Science and Religion: A Case Study

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Just before World War II, Robert Merton wrote in his doctoral thesis that the scientific revolution in England was accepted because of the rise of the Puritan ethic. Merton noted that Puritanism itself was neither a sufficient nor a strictly necessary condition for the rise of the new science since "other functionally equivalent ideological movements could have served to provide the emerging science with widely acknowledged claims to legitimacy." This "Merton thesis" has been widely debated since he first presented it. By implication, the thesis argues that the acceptance of the new science was dependant upon the rise of protestantism. This thesis gains weight in light of the condemnation of Galileo after he published his Dialogue between the Two Chief World Systems. A number of scholars have examined the acceptance of the new science among Protestants. Few have examined its acceptance among Catholics. Dr. Harris, under this grant, is completing a study of another group which was, he argues, a "functionally equivalent ideological movement" to Puritanism. This group was the Society of Jesus, i.e. the Jesuits of the Catholic Church. He has found remarkable parallels between teachings and research by Jesuit and Protestant scientists during the period of the triumph of the new science. These results lead to several questions: why and how were these developments in the Catholic Church ignored? Was the religious situation during the Scientific Revolution much more complex than the Merton thesis allows? Rather than focusing on the theological or ecclesiastical differences that distinguish and separate Protestant from Catholic, should we not look to the deep institutional parallels and common methods that religious leaders of various movements used in their struggle to instill a "Christian way of life" in their followers? By answering these questions, this study promises to make significant new contributions to our understanding of the historical relationshi p of science and religion.