Science, Faith, and Superstition

The main goal of this project is to contribute to and develop historical challenges to the prevalent understanding of science and religion. The project focuses on two historical periods: the period of late Antiquity and the period of the Renaissance through the 17th century. Both are important because of the major shifts in the understanding of the ways the natural, human, and divine intersect. The central question of our project is how philosophers, doctors, alchemists (proto chemists), and the Church fathers in the early days of Christianity and Modernity understood the purpose of the study of nature, the nature of faith, and the meaning of superstition.
We are supported by the University of Oxford project 'New Horizons for Science and Religion in Central and Eastern Europe' funded by the John Templeton Foundation.