The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science Peter Harrison

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The Bible and the Emergence of Modern
SciencePeter Harrison
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(No Transcript)
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The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science
Allegory and the Two BooksAllegory in
PracticeReforming the Reading of
ScriptureReinterpreting the Book of Nature
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For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made. Romans
120
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I think that He who made all things in wisdom so
created all the species of visible things upon
the earth, that He placed in some of them some
teaching and knowledge of things invisible and
heavenly, whereby the human mind might mount to
spiritual understanding and seek the grounds of
things in heaven. Commentary on the Song of
Songs
Origen (c185-c254)
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What man of intelligence will believe that the
first and the second and third day and the
evening and the morning existed without the sun
and moon and stars. One must therefore record
the meaning of the sacred writings in a
three-fold way. De
Principiis
Origen (c185-c254)
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Augustine (354-430)
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Levels of InterpretationLiteral
Allegorical OBJECT
WORD OBJECT OBJECT OBJEC
T
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Levels of InterpretationLiteral
Allegorical OBJECT
WORD OBJECT OBJECT OBJEC
T
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Book of Scripture
Book of NatureLiteral
Allegorical OBJECTWORD
OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT
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The author of Holy Writ is God, in whose power
it is to signify His meaning, not by words only
but also by things themselves. The
multiplicity of these senses does not produce
equivocation or any other kind of multiplicity,
seeing that these senses are not multiplied
because one word signifies several things, but
because the things signified by the words can be
themselves types of other things. Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae 1a. 1, 10

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For the whole sensible world is like a kind of
book written by the finger of Godthat is,
created by divine powerand each particular
creature is somewhat like a figure, not invented
by human decision, but instituted by the divine
will to manifest the invisible things of Gods
wisdom. Hugh of St Victor (d.1142) De tribus
diebus
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The creature of the world is like a book in
which the creative Trinity is reflected,
represented, and written.

Bonaventure, Breviloquium II.12.
Bonaventure (1217-74)
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The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science
Allegory and the Two BooksAllegory in
PracticeReforming the Reading of
ScriptureReinterpreting the Book of Nature
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The Quadriga Four-fold interpretationLiteral
Sense - historical or grammatical
meaningTropological Sense - the moral
application of the narrativeAnagogical Sense -
the spiritual or theological meaningAllegorical
Sense - the meaning of the objects referred to by
the literal words
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The Quadriga Four-fold interpretationLiteral
Sense - historical or grammatical
meaningTropological Sense - the moral
application of the narrativeAnagogical Sense -
the spiritual or theological meaningAllegorical
Sense - the meaning of the objects referred to by
the literal words
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Medieval Bestiary
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Adoro Te Devote Pie Pellicane, Jesu Domine, Me
immundum munda Tuo sanguine Loving Pelican, Oh
Jesus Lord Unclean am I but cleanse me in Thy
blood. Thomas Aquinas

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Literal
Allegorical OBJECT WORD
OBJECT OBJECT
OBJECT
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Literal
Allegorical OBJECT ChristWORD
OBJECT OBJECTPelican
Pelican Egypt OBJECT The World
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The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science
Allegory and the Two BooksAllegory in
PracticeReforming the Reading of
ScriptureReinterpreting the Book of Nature
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The literal sense is the highest, best,
strongest, in short the whole substance, nature
and foundation of the holy scripture. Luther,
Answer to the Hyperchristian Book, Works 39, 177.
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Scripture, they say, is fertile and thus bears
multiple meanings But I deny that its
fertility consists in the various meanings which
anyone may fasten to it at his pleasure. Let us
know, then, that the true meaning of Scripture is
the natural and simple one. John Calvin,
Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles.
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Book of Scripture Book of
NatureLiteral
Allegorical OBJECTWORD
OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT
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Book of Scripture Book of
NatureLiteral
Allegorical OBJECTWORD
OBJECT OBJECT OBJECT
?
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Scripture without any glosses is the sun and the
whole light from which all teachers receive their
light, and not vice versa. Luther, Answer to a
Hyperchristian Book.
Glossa ordinaria (Venice, 1484)
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The Bible and the Emergence of Modern Science
Allegory and the Two BooksAllegory in
PracticeReforming the Reading of
ScriptureReinterpreting the Book of Nature
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There are two books or volumes to study, if we
will be secured from error first the scriptures,
revealing the will of God, and then the creatures
expressing his power whereof the latter is a key
unto the former. Advancement of Learning
I.vi.16.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
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Philosophy is written in this grand book, the
universe, which stands continually open to our
gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless
one first learns to comprehend the language and
read the letters in which it is composed. It is
written in the language of mathematics, and its
characters are triangles, circles, and other
geometrical figures without which it is humanly
impossible to understand a single word of it.
Galileo Galilei The Assayer
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for as (such is Gods condescension to human
weakness) most of the texts, to whose exposition
physiology is necessary, may be explicated by the
knowledge of the external, or at least more
easily observed qualities of the creatures so,
there are divers not to be fully understood
without the assistance of more penetrating
indagations of the abstrusities of nature, and
the more unobvious properties of things, an
intelligent and philosophical peruser will
readily discern.
Robert Boyle (1627-1691) Usefulness of Natural
Philosophy
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We have wholly omitted what we find in other
authors concerning homonymous and synonymous
words, or the divers names of birds,
hieroglyphics, emblems, morals, fables, presages,
or ought else pertaining to divinity, ethics,
grammar, or any sort of humane learning. Ray
and Willughby, Ornithology (1678)
John Ray (1627-1705)
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Necessary for all divines and students because
the story of every beast is amplified with
narrations out of scriptures, fathers,
phylosophers, physicians, and poets wherein are
declared divers hyeroglyphicks, emblems,
epigrams, and other good histories. Edward
Topsell (1607, 1653).
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Lamia
Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold
philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in
heaven We know her woof, her texture she is
given In the dull catalogue of common things.
Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings, Conquer
all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the
haunted air, and gnomed mine - Unweave a
rainbow, as it erewhile made The tender-person'd
Lamia melt into a shade. John Keats (1795-1821)
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Lamia from Topsell, Historie of Foure-Footed
Beastes (1607)