Abstract
As is well known, natural science and religion were not considered natural enemies in the later Middle Ages, but no conflict between the two seems even conceivable unless they have some common ground in their subject-matters. Drawing on the work of Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, amongst others, this paper considers how natural science and religion were related in the scholastic thought of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, and asks whether science can ever make contributions to religious knowledge. I consider whether natural science and theology can ever meet over their subject-matter, and whether science can encroach on religious matters. I argue that science cannot make contributions to knowledge concerning infinite beings or their effects, for finite effects do not require infinite causes. I discuss the philosophical dispute over the eternity of the world and whether it can be demonstrated that the world had a temporal beginning. I argue that only insofar as religions make empirical claims about the natural world do science and religion share a subject-matter. I look at arguments for the necessity of supernatural revelation from the insufficiency of Aristotelian science, and for the central importance of metaphysics to theology in scholastic thought.
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Notes
- 1.
Among the scholastics, mere opinion was generally thought to require at least some justification or evidence.
- 2.
Again, metaphysical arguments may well conclude that there are immaterial realities, such as minds.
- 3.
‘And it is also in this way that we are moved to believe what someone says because the reward of eternal life is promised to us if we believe; and the will is moved by this reward to assent to the things that are said, even though the intellect is not moved by what is understood’ (Aquinas 2014a, De Veritate, q.14, a.1, co. 2).
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McGinley, D. (2016). Can Science and Religion Meet Over Their Subject-Matter? Some Thoughts on Thirteenth and Fourteenth-Century Discussions. In: Cunningham, J.P., Hocknull, M. (eds) Robert Grosseteste and the pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle Ages. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33468-4_14
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