The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science

Written by Peter Harrison Reviewed By Hans Madueme

The present work serves as a helpful companion volume to David Livingstone’s Adam’s Ancestors. Peter Harrison is the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford and a well-known contributor to the history of science and religion (he is slated to deliver the Gifford Lectures in 2010–11). Readers of this journal are probably familiar with his important work, The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science, where he argues for the importance of Protestantism in the emergence of modern science. This follow-up book has been widely reviewed in major journals and rightly so. His main thesis is that as a result of the Reformation, Protestants placed a heavy emphasis on the Fall of Adam and Eve and the consequent loss of knowledge and understanding. This belief significantly shaped methodological discussions during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and it gave rise to experimental procedures (if we are fallen, then we need to develop careful, empirical approaches to investigate nature). In short, modern science arose largely because of the early modern commitment to the fall of man. Harrison delves deeply into the primary sources and develops his thesis in a number of directions, focusing primarily on English Christians, building a cumulative case. The argument is very controversial; if Harrison is correct, then modern science, far from being the result of Enlightenment rationalism, resulted rather from varying commitments to the Christian doctrine of the Fall. Scholars will debate the cogency of Harrison’s rich and detailed arguments. For most readers of this journal, the Augustinian doctrine of the Fall is a central, historical dogma, and it explains our deep moral predicament. Although this important book has stimulated a fascinating debate about the relationship between the Fall and modern knowledge, the full jury is not in yet. We thus eagerly await the next installment.


Hans Madueme

Hans Madueme is associate professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

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