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Dark Ages?
The stereotype of the Middle Ages as a supposed "Dark Age" is reflected in the popular views regarding the study of nature during the period. The contemporary historians of science David Lindberg and Ronald Numbers discuss the widespread popular belief that the Middle Ages was a "time of ignorance and superstition", the blame of which is to be laid on the Christian Church for allegedly "placing the word of religious authorities over personal experience and rational activity", and emphasize that this view is essentially a caricature.[12] Contrary to common belief, Lindberg say that "the late medieval scholar rarely experienced the coercive power of the church and would have regarded himself as free (particularly in the natural sciences) to follow reason and observation wherever they led. There was no warfare between science and the church".[13] And Edward Grant, writes: "If revolutionary rational thoughts were expressed in the Age of Reason [the 18th century], they were only made possible because of the long medieval tradition that established the use of reason as one of the most important of human activities".[14]
For instance, a claim that was first propagated in the 19th century[15] and is still very common in popular culture is the supposition that the people from the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat. This claim is mistaken, as Lindberg and Numbers write: "there was scarcely a Christian scholar of the Middle Ages who did not acknowledge [Earth's] sphericity and even know its approximate circumference."[16][15]
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Misconceptions such as: "the Church prohibited autopsies and dissections during the Middle Ages", "the rise of Christianity killed off ancient science", and "the medieval Christian church suppressed the growth of the natural sciences", are all reported by Numbers as examples of widely popular myths that still pass as historical truth, even though they are not supported by current historical research.[17]
- 12# ^ When Science & Christianity Meet, By Donald R. Shanor, David C. Lindberg, Ronald L. Numbers, p.8
13# ^ quoted in the essay of Ted Peters about Science and Religion at "Lindsay Jones (editor in chief). Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition. Thomson Gale. 2005. p.8182"
14# ^ (p. 9) Edward Grant: God and Reason in the Middle Ages, Cambridge 2001.
15# ^ a b Jeffrey Russell. Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians. Praeger Paperback; New Ed edition (January 30, 1997). ISBN 027595904X; ISBN 978-0275959043.
16# ^ Quotation from David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers in Beyond War and Peace: A Reappraisal of the Encounter between Christianity and Science. Studies in the History of Science and Christianity.
17# ^ Ronald Numbers (Lecturer).. Myths and Truths in Science and Religion: A historical perspective. [Video Lecture]. University of Cambridge (Howard Building, Downing College): The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion. The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion - Lectures.
The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion - Lectures
Ronald Numbers
Index: Myths and Truths in Science and Religion: A historical perspective - Ronald Numbers
Hatred of the Catholic Church is so all-pervasive that few people would question the misinformed opinions of the cultural and media majority that form public opinion, but I found these lectures very interesting and challenge the liberal orthodoxy concerning the Middle Ages.
There seems to be a tendency now amongst certain opinion formers and non-academic, amateur historians to re-write history casting Christianity in a very bad light, particularly from the perspective of science and education whilst extolling the virtues of Islam in this sphere. There is very little acknowledgment firstly that this characterization of Western European culture is a caricature and secondly, that Islamic scientific culture is largely a continuation of Byzantine (Greek) civilization. Another area of revision is the Crusades, which casts the European as the aggressor when actual historical fact present a very different picture.
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