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From: RDehaan237
To: gmurphy@raex.com; owner-asa@udomo.calvin.edu;
schimmrich@earthlink.net
Cc: asa@calvin.edu
Sent: 12/10/97 3:40:19 AM
Subject: HistoryOfScienceBooks
In earlier posts I asked for titles by secular historians of science
that
acknowledged the role played by Christianity in the rise of science in
the
West. Thanks for the references some of you sent. But they are
precious few.
In the Encyclopedia Britannica I found an impressive bibliography of
works on
the history of science, several were multivolume works. Not being a
historian
of science, I did not recognize the authors. There was nothing,
however, by
Reijer Hooykaas. Since this is not my field, however, I don't feel I
can
pursue further whether the inclusion of the church's influence on the
startup
of science is generally ignored or down-played in standard works on the
history of science. My gut feeling is that it is.
But this may be changing. The December 6 issue of *Science News*
announced
the following book: *The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the
Big
Bang*, by Marcelo Gleiser. The book is described as follows: "Tackling
the
sticky subject of the connection between spirituality and modern
cosmology is
Dartmouth physics professor Gleiser. He skillfully shows how the
religious
beliefs and convictions of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein
influenced their work on how those elements overlap in the advancement
of
concepts such as quantum mechanics and particle physics. By classifying
different creation concepts according to whether they assume a
beginning in
time or instead focus on an eternal universe, he traces the links
between
ancient philosophy, Hinduism, and the like and modern cosmology.
Dutton,
1997, 338 p., hardcover, $27.95."