The Reformation isn’t solely responsible for modern science, but the two developed simultaneously—and that’s not a coincidence.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://biologos.org/blogs/guest/how-did-the-reformation-reform-the-study-of-nature
Mark,
Thank you for such a skillfully written, cautious overview of this very complex historical question!
I enjoyed this sentence quite a bit!
“Again, however, the synergy of Protestantism and science should not be overstated. Catholic Europe continued to produce outstanding students of nature like Copernicus and Galileo. Catholic opposition to the new science, as in the case of Galileo, came as much from struggles for dominance in the church as from a desire to shut down scientific inquiry.”
“Major Protestant leaders, like Luther and Calvin, rejected new scientific proposals like heliocentrism, even as other Protestants welcomed them.”
"And as has been evident throughout Protestant history, the willingness to question experts on the basis of what individual conscience has determined to be the correct understanding of Scripture or the natural world can easily lead to every-man-for-himself anti-intellectualism. "
Another reason to adopt the “Complex Thesis” - - instead of the “Conflict Thesis” !!!