Scientists who believe past and present

List of Christian thinkers in science

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Set of pictures for a number of notableChristian scientists and Inventors. From left to right:
Top row: Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler,Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Nicolaus Copernicus;
Second row: Carl Linnaeus, Blaise Pascal,Antoine Lavoisier, Leonhard Euler, Robert Boyle;
Third row: William Harvey, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, John Dalton, Louis Pasteur, Gerty Cori;
Fourth row: Wright brothers, Philo Farnsworth,Dmitri Mendeleev, Max Planck, James Clerk Maxwell;
Fifth row: Michael Faraday, Guglielmo Marconi,Gregor Mendel, John von Neumann, Georges Lemaître
Sixth row: J. J. Thomson, John Eccles, Enrico Fermi, Fritz Haber, Ivan Pavlov
Bottom row: Bernardo Houssay, Brian Kobilka,Gerhard Ertl, Francis Collins, Tim Berners-Lee

This list is about the relationship between religion and science, but is specific to Christian history. This is only supplementary to the issue as lists are by themselves not equipped to answer questions on this topic. The list's purpose is to act as a guide: names, annotations, and links are provided for use in further study on this topic.

This list is non-exhaustive and is limited to those scientists whose Christian beliefs or thoughts, in writing or speaking, are relevant to their notability.

Many well-known historical figures who influenced Western science considered themselves Christian such as Copernicus,^[1] Galileo,^[2] Kepler,^[3] Newton^[4] and Boyle.^[5]

Contents

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  1 313–1000 A.D. (4th–10th centuries)
  
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  2 1001–1200 A.D. (11th and 12th centuries)
  
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  3 1201–1400 A.D. (13th and 14th centuries)
  
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  4 1401–1600 A.D. (15th and 16th centuries)
  
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  5 1601–1700 A.D. (17th century)
  
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  6 1701–1800 A.D. (18th century)
  
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  7 1801–1900 A.D. (19th century)
  
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  8 1901–2000 A.D. (20th century)
  
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  9 2001–today (21st century)
  
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  10 Living
  
  • 
    10.1 Biomedical Sciences
    
  • 
    10.2 Chemistry
    
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    10.3 Physics and Astronomy
    
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    10.4 Engineering
    
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    10.5 Others
    
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  11 See also
  
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  12 Notes
  
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  13 References
  
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  14 External links
  

313–1000 A.D. (4th–10th centuries)[edit]

Set of pictures for a number of notableScientists self-identified as Christians: Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Francis Bacon andJohannes Kepler.

In 313 the Edict of Milan ended Christian persecution in the Roman Empire. Although this is not the start of Christianity it largely starts Christians' recorded achievements in many pursuits, including science.

During late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, the Aristotelian approach to inquiries on natural phenomenon was used. Some ancient knowledge was lost, or in some cases kept in obscurity, during the fall of the Roman Empire and periodic political struggles. However, the general fields of science, or Natural Philosophy as it was called, and much of the general knowledge from the ancient world remained preserved though the works of the early Latin encyclopedists like Isidore of Seville. Also, in the Middle Eastern territories of theByzantine empire, many Greek texts were preserved in Syriac translations, many of which were translated into Arabic under Islamic rule, during which many types of classical learning were preserved and in some cases improved upon.^[6]

Christians, especially Nestorians, contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the Ummayads and the Abbasids by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards to Arabic.^[7] They also excelled in philosophy, science (such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, Qusta ibn Luqa, Masawaiyh, Patriarch Eutychius, Jabril ibn Bukhtishu etc) andtheology (such as Tatian, Bar Daisan, Babai the Great, Nestorius, Toma bar Yacoub etc.) and the personal physicians of the Abbasid Caliphs were often Assyrian Christians such as the long serving Bukhtishu dynasty.^[8][9]

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  Anatolius of Laodicea (early 3rd century – 283): a bishop of Laodicea, one of the foremost scholars of his day in the physical sciences.^[10] He is an early writer, predating theEdict of Milan.
  
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  Nemesius (?-c. 390) A bishop of Emesa whose De Natura Hominis blended theology with Galenic medicine and is notable for its ideas concerning the brain.^[11][12] It also may have anticipated the discovery of the circulatory system.^[13]
  
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  John Philoponus (c. 490 – c. 570): a figure in the Monophysitism minority of Eastern Christianity. His criticism of Aristotelian physics was important to Medieval science. He also theorized about the nature of light and the stars. As a theologian he rejected the Council of Chalcedon and his major Christological work is Arbiter.^{[note 1][14][15]}
  
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  Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – c. 636): Catholic Archbishop who preserved many scientific selections from the ancient worlds. His most popular work was Etymologiae which contained information on medicine, mathematics, astronomy, atomic theory, geography, agriculture, zoology, mineralogy, physiology, and other topics. His work was widely used throughout the medieval ages for its extent of research topics.^[16]
  
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  Bede, the Venerable (c. 672 – 735): Catholic monk, venerated as a saint and Doctor of the Church. He was an influence for early medieval knowledge of nature. He wrote two works on "Time and its Reckoning." This primarily concerned how to date Easter, but contained a new recognition of the "progress wave-like" nature of tides.^[17]
  
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  Rabanus Maurus (c. 780 – 856): Benedictine monk and teacher, he later became archbishop of Mainz and is venerated as blessed in the Catholic Church. He wrote a treatise on Computus and the encyclopedic work De universo. His teaching earned him the accolade of Praeceptor Germaniae, or "the teacher of Germany."^[18]
  
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  Leo the Mathematician (c. 790 – after 869): Archbishop of Thessalonica, he later became the head of the Magnaura School of philosophy in Constantinople, where he taughtAristotelian logic. Leo also composed his own medical encyclopaedia. He has been called a "true Renaissance man" and "the cleverest man in Byzantium in the 9th century".^[19][20][21]
  
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  Hunayn ibn Ishaq (c. 809 – 873): Assyrian Christian physician known for translations of Greek scientific works and as author of "Ten Treatises on Ophthalmology." He also wrote "How to Grasp Religion", which involved the apologetics for his faith.^[22]
  
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  Qusta ibn Luqa (820–912): Melkite physician, scientist and translator. He wrote commentaries on Euclid and a treatise on the Armillary sphere. A Latin translation of his work ‘On the Difference between the Spirