European Physico-theology (1650-c.1760) in Context

Auteur
Born in Bern, Switzerland, Kaspar von Greyerz studied history and philosophy at Geneva and Bern, and history at Stanford University. He was a research fellow at the German Historical Institute London, and taught at the University of Kiel, the University of Zurich, and the University of Basel, as well as holding guest professorships at UC Berkeley and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris. He retired in 2013.

Texte du rabat

Physico-theology celebrated the observation of nature as a way toward recognising God as Creator, demonstrating the compatibility of the biblical record with new science. This is the first English-language monograph to study the impact of physico-theology on the intellectual and socio-cultural establishment in Europe from the mid-17th century.

Résumé
Physico-theology celebrated the observation of nature as a way toward the recognition of God as Creator and to demonstrate the compatibility of the biblical record with the new science. It was a crucial, albeit often underestimated element in the intellectual as well as socio-cultural establishment of the new science in western and central Europe beginning in the mid-seventeenth century. The importance of physico-theology in enhancing the acceptance of the new science among a broad educated public cannot be underestimated. Unfortunately, this insight has not yet received much attention in the history of early modern science, chiefly because the history of physico-theology tends to highlight the activities of virtuosi rather than well-known scientists. A contribution to the history of knowledge, this is the first monograph in English on physico-theology on the European scale. It concentrates on two genres, the argument from design, and the palaeontological argument regarding the role of the Deluge in the formation of fossils. It does so without neglecting practice (correspondence and collecting). It pays considerable attention to the historical context, above all to the new image of God as a wise, benevolent, rather than unpredictable being, which provided the practitioners of physico-theology (including clergy, physicians, lawyers, and philologists) with a new and powerful argument. It draws attention to the predominantly Protestant nature of the phenomenon and looks at the longevity of the argument from design in Britain and the Netherlands, where its demise came about as late as the first half of the nineteenth century.

Contenu

• 1: Introduction

• 2: A European Movement: Actors, Bestsellers, Code Words, and Translations

• 3: The Argument from Design: From England to Finland

• 4: Early Central European Physico-Theology

• 5: Anthropocentrism

• 6: Doing Physico-theology: Collecting and Collections

• 7: Diluvialism

• 8: Protestants and Catholics

• 9: Conclusion

• Appendix I: Some Comments on the Historiography

• Appendix II: Biographical shortlist of Physico-theologians

• Appendix III: List of Diluvialists (supplement to Chapter 7)

• Appendix IV: Bibliography of Primary Sources

• Appendix V: Bestsellers and Translations