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Magisteria
Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion | Nicholas Spencer
2 posts | 2 read | 8 to read
Most things you ‘know’ about science and religion are myths or half-truths that grew up in the last years of the nineteenth century and remain widespread today. The true history of science and religion is a human one. It’s about the role of religion in inspiring, and strangling, science before the scientific revolution. It’s about the sincere but eccentric faith and the quiet, creeping doubts of the most brilliant scientists in history – Galileo, Newton, Faraday, Darwin, Maxwell, Einstein. Above all it’s about the question of what it means to be human and who gets to say – a question that is more urgent in the twenty-first century than ever before. From eighth-century Baghdad to the frontiers of AI today, via medieval Europe, nineteenth-century India and Soviet Russia, Magisteria sheds new light on this complex historical landscape. Rejecting the thesis that science and religion are inevitably at war, Nicholas Spencer illuminates a compelling and troubled relationship that has definitively shaped human history.
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quietlycuriouskate
quietlycuriouskate
Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion | Nicholas Spencer
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Interesting book (500+ pages) I would have liked to read more slowly, but the library wanted it back.
Science and religion are not the mutually-unintelligible strangers/enemies they're often assumed to be, but more like siblings who at various times support and want to throttle one another, with frequent squabbles over house room. NS has it all boil down to two questions: "What is the nature of man?"* and "Who has the authority to decide?"

quietlycuriouskate Depressingly, and predictably enough, it IS "man" rather than "humankind". Margaret Cavendish and Mrs Emma Darwin make fleeting appearances, and Marie Curie's notebooks get a mention, but that, ladies, is your lot. 3mo
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batsy
batsy
Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion | Nicholas Spencer
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After I finished Knausgaard's The Morning Star, which is a book that deals with religion in an interesting way that I haven't read in awhile in litfic or genre fic, my hold on Magisteria came through on Libby. It seemed the right time to dive into this chunkster on the supposed "war" between religion & science, which the author tries to debunk through a survey of scientific inquiry & its relationship to Christianity in Western civilisation

batsy It's a book that's jam-packed with facts & anecdotes, so it's not exactly fast-paced. That's probably why it took me so long to get through. But I did find it compelling & worth thinking about. There's a lot that's lost when religion & science are now monopolised by the loudest & worst factions; i.e. the conservatives wanting to limit rights for every other human & the billionaire venture capitalist tech bros who tend to stand in for "science". 1y
batsy The thing that struck me the most is how much we've lost in terms of knowledge & inquiry; the way in which thought is shaped now via the issues that get the most attention, that social media has only worsened (?). But there's literally a whole world out there with multiple ways of thinking about things; about thinking through things together. Even as an atheist I appreciated this. But FYI the book is limited to what Spencer knows: Christianity. 1y
Hamlet This is a wonderful, thoughtful review. You are spot-on with your comment about what is lost when the worst factions dominate the conversation to the detriment of honest inquiry. I also greatly appreciate your atheist perspective in your eclectic, open-minded reading. Brava! 1y
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Amiable An absorbing review—thank you for sharing your thoughts! 1y
sarahbarnes Great review and serendipitous book timing! 1y
batsy @Hamlet That's so kind of you. Thank you! I truly appreciated that the book showed how intertwined the disciplines are. It does feel like an immense loss. 1y
batsy @Amiable Thank you! 1y
batsy @sarahbarnes Thank you! Gotta love a bit of book serendipity 💫 1y
Suet624 Definitely not a summer beach read I see. 😳😂 1y
batsy @Suet624 😅 1y
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