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295 Introduction: The “Death of God” and the Demise of Natural Theology 1. See Chapters 8–12 of Minucius Felix’s Octavius for a statement of these particular accusations, and Chapters 28–31 for his response. The whole work is an apologetic for Christian faith, including an extended argument about providence. 2. Many of the most well-known early Fathers, such as Irenaeus of Lyon or Justin Martyr, were such apologists, although even later thinkers in a predominantly Christian environment still tried to convince the “pagans,” such as Athanasius ’s famous Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione. Irenaeus defended the Christian faith primarily in response to Gnostic groups, while Justin confronted Judaism (especially in his “Dialogue with Trypho”). The debate with Judaism is a particularly difficult case, as it often degenerated into what is today called “supercessionism” (i.e., the conviction that Christianity is far superior to Judaism and has come to complete it or even replace it), an argument that can be found to some extent already in Paul’s letters. The first Christian communities were all Jewish and met in the synagogues, but often they would run into con- flict with the non-Christian Jews. As the Christian faith spread and increasingly admitted non-Jewish members, it became more and more separated from the Jewish communities in which it had arisen. And, as often happens when groups split who share many of the same views, the contentions became more and more hostile, especially as Christianity gained in influence and anti-Semitism was a strong current in the larger culture even then. 3. Clement of Alexandria was one of the earliest thinkers to try to reconcile faith and reason and to appropriate philosophical thought into the Christian faith. Notes 296 ■ Notes to pages 2–6 His Stromata is essentially a very learned refutation of many aspects of “pagan” thought, while it also appropriates much of it and is clearly imbued with its spirit. 4. This is particularly evident in writings on the spiritual life, but also obvious in more philosophical treatises, such as Gregory of Nyssa’s On the Immortality of the Soul (both here and in his Life of St. Macrina he refers to his sister Macrina repeatedly as a philosopher). 5. See Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy. 6. See Nemesius of Emesa, On the Nature of Man, trans. R. W. Sharples and P. J. van der Eijk (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008). There are many such early treatises on human nature, most of which make heavy use of Platonic, Aristotelian, and Stoic philosophical concepts. 7. See S. A. Wallace-Hadrill, The Greek Patristic View of Nature (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1968). 8. It is completely false to portray the Middle Ages as “dark”; it would be more correct to speak of a time of preparation, germination, and growth that culminated in great cultural change, such as that of the Renaissance, Humanism, and the Scientific Revolution. 9. Chapter 10 will discuss several contemporary interpretations of the Anselmic “proof” given by the thinkers treated in Part II of this book. 10. See the first few questions of the Summa Theologiae, which involve questions of method and ask whether theology is a science and whether it is possible to have knowledge of God. See also his The Division and Methods of the Sciences, trans. Armand Maurer (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1953). 11. For Newton’s Arianism and the way in which it influenced his scientific research (he was also very interested in alchemy and in biblical interpretation), see Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs, The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton ’s Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). For a briefer review of Newton, see Richard S. Westfall, “Isaac Newton,” in Gary B. Ferngren, Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002). 12. See Ernan McMullin, “Galileo on Science and Scripture,” in The Cambridge Companion to Galileo, ed. Peter Machamer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 271–307. See also Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man’s Changing Relation to the Universe (New York: Macmillan, 1968). 13. See David Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scienti fic Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Gary B. Ferngren, Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002); Alistair C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo, vol. 2 of Science in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modern...

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