Overview

At the dawn of the eighteenth century, scientific and Western theology was based on the concept of an unchanging, immutable God ruling a static universe. For theologians, Newtonian physics and the rise of mechanistic explanations of the natural world held forth the promise of a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the Cosmos and, accordingly, of the nature of God. During the course of the eighteenth century, however, there was a major conceptual rift between science and theology that was reflected in a growing scientific disregard for understanding based upon divine revelation and growing acceptance of an understanding of nature based upon natural theology. By the end of the century, experimentation had replaced scripture as the determinant authority in science. Enlightenment thinking, spurred by advances in the physical sciences, sent sweeping changes across the...