacable and redoubtable foe. Like Lecky's equally great work (and by the way, both of them are available online as e-texts), still well worth reading for anyone interested in the relations between science and religion.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Oldie, but well worth it..., September 24, 2007
This review is from: A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom (Two Vomule Set) (Paperback)
I bought this book because Bertrand Russell Quotes it extensively (and, I believe, uses it even more) in his wonderful "Religion and Science".
This book was published in the late 1800's and it shows in its style which to me (a non-native English speaker) is a bit hard to follow. Nevertheless I strongly recommend it. It details how both Protestant and Catholic clergy opposed many of the scientific discoveries we now take for granted because they did not agree strictly with scripture.
Unbelievably to me, the author manages to keep his faith and claim that proving the bible wrong actually enhances religion...
The notes are extensive and provide huge amounts of sources (but they are very hard to read.)
One curious thing: Since at that time "gentlemen" studied Latin, there are many quotations without a translation.
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35 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great history of the torture of scientists by theologans, February 1, 2003
This review is from: A History of the Warfare of Science With Theology in Christendom (Two Vomule Set) (Paperback)
I was bored over my holiday break (December 2002), and thought I would just read a few pages of this book to help me fall asleep. Three hours later, I was riveted to the book and couldn't put it down (or sleep). Originally written in 1886, this is a comprehensive account of clashes between theological and scientific claims about how nature works. White systematically chronicles the persecution all the major areas of scientific inquiry had to go through from theologans before they were accepted : geology, mechanics, medicine, meteorology, biology, etc.. For example, in one chapter he meticulously works through the emergence of the heliocentric view of the world, as opposed to that endorsed by the Pope where the earth is the center of the universe. There are tragic tales of threats (Galileo), torture, and execution (Bruno) of scientific minds who made claims that conflicted with the Church. The chapters are exceedingly well-crafted. He starts out each chapter by describing the origins of the Christian view of the topic (for instance, that there is literally a stone firmament above the earth through which rain is let in). He then discusses how scientists came to question such views, their persecution by the church, and eventually how the Church backtracked and hedged and finally accepted the scientific view. Compared to a lot of work by skeptics these days, the book is very scholarly: it is exceedingly well referenced, so that you can go find the original sources of both the theological and scientific viewpoints. On the other hand, since the book is over 100 years old, there are some ideas that are a bit antiquated. For example, his discussion of "primitive and savage cultures" extant in Africa are a bit dated. Also, the references to the 'recent' Civil War in the United States shows the books age. These anachronisms come off as interesting more than anything else. Overall, stylistically the book reads better and is more thoroughly researched than most modern skeptical thoughts. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the real story about how science and religion have related to one another in history. To those creationists who say that scientists are being dogmatic by adhering to naturalism, I say read this book. Naturalism as a scientific methodology is not a dogma (where a 'dogma' is something believed without evidence). Rather, science is naturalistic because 1000 years of the alternative were an abject failure: based on historical evidence, religious thinking *in science* only stunts the creativity and logical thought processes of scientists. In my experience in neuroscience, I have seen this many times. Finally, this book should be on every scientist's bookshelf. As a working neuroscientist, I take for granted that I am free to think in any direction about how the brain works. I do not need to answer to any higher authority than evidence provided by experiments. I am accorded this privilege because of people like Galileo, Darwin, Lyell, and Harvey who stood up to the Church establishment and had the courage, in the face of sometimes fatal reproach, to say what they thought was true.
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