Science and Religion: A Case Study

就在第二次世界大战之前，罗伯特·默顿在他的博士论文中写道，英国的科学革命是因为清教徒伦理的兴起而被接受的。 默顿指出，清教主义本身既不是新科学兴起的充分条件，也不是严格必要的条件，因为“其他功能相当的意识形态运动可以为新兴科学提供广泛认可的合法性主张。" 自从他第一次提出这一“默顿论文”以来，它就引起了广泛的争论。这篇论文的含义是，新科学的接受取决于新教的兴起。 这一论点增加重量的谴责伽利略后，他发表了他的两个主要世界体系之间的对话。 许多学者研究了新教徒对新科学的接受程度。 很少有人研究它在天主教徒中的接受程度。 哈里斯博士，根据这项赠款，正在完成另一组的研究，这是，他认为，一个“功能等同的意识形态运动”清教。 这个团体就是耶稣会，即天主教会的耶稣会士。 他发现，在新科学取得胜利的时期，耶稣会和新教科学家的教学和研究之间有着惊人的相似之处。 这些结果导致了几个问题：为什么以及如何在天主教会的这些发展被忽视？ 科学革命期间的宗教形势是否比默顿命题所允许的要复杂得多？ 我们不应该把注意力集中在区分新教和天主教的神学或教会差异上，而应该看看各种运动的宗教领袖在向追随者灌输“基督教生活方式”的斗争中所使用的深刻的制度相似之处和共同方法吗？ 通过对这些问题的回答，本研究有望为我们理解科学与宗教的历史关系做出新的贡献。

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.