Reading guide for Thurs 12/1: Robert S. Westman, "The Copernicans and the Churches," in David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers (eds.), God and Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1986), pp. 76-113. (On reserve in Lilly.)

This gives a brief overview of how the churches during the reformation reacted to the work of Copernicus and to his later followers. So read it, of course, but then also bring one or two questions to class to dicuss, and be prepared to discuss the questions below:

What caused such a negative reaction to Copernicus' work?

Why did such change have to occur in order for Copernicus' ideas to be accepted?

What was natural philosophy for pre-Copernican Europe?

What is science as we know it today and how did the churches and the reformation help form it?

Has math replaced theology or philosophy as the epitome of academia? Why, or why not?

Does math take a higher place than theology or philosophy, though something else may be the epitome, and what might that be?

Richard Hogue