Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict (Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century)

Ungureanu, James C.

ISBN 10: 0822945819 / ISBN 13: 9780822945819

Editore: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019

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Codice articolo 00094015486

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict (Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century)
• Editore: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2019
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0822945819
• ISBN 13: 9780822945819
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Condizione: Very Good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

The story of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion—the notion of perennial conflict or warfare between the two—is part of our modern self-understanding. As the story goes, John William Draper (1811–1882)  and Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918) constructed dramatic narratives in the nineteenth century that cast religion as the relentless enemy of scientific progress. And yet, despite its resilience in popular culture, historians today have largely debunked the conflict thesis. Unravelling its origins, James Ungureanu argues that Draper and White actually hoped their narratives would preserve religious belief. For them, science was ultimately a scapegoat for a much larger and more important argument dating back to the Protestant Reformation, where one theological tradition was pitted against another—a more progressive, liberal, and diffusive Christianity against a more traditional, conservative, and orthodox Christianity. By the mid-nineteenth century, narratives of conflict between “science and religion” were largely deployed between contending theological schools of thought. However, these narratives were later appropriated by secularists, freethinkers, and atheists as weapons against all religion. By revisiting its origins, development, and popularization, Ungureanu ultimately reveals that the “conflict thesis” was just one of the many unintended consequences of the Protestant Reformation.
 

Informazioni sull'autore

James C. Ungureanu is Historian in Residence at the George L. Mosse Program in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A historian of science and religion, his research is mostly focused on nineteenth-century religious thought.