God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science is a 2009 book written by British historian of science James Hannam (UK: Icon Books). The book challenges the view that "there was no science worth mentioning in the Middle Ages … [and] that the Church held back what meagre advances were made". Hannam rebuts a number of modern myths about Medieval Christianity such as the idea that the Inquisition burned people for their science or that people in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat. He lists 13th century inventions such as spectacles, the mechanical clock, the windmill, and the blast furnace to argue that "medieval scholars got their hands on the work of classical Greeks, they developed systems of thought that allowed science to travel far further than it had in the ancient world." The US edition of the book was published in 2011 by Regnery Press under the title The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution.
Content In his introduction to God’s Philosophers, Hannam sets forth his argument that many of the negative descriptions of the Middle Ages as scientific "Dark Ages" is based on myth. "Popular opinion, journalistic cliché and misinformed historians notwithstanding, recent research has shown that the Middle Ages was a period of enormous advances in science, technology and culture." The first twelve chapters of the book are devoted to sciences in the Middle Ages; the last nine chapters consider the Renaissance and Reformation. Galileo is the focus of the last three chapters (19–21).
Science in the Middle Ages In chapter one Hannam gives a brief historical outline of the early Middle Ages up to AD1000. Hannam writes that during this period western Europe recovered from the fall of the Roman Empire and began to rebuild with the emergence of several important inventions, like the plough, horseshoe and watermill.From chapter two to chapter thirteen, Hannam covers a wide range of topics relating to the history of science, such as mathematics, astronomy, physics, medicine, alchemy and astrology. Chapter three ("The Rise of Reason") and chapter four ("The Twelfth-Century Renaissance") seeks to show how the West regained the heritage of ancient Greek learning. Hannam contends that the "rise of reason" is not the Enlightenment, but the eleventh and twelfth century turn to natural theology. He refers to the medieval university as the fundamental institutional entity. He further contends that the starting point for all of natural philosophy in the Middle Ages was the belief that nature had been created by God. Thus, medieval philosophers expected to find logic and reason in natural phenomena. Hannam then turns to the subject of medicine, suggesting there were three options in the Middle Ages for a person who fell ill: "the church, the local healer, or a qualified doctor". He describes how each might treat their patient. Hannam declares that, with the exception of smallpox vaccinations, "the history of medicine until the midnineteenth century… is a history of failure."
In chapter eight on "The Secret Arts of Alchemy and Astrology", Hannam looks at astrology and the Church’s attitude toward it. Other chapters also include interesting cases of relevant scientific activity. In Chapter 10 Hannam introduces Oxford scholar – Richard of Wallingford (1292–1336) and his invention of the mechanical clock: "Besides his achievements in astronomy, he built one of the finest and most complicated clocks of the Middle Ages, despite suffering from the dreadful affliction of leprosy." Chapter eleven ("The Merton Calculators’") and twelve ("The Apogee of Medieval Science") reveal the advances in scientific thought that occurred at the universities of Oxford and Paris in the fourteenth century. Hannam points to Bradwardine's "law of motion"; descriptions of falling objects in a vacuum; and the mean speed theorem, as illustrated by William Heytesbury. Hannam also describes Buridan and Oresme's discussion of the Earth's possible axial rotation, and Albert of Saxony's description of the trajectory of a flying cannon ball. Regarding whether these speculations threatened the Church, Hannam writes "almost all the practitioners were members of the clergy… mechanics and mathematics did not cause any concern."
On the more delicate issue of the rejection of atomism which challenged the Catholic view of Holy Communion he said "certainly, this was a clear cut of theological orthodoxy curtailing philosophical enquiry. But this happened so rarely that we cannot maintain that the Church held back science in general." He continued: "the popular image of the medieval church as a monolithic institution opposing any sort of scientific speculation is clearly inaccurate. Natural philosophy had proven itself useful and worth supporting. It is hard to imagine how any philosophy at all would have taken place if the Church-sponsored universities had not provided a home for it." Hannam argues that the Church did not influence free research any more than private financiers do today: "The Church allowed natural philosophers a much wider dispensation than many corporate interests allow their researchers today."In chapter thirteen, Hannam explores the voyages of Christopher Columbus and how he did not believe the Earth was flat, as some claim. Based on the theories of Pierre D'Ailly (1350-1420), Columbus believed it was possible to reach the Far East by sailing west. The opposition he initially encountered from the Portuguese monarchy was due to the length of the voyage, which Columbus-D'Ailly had underestimated, and not to the fact that the earth was flat, rather than spherical. Some other impressive scientific achievements discussed include the invention of eyeglasses, windmills, and the printing press.
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