The Warfare between Science and Religion: The Idea That Wouldn't Die

by Jeff Hardin (Editor), Ronald L. Numbers (Editor), Ronald A. Binzley (Editor)

Overview

Why is the idea of conflict between science and religion so popular in the public imagination?

The “conflict thesis”—the idea that an inevitable and irreconcilable conflict exists between science and religion—has long been part of the popular imagination. In The Warfare between Science and Religion, Jeff Hardin, Ronald L. Numbers, and Ronald A. Binzley have assembled a group of distinguished historians who explore the origin of the thesis, its reception, the responses it drew from various faith traditions, and its continued prominence in public discourse.

Several essays in the book examine the personal circumstances and theological idiosyncrasies of important intellectuals, including John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White, who through their polemical writings championed the conflict thesis relentlessly. Other essays consider what the thesis meant to different religious communities, including evangelicals, liberal Protestants, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Finally, essays both historical and sociological explore the place of the conflict thesis in popular culture and intellectual discourse today.

Based on original research and written in an accessible style, the essays in The Warfare between Science and Religion take an interdisciplinary approach to question the historical relationship between science and religion. This volume, which brings much-needed perspective to an often bitter controversy, will appeal to scholars and students of the histories of science and religion, sociology, and philosophy.

Contributors: Thomas H. Aechtner, Ronald A. Binzley, John Hedley Brooke, Elaine Howard Ecklund, Noah Efron, John H. Evans, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Frederick Gregory, Bradley J. Gundlach, Monte Harrell Hampton, Jeff Hardin, Peter Harrison, Bernard Lightman, David N. Livingstone, David Mislin, Efthymios Nicolaidis, Mark A. Noll, Ronald L. Numbers, Lawrence M. Principe, Jon H. Roberts, Christopher P. Scheitle, M. Alper Yalçinkaya

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421426181
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/15/2018
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeff Hardin is the Raymond E. Keller Professor and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Wisconsin.

Ronald L. Numbers is the Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the editor of Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion.

Independent scholar Ronald A. Binzley, who holds a doctorate in American religious history, is an environmental engineer at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Mark A. Noll and David N. Livingstone
1. The Warfare Thesis
Lawrence M. Principe
2. The Galileo Affair
Maurice A. Finocchiaro
3. Rumors of War
Monte Harrell Hampton
4. The Victorians: Tyndall and Draper
Bernard Lightman
5. Continental Europe
Frederick Gregory
6. Roman Catholics
David Mislin
7. Eastern Orthodox Christians
Efthymios Nicolaidis
8. Liberal Protestants
Jon H. Roberts
9. Protestant Evangelicals
Bradley J. Gundlach
10. Jews
Noah Efron
11. Muslims
M. Alper Yalçinkaya
12. New Atheists
Ronald L. Numbers and Jeff Hardin
13. Neo-Harmonists
Peter Harrison
14. Historians
John Hedley Brooke
15. Scientists
Elaine Howard Ecklund and Christopher P. Scheitle
16. Social Scientists
Thomas H. Aechtner
17. The View on the Street
John H. Evans
Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

"When and why did the idea of conflict between science and religion emerge? These insightful and pathbreaking essays take us on an exhilarating historical tour which shows that notions of ‘warfare’ and ‘conflict’ reflected cultural realities of the time. It offers an essential intervention in modern debate."

Edward J. Larson

"The best single-volume collection of separate-author essays about the history of science and religion in the major modern monotheistic Western traditions. These essays from a host of distinguished historians remind us that history is complex because people are complex, even scientists."

Janet Browne

"When and why did the idea of conflict between science and religion emerge? These insightful and pathbreaking essays take us on an exhilarating historical tour which shows that notions of ‘warfare’ and ‘conflict’ reflected cultural realities of the time. It offers an essential intervention in modern debate."

From the Publisher

This very timely collection is to be valued. The contributors are all first class.
—Michael Ruse, Florida State University, coauthor of On Faith and Science

The best single-volume collection of separate-author essays about the history of science and religion in the major modern monotheistic Western traditions. These essays from a host of distinguished historians remind us that history is complex because people are complex, even scientists.
—Edward J. Larson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion

When and why did the idea of conflict between science and religion emerge? These insightful and pathbreaking essays take us on an exhilarating historical tour which shows that notions of ‘warfare’ and ‘conflict’ reflected cultural realities of the time. It offers an essential intervention in modern debate.
—Janet Browne, Harvard University, author of Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography

Michael Ruse

"This very timely collection is to be valued. The contributors are all first class."

