The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution [Hardcover]

James Hannam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 2011

Maybe the Dark Ages Weren't So Dark After All...

Here are some facts you probably didn't learn in school:

• People in the Middle Ages did not think the world was flat--in fact, medieval scholars could prove it wasn't;

• The Inquisition never executed anyone because of their scientific ideas or discoveries (actually, the Church was the chief sponsor of scientific research and several popes were celebrated for their knowledge of the subject);

• It was medieval scientific discoveries, methods, and principles that made possible western civilization's "Scientific Revolution".

If you were taught that the Middle Ages were a time of intellectual stagnation, superstition, and ignorance, you were taught a myth that has been utterly refuted by modern scholarship.

As a physicist and historian of science James Hannam shows in his brilliant new book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution, without the scholarship of the "barbaric" Middle Ages, modern science simply would not exist.

The Middle Ages were a time of one intellectual triumph after another. As Dr. Hannam writes, "The people of medieval Europe invented spectacles, the mechanical clock, the windmill, and the blast furnace by themselves. Lenses and cameras, almost all kinds of machinery, and the industrial revolution itself all owe their origins to the forgotten inventors of the Middle Ages."

In The Genesis of Science you will discover:

• Why the scientific accomplishments of the Middle Ages far surpassed those of the classical world;

• How medieval craftsmen and scientists not only made discoveries of their own, but seized upon Eastern inventions--printing, gunpowder, and the compass--and improved them beyond the dreams of their originators;

• How Galileo's notorious trial before the Inquisition was about politics, not science; and

• Why the theology of the Catholic Church, far from being an impediment, led directly to the development of modern science.

Provocative, engaging, and a terrific read, James Hannam's The Genesis of Science will change the way you think about our past--and our future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

PRAISE FOR THE GENESIS OF SCIENCE

"With an engaging fervour, James Hannam has set about rescuing the reputation of a bunch of half-forgotten thinkers, and he shows how they paved the way for modern science." --Boris Johnson, Mail on Sunday

"This book contains much valuable material summarised with commendable no-nonsense clarity...James Hannam has done a fine job of knocking down an old caricature." --Sunday Telegraph

"Hannam, the liveliest of guides, makes enjoyable reading out of some seriously dusty history and difficult ideas." --Scotsman

"Here, in short, is a readable book, aimed at an intelligent but ignorant layman. You'll enjoy it." --Daniel Hannan MEP, Daily Telegraph

"A very useful general survey of a difficult topic, and a robust defence of an unfairly maligned age." --Spectator

About the Author

JAMES HANNAM is a graduate of both Oxford and Cambridge where he studied physics and then gained a Ph.D. in the history of science. He lives in England with his wife and two children.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing (March 22, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596981555
• ISBN-13: 978-1596981553
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Hannam took a Physics degree at Oxford before training as an accountant. He enjoyed a successful career in the City, mainly financing film production, but harboured ambitions to write about the history of science. In 2001, he started a part time MA at Birkbeck College, London in Historical Research. The experience only served to further whet his appetite for the subject. In 2003, he was accepted at Cambridge to do a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science. His thesis on the decline of medieval learning during the sixteenth century was completed in 2008. In the meantime, he also worked on his book for the general reader, "God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundation of Modern Science" which was published by Icon in 2009. It is published in the US as "The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution". The book was shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books in 2010.

James has also written for various magazines and newspapers including the Spectator, History Today, Standpoint and New Scientist. He lives in Kent, England with his wife and two children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Provocative and Timely Read March 19, 2011

By Thomas Gilson

Format:Hardcover

I reviewed this book in its English edition in 2009, when it was released under the title _God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science." It concerned me that a book with "philosophers" and "medieval" in its title might elicit only blank-faced stares among potential readers. Of course I was viewing it from my own American perspective; the English are undoubtedly more sophisticated about these things than we are. If it had that effect anywhere it would be a shame, for Hannam, a Ph.D. historian of science with degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge, knows how to write readable history -- and the tale he tells is truly fascinating. The U.S. version comes with "Genesis" and "Science" situated provocatively together in the title instead. I hope that stirs up a sizable readership, for this book deserves it.

It is the latest entry in a controversy with a history of its own. Hannam tells of the myth that "there was no science worth mentioning in the Middle Ages," and "the Church held back what meagre advances were made." These beliefs took flower as late as the 19th century with Thomas Henry Huxley, John William Draper, and Andrew Dickson White, who tried to paint religion as the enemy of science. Their story has been told often; Hannam himself has blogged on it.

A.D. White's part is particularly unfortunate, in that he produced a highly influential, heavily footnoted, apparently scholarly tome on the historic warfare between science and religion. Hannam assesses his work this way:

"Anyone who checks his references will wonder how he could have maintained his opinions if he had read as much as he claimed to have done."

Others have treated White less gently than that.

Hannam situates these myths in historical context:

"The denigration of the Middle Ages began as long ago as the sixteenth century, when humanists, the intellectual trendsetters of the time, started to champion classical Greek and Roman literature. They cast aside medieval scholarship on the grounds that it was convoluted and written in `barbaric' Latin. So people stopped reading and studying it.... The waters were muddied further by ... Protestant writers not to give an ounce of credit to Catholics. It suited them to maintain that nothing of value had been taught at universities before the Reformation."

This is no simplistic apologetic for Christianity as the root of scientific thinking. Hannam summarizes the church's relationship with natural philosophy as one of "creative tension." Nevertheless it's impossible not to notice who led the way in medieval natural philosophy:

A mathematician Pope at the turn of the last millennium.
A monk in 1092 who used an astrolabe to construct the lunar calendar.
St. Anselm and Peter Abelard, clerics who elevated the role of reason and logic in philosophy and theology.
Cathedral school scholars who taught that "God is loving and consistent rather than capricious and arbitrary" paving the way for the study of a consistently operating world of nature.
The universities, products of the Church.
The influential bishop of Paris who condemned certain (not all, especially in view of the work of St. Thomas Aquinas) Aristotelian-based dogmas. It was an act that remains controversial, yet one which clearly opened the door for experimental study, rather than restricting natural philosophy to Aristotle's pure reasoning.
A Polish clergyman, Copernicus, who challenged Aristotelian and Ptolemaic views of the heavens.
I could go on, but you get the point; and I am on the verge of conveying a false impression about the book. It's a narrative, not a list of arguments. It's a story showing that the tension between religion and natural philosophy was indeed a creative one: it led to new technologies (improved plows, the stirrup, clocks, the compass, eyeglasses, mills, and more), new theories (impetus/momentum, theories of acceleration), new observational tools (observatories, telescopes), and new institutions of learning (cathedral schools and universities).

And as the author states in his conclusion, it also produced the metaphysical cornerstone for modern science:

"We take it for granted and we do not worry about why people began studying nature in the first place....

"To understand why science was attractive even before it could demonstrate its remarkable success in explaining the universe, it is necessary to look at things from a medieval point of view. The starting point for all natural philosophy in the Middle Ages was that nature had been created by God. This made it a legitimate area of study because through nature, man could learn about its creator. Medieval scholars thought that nature followed the rules that God had ordained for it. Because God was consistent and not capricious, these natural laws were constant and worth scrutinising. However, these scholars rejected Aristotle's contention that the laws of nature were bound by necessity. God was not constrained by what Aristotle thought. The only way to find out which laws God had decided on was by the use of experience and observation. The motivations and justification of medieval natural philosophers were carried over almost unchanged by the pioneers of modern science."

Hannam brings us a straightforward account of important inventions and world-altering innovations in thinking, grown out of a continent dominated by Christian thinking. The conclusion is clear: the roots of modern science go down deep into Christian culture, theology, and practice. Those who think otherwise would do well to learn some more history.

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a book March 21, 2011

By Bjrn Are Davidsen

Format:Hardcover

Few subjects may confuse or create more controversies than "science and religion". It doesn't help much that the Medieval Period more often than not still is called the Dark Ages.

The result is a silly series of myths and misunderstandings. I have on several occasions thrown my hands up in despair when people refuses to accept that no serious scientist (or natural philosopher as it was called in those days) in the Middle Ages believed that the earth was flat or was persecuted by The Church for their science. Or that anything of value really happened between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.

The myths perpetuated in the 19th century by people like Draper and White surface also in bestsellers by Carl Sagan, Daniel Boorstin, William Manchester and Charles Freeman to name a few.

Even if historians of science like Lindberg and Numbers long have shown that Draper and White rarely get it right, and e.g. Grant has described the positive effects of the Medieval Age on western rationality, James Hannam gives it all an illuminating and sometimes amusing spin.

"The Genesis of Science" combines a thorough knowledge of the period with an engaging readability. Persons and politics are made alive, from the early middle ages to the various minor renaissances and recoverings of ancient learning, especially in the Twelfth Century.

The story is well told about how Aristotle's pagan science was christianised and why Oxford philosophers like Grosseteste, Bacon and Ockham were so influential. As well as the efforts to correct the errors of Aristotle by the so called Merton Calculators.

Hannam also gives us a pretty good idea why people came to dismiss the period. The agendas of the 15th and 16th century humanists and reformators were not exactly to praise the recent past.

Whether you're interested in why human dissections were allowed in the Medieval World (as opposed to in the Roman and Arabic), Copernicus and Galilei, or The Legacy of Medieval Science in general, this is a gem of a book.

Like Newton we are still very much standing on the shoulders of the medieval giants.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible introduction to a critical topic in history/apologetics March 22, 2011

By JP Holding

Format:Hardcover

Readers of my material may recognize James Hannam, the author of this book, from his website Bede's Library and as the author of a an introduction to my own book on the so-called "Christ myth" (claim that Jesus did not exist). The Genesis of Science is not exactly an apologetics book - it's more like a narrative history with a mild apologetics emphasis, in this case, addressing some of the myths having to do with Christianity and the Middle Ages. It's all that good stuff we've become familiar with as issues: They all though the earth was flat; the Inquisition stopped science in its tracks; Galileo was badly brutalized and if it were not for that we'd all be flying to the Andromeda Galaxy by now. There's also plenty of material here on far more obscure aspects of the Middle Ages, with biographical glimpses into persons ranging from theological celebrities like Aquinas to persons you could stump someone with at Trivial Pursuit, like Gerard of Cremona.

Hannam's style is engaging; there's no failure here to bring his subject to life, so this is an excellent overview and introduction to the subject matter. Highly recommended.