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Articles on the History of Science and of Christianity
A collection of articles based on my research into some of the contentious
topics in the histories of science and Christianity.
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The Myth of the Flat Earth:
Contrary to popular belief, every educated person in the Middle Ages
was well aware that the Earth is a sphere and the Church did not
suggest otherwise. Here is a look at this myth of alleged Christian
dogmatism and how it got started. |
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The Mythical Conflict between
Science and Religion: The conflict hypothesis began as part of the
reaction against religion in the nineteenth century with the work of
John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White. Despite the fact that
it is utterly rejected by all practising historians of science, it
lives on in the popular imagination and is incredibly hard to kill
off. This article examines some common misconceptions and exposes
White's errors and omissions. |
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Did Christians Eradicate Pagan
Learning? We often here about the alleged Christian
destruction of pagan literature. I have examined the original
sources and found the accusation of
widespread library burning is baseless. However, heretical Christian
works, and magical and astrological texts faired as badly under
Christians as they had under pagan Emperors. |
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Frequently Asked Questions about the Inquisition: There can be
little doubt that the Inquisition is one of the most notorious
institutions in history. While some of that ill fame is warranted,
a great number of myths and legends have sprung up about its
workings. This FAQ, with a bibliography and references, gives the
historical facts about the Inquisition in its various guises. |
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The Mysterious Fate of the Great Library of Alexandria: An awful
lot of ink has been splashed around about the destruction of the
Great Library. You can blame Christians, Moslems or Julius Caesar
depending on your taste. But the only way to find the truth is a
careful examination of the original sources. This essay goes over
them with a fine-toothed comb and finds that while Christians and
Moslems were almost certainly innocent, the Romans just might have a
lot to answer for. |
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Deconstructing Copernicus: The great work of Copernicus, his
De revolutionibus, is one of the most misunderstood books in
history, largely because hardly anyone has actually read it. This
essay examines the arguments Copernicus uses and his stated
motivations so as to discover exactly what he did achieve and just
how important his religious beliefs were in inspiring the conceptual
breakthrough of heliocentricism. |
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The Decline of Witch Trials in Europe: The witch
craze is one of the most controversial subjects in Christian history
and for good reason. It killed far, far more than the Inquisition
and is the best example of how religious beliefs can have
catastrophic consequences if taken in the wrong direction. This
essay tries to debunk some myths about witches and asks how the
trials came to an end. |
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Science and the Church in the Middle Ages: Progress in science
is often assumed to have ground to a halt during the Middle Ages
under a blanket of clerical disapproval. This essay is an overview
of the intellectual and social state of science at the time, the
Church's generally positive attitude and now science interacted with
religion during this period. It provides a preview of some of the
themes explored in my book God's Philosophers. |
© James Hannam 2007
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Medieval
Science and Philosophy