Editorial Reviews

This is a book worthy of reading, digesting, and emulating in its close analysis of science and religion. The Warfare between Science and Religion will give the reader a trustworthy account of the most recent scholarship about the religion science nexus.
—Arie Leegwater, Calvin University, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith

Historians of science have been attempting to destroy this myth—that science and religion have been perennially at war—for the past 40 years or so. Nonetheless, as the subtitle of the book conveys, this is the idea that wouldn't die. [The Warfare between Science and Religion] brings together a group of historian myth-busters who have been thinking about this question . . . One of the virtues of this book is that it also looks at science and religion interactions in Islam and Judaism as well as Christianity.
—Peter Harrison and Charles J. Styles, Five Books

The history of the assertion that science and religion are inevitably in conflict is dominated by two late nineteenth-century narratives; John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). The present very welcome volume contains seventeen essays that examine these classic texts, their reception by contemporaries and the subsequent history of the conflict thesis.
—Geoffrey Cantor, University of Leeds, British Journal for the History of Science

The questions whether, why, and to what extent science and religion are in conflict has been one of the abiding motifs of Western culture. This collection by an international group of scholars covers the subject from a rich variety of angles . . . Those who are interested in the science-and-religion debate, and the impact of science as a cultural force, will find this book a fascinating read.
—Peter Forster, Church Times

Accessible, historically illuminating, meticulous.
—Quarterly Review of Biology

The focus of this outstanding collection that criticizes the idea of conflict between science and religion, represents the historian John Hedley Brooke's call for attention to the complexities of history . . . The idea of warfare between science and religion largely deserves burial, but as these essays show, the sentiments for conflicts endure.
—Paul J. Croce, Stetson University, Journal of American History

The Warfare between Science and Religion is amply successful in its project of providing a historical understanding of the warfare thesis—or, better, of the warfare theses—over a broad historical and ideological range, through a series of accessible and interesting chapters. And it is a vitally important project, considering the persistence of conflicts involving science and religion in the United States.
—Glenn Branch, National Center for Science Education, Reading Religion - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

From the Publisher

Accessible, historically illuminating, meticulous.

Quarterly Review of Biology

The questions whether, why, and to what extent science and religion are in conflict has been one of the abiding motifs of Western culture. This collection by an international group of scholars covers the subject from a rich variety of angles . . . Those who are interested in the science-and-religion debate, and the impact of science as a cultural force, will find this book a fascinating read.

Church Times - Peter Forster

Historians of science have been attempting to destroy this myth—that science and religion have been perennially at war—for the past 40 years or so. Nonetheless, as the subtitle of the book conveys, this is the idea that wouldn't die. [The Warfare between Science and Religion] brings together a group of historian myth-busters who have been thinking about this question . . . One of the virtues of this book is that it also looks at science and religion interactions in Islam and Judaism as well as Christianity.

Five Books - Peter Harrison and Charles J. Styles

This is a book worthy of reading, digesting, and emulating in its close analysis of science and religion. The Warfare between Science and Religion will give the reader a trustworthy account of the most recent scholarship about the religion science nexus.

Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith - Arie Leegwater

The history of the assertion that science and religion are inevitably in conflict is dominated by two late nineteenth-century narratives; John William Draper's History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White's A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896). The present very welcome volume contains seventeen essays that examine these classic texts, their reception by contemporaries and the subsequent history of the conflict thesis.

British Journal for the History of Science - Geoffrey Cantor

The Warfare between Science and Religion is amply successful in its project of providing a historical understanding of the warfare thesis—or, better, of the warfare theses—over a broad historical and ideological range, through a series of accessible and interesting chapters. And it is a vitally important project, considering the persistence of conflicts involving science and religion in the United States.

Reading Religion - Journal of the American Academy of Religion - Glenn Branch

The focus of this outstanding collection that criticizes the idea of conflict between science and religion, represents the historian John Hedley Brooke's call for attention to the complexities of history . . . The idea of warfare between science and religion largely deserves burial, but as these essays show, the sentiments for conflicts endure.

Journal of American History - Paul J. Croce