The four companion volumes of
Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic Religions contribute to a contextual evaluation of the mutual influences between scriptural exegesis and hermeneutics on the one hand and practices or techniques of interpretation in natural philosophy and the natural sciences on the other. We seek to raise the low profile this theme has had both in the history of science and in the history of biblical interpretation. Furthermore, questions about the interpretation of scripture continue to be provoked by current theological reflection on scientific theories. We also seek to provide a historical context for renewed reflection on the role of the hermeneutics of scripture in the development of theological doctrines that interact with the natural sciences.
Contributors are Peter Barker, Paul M. Blowers, James J. Bono, Pamela Bright, William E. Carroll, Kathleen M. Crowther, Maurice A. Finocchiaro, Carlos Fraenkel, Miguel A. Granada, Peter Harrison, Kenneth J. Howell, Eric Jorink, Kerry V. Magruder, Scott Mandelbrote, Charlotte Methuen, Robert Morrison, Richard J. Oosterhoff, Volker R. Remmert, T. M. Rudavsky, Stephen D. Snobelen, Jitse M. van der Meer, and Rienk H. Vermij.
Jitse M. van der Meer, Ph.D. (1978) University of Nijmegen, is Professor of Biology and History and Philosophy of Science at Redeemer University College (Ontario, Canada). Among his recent publications is J.H. Brooke, M.J. Osler & J.M. van der Meer (eds.),
Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions (University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Scott Mandelbrote is Official Fellow and Director of Studies in History, Peterhouse, Cambridge University. He recently published
Footprints of the Lion: Isaac Newton at Work (Cambridge University Library, 2001).
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
List of Illustrations
INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS
1. Introduction,
Jitse M. van der Meer & Scott Mandelbrote 2. On the Concept and History of Philosophical Religions,
Carlos Fraenkel
PART I. 100-800
3. Nature and Scripture: The Two Witnesses to the Creator,
Pamela Bright 4. Natural Knowledge and Textual Meaning in Augustine’s Interpretation of Genesis: The Three Functions of Natural Philosophy,
Kenneth J. Howell
PART II. 800-1450
5. Interpreting the Books of Nature and Scripture in Medieval and Early Modern Thought: An Introductory Essay,
Charlotte Methuen 6. Thomas Aquinas on Science,
Sacra Doctrina, and Creation,
William E. Carroll 7. Science and Theodicy in Qur’an 2: 6/7,
Robert Morrison 8. Entering ‘This Sublime and Blessed Amphitheatre’: Contemplation of Nature and Interpretation of the Bible in the Patristic Period,
Paul M. Blowers
PART III. 1450-1700
9. The Two Books and Adamic Knowledge: Reading the Book of Nature and Early Modern Strategies for Repairing the Effects of the Fall and of Babel,
James J. Bono 10. “In The Language of Men”: The Hermeneutics of Accommodation in the Scientific Revolution,
Stephen D. Snobelen 11. Hermeneutics and Natural Knowledge in the Reformers,
Peter Harrison 12. God, Scripture, and the Rise of Modern Science (1200-1700): Notes in the Margin of Harrison’s Hypothesis,
Jitse M. van der Meer & Richard A. Oosterhof 13. Sacred Philosophy, Secular Theology: The Mosaic Physics of Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568) and Francisco Valles (1524-1592),
Kathleen M. Crowther 14. “Horrible and Blasphemous”: Isaac la Peyrère, Isaac Vossius and the Emergence of Radical Biblical Criticism in the Dutch Republic,
Eric Jorink 15. Thomas Burnet, Biblical Idiom and 17th-Century Theories of the Earth,
Kerry V. Magruder 16. “Not in the Language of Astronomers”: Isaac Newton, the Scriptures and the Hermeneutics of Accommodation,
Stephen D. Snobelen 17. Creation, Time and Biblical Hermeneutics in Early Modern Jewish Philosophy,
Tamar M. Rudavsky
PART IV. COPERNICAN DEBATES AND SCRIPTURE
18. Tycho Brahe, Caspar Peucer, and Christoph Rothmann on Cosmology and the Bible,
Miguel A. Granada 19. Kepler and Melanchthon on the Biblical Arguments against Copernicanism,
Peter Barker 20. The Debate on the Motion of the Earth in the Dutch Republic in the 1650s,
Rienk H. Vermij 21. The Biblical Argument against Copernicanism and the Limitation of Biblical Authority: Ingoli, Foscarini, Galileo, Campanella,
Maurice A. Finocchiaro 22. “Our Mathematicians have Learned and Verified this”: Jesuits, Biblical Exegesis and the Mathematical Sciences in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries,
Volker R. Remmert 23. The Hermeneutics of Nature and Scripture in Early Modern Science and Theology,
Kenneth J. Howell
Index
All those interested in the history of the following disciplines: natural philosophy, religion, exegesis, hermeneutics, theology, linguistics, astronomy, physical science, earth sciences, and the life sciences. Professionals (historians, historians of science, historians of religion, historians of interpretation, theologians, scientists, historians of language), students and educated lay-persons.