Category Archives: History

Jaki – Science and Creation

Posted on 10/05/2014 by Jon Garvey

One of the books often cited with approbium on the Christian roots of science is Fr Stanley Jaki’s Science and Creation. It’s one of the best early (1986) attempts to reverse the Victorian myth that science and religion are incompatible, by showing, to the contrary, how only the Judaeo-Christian concept of creation really made science as we know it possible.

Posted in Creation, History, Philosophy, Science | 1 Comment

Cosmic conspiracy

Posted on 11/03/2014 by Jon Garvey

A year or so ago I watched a UK-produced TV series about the history of archaeology. Prominent in the first episode was a quite mythological claim that early antiquarians were courageous scientists battling against the opposition of a Church monolithically defending biblical literalism and the Flood. It entirely bypassed the fact that most of these guys were churchmen, even though it named some of them, apparently oblivious to the self-contradiction. I thought I’d beefed about it here, but I can’t find anything so no doubt I bottled it up and attributed it to local ignorance … though you’d expect that a series about the “History of…” would do some homework … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science | 14 Comments

Erithacus rubecula in fact and fable

Posted on 10/03/2014 by Jon Garvey

How the human mind develops concepts is a wonderful thing. My mental schema for that most iconic of British birds, the robin, is built upon the foundation a song I learned from Miss Jerome (a wonderful teacher) for my first Christmas at school. Apart from an even more juvenile nursery rhyme involving cold north winds and what Robin does when they blow (poor thing), it was possibly my earliest exposure to the bird, maybe even pre-dating my seeing it in the feather.

Posted in Creation, History, Politics and sociology, Science | 5 Comments

Calvinism and nature

Posted on 31/01/2014 by Jon Garvey

This is a short review of Ravished by Beauty, by Belden C Lane (Oxford 2011), which was recommended to me by Peter Harris. In it the author tries to recover the rich theology of nature in the Reformed tradition, which although largely forgotten (to the point of being, I suspect, incredible to some knee-jerk opponents of Reformed Christianity) actually dates back to Calvin himself.

Posted in Creation, History, Theology | Leave a comment

Lessons from ancient Egypt

Posted on 11/01/2014 by Jon Garvey

Worldviews are, almost by definition, taken for granted – we only see those of others. But for all that they’re human choices, even when unconscious, and result from metaphysical commitments, not from evidence. Which is interesting given that they determine how we see ourselves in the universe.

Posted in Creation, History, Science, Theology | 43 Comments

Evolutionism and the Fundamental Problem of Biology.

Posted on 29/11/2013 by Sy Garte

In 1853, a mere 6 years before the publication of Origin of Species, a minor textbook written for the education of the public was published with the title Library of Natural History, and the subtitle “containing scientific and popular descriptions of man, quadrupeds,  birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects, compiled from the works of…” and there follows a list of the most active and well known naturalists of the day. While most of the text is not very interesting, there are some remarkable aspects of this book, clearly meant to be an up to date summary of the field. First, the word biology is never used.

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Science, Sy Garte | 14 Comments

A history of providence, part two

Posted on 27/11/2013 by James Penman

The Theology of St John Chrysostom St John Chrysostom (347-407) is generally hailed as the most eloquent preacher in the Greek language among the early church fathers. The doctrine of divine providence saturates his sermons and treatises. This is particularly interesting, in that sometimes a strong doctrine of providence is associated with Augustinian theology.

Posted in Creation, History, James Penman, Theology | 12 Comments