BioLogos has published a series of articles dealing with the question of whether or not Religion and Science are fundamentally at odds with each other. For example, was Galileo a martyr for science? Or was he kind of nasty fellow who provoked people into acting badly?
In my view, it is not difficult to see both of those views as applying to Galileo.
In the bigger view, it is interesting to see how the Roman Catholic Church used its monopoly over the faith to deal with advances in science… and then there was the rise of the Protestant churches… when the Church of Rome had to contend with popular culture as part of its rivalry with the dissenting congregations.
And then, after Darwin published and scientists started to invest into a brand new world view … the Protestant churches started arguing about Faith vs. Science … and the Church of Rome accepted Evolution as a valid working process for the creation of life on Earth.
If you watch the 2nd series of COSMOS … one thing that subtly happens is that first science is contending against Rome … and then (without making a peep)… the series stops having problems with Rome, and starts its long running conflict with the American Evangelicals!
Pope Gregory XVI, Feb 2, 1831 - June 1, 1846
• Hostile to modern trends
• Banned railways in the Papal States (“chemins d’enfer”)
• Banned street lights (people might gather under them to plot against papal authority)
• First of 19th century Popes to confront and condemn the emerging modern world
“Papal ceremonies assumed unprecedented magnificence [under Gregory XVI], and audiences were conducted with more than royal protocol… At the same time the people of Rome were denied street lighting, and the pope refused to allow the coming of the railway to the city. Gregory XVI was a thoroughgoing reactionary, but his policies were implemented only because of the presence of French and Austrian as well as papal troops.”
As you might guess from the title “Against the Attacks of the Innovators,” Cappellari was a very conservative man, and Gregory was a very conservative pope. In the mid-19th century, a liberal revolution was sweeping Europe; Gregory opposed it, vigorously — going so far as to support non-Catholic monarchists against Catholic rebellion. He opposed an Austrian initiative to let Jews live outside ghettos. He opposed the proliferation of gas lighting, and prohibited the construction of railways in the Papal States.
But in one important respect, he was intensely liberal, and he ought to be remembered for it:
“In 1839, Gregory XVI issued an encyclical banning Catholic participation in any part of the slave trade.”
It looks like Pope Gregory XVI was an unlucky man to appear on the scene in the middle of global changes on just about all the issues of man and society.
I think many essays could be written on what was the driving force in the Pope’s mind … and I wouldn’t be surprised if multiple factors combined together to give the Pope his unusual constellation of views!
