Project description
The link between science and theology in early modern universities
During the early modern period, changes in science and religion reshaped Western societies. The so-called Scientific Revolution and the Protestant/Catholic Reformation have traditionally been studied separately, but their connection is often overlooked. One important aspect is how natural knowledge impacted theology, particularly in the context of university education. Scholars have explored the influence of theology on science, but the reverse relationship remains unexplored. The ERC-funded SCIGMA project will investigate how natural knowledge influenced scholastic and dogmatic theology in early modern universities. It will examine the role of naturalism and empiricism in shaping religious teachings and the frameworks that supported them. This research will offer new insights into the interaction between science and religion.
Objective
The early modern period is usually viewed as a time of profound change, including the so-called ‘Scientific Revolution’ and the Protestant/Catholic Reformation. Historians have linked these two seemingly disparate transformations in many different ways, but one important dimension is yet to be uncovered. SCIGMA’s main hypothesis is that natural knowledge significantly influenced dogmatics as a central branch of theology in the early modern university. University textbooks eagerly addressed many questions related to natural knowledge, such as: Can the bodily resurrection be understood from a physiological perspective? Which physics apply for the Eucharist? While much has been written on the impact of theology on the natural sciences, SCIGMA will turn the tables to uncover their truly entangled relationship. The project will systematically investigate how naturalism and empiricism informed scholastic and dogmatic theology, from the Council of Trent to the French Revolution across all Western Christian denominations. Its research agenda will consider theology as a ‘scientia’ in the premodern university and therefore include it within the history of science and knowledge.
SCIGMA’s first goal is to discover the multiple and changing ways in which natural knowledge informed premodern scholastic theology, which sought a rational reconstruction of faith. Second, it will uncover what effective epistemological frameworks accommodated this interplay of empiricism and revelation. Third, it will trace how these epistemological frameworks were determined by their embedding within religious and secular institutions of learning. This complex historical analysis will reveal the significant role of the ‘physico-dogmatic domain’ in institutional learning. Thereby, it sheds novel light on how premodern Western societies fundamentally reshaped scientific inquiry while being deeply religious – and ultimately paved the way to secularization and scientism in these societies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion philosophy history of philosophy medieval philosophy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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44801 Bochum
Germany
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