The fate of science in patristic and medieval Christendom
David C. Lindberg
“The pagan party . asserted that knowledge is to be obtained only by the laborious exercise of human observation and reason. The Christian all found in Scriptures traditions Church; that, written revelation, God had not given a criterion truth, but furnished us with he intended know. Scriptures, therefore, contain sum, end knowledge. clergy, emperor at their back, would endure no intellectual competition. / [O]ne finds combination factors behind 'the closing Western mind': attack on Greek philosophy [the apostle] Paul, adoption Platonism theologians enforcement orthodoxy emperors desperate keep good order. imposition went hand stifling any form independent reasoning. By fifth century, has rational thought been suppressed, there substitution for it 'mystery, magic, authority.'” A widespread myth refuses die, illustrated these two quotations, maintains consistent opposition church general natural sciences particular, throughout patristic medieval periods, retarded development viable scientific tradition, thereby delaying Scientific Revolution origins modern science more than millennium. Historical scholarship past half-century demonstrates truth otherwise.
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