Klaaren, Eugene M. Religious Origins of Modern Science: Belief in Creation in Seventeenth-Century Thought. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1977.

Abstract

What accounts for the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century? It is the intention of Eugene Klaaren in this rigorous study in intellectual history to point to a unified and systematic explanation for this epochal development. Specifically, Klaaren argues that belief in divine creation constituted a definitive context within which the basic questions of the major figures in early modern science were raised, pursued, and developed. This belief in creation, far from being a mere forgotten assumption, was a forceful, motivating, determinative belief. Various theological approaches to creation vied for dominance in the thought world of the 1600's. Klaaren traces the origens of these in late medieval and Reformation thought, then focuses in particular on their development in seventeenth-century England, including a discussion of the fascinating figure of Johan Baptist von Helmont. The major portion of his study is devoted to an explication of the diverse but representative thought of Robert Boyle, elucidating his thesis with reference to it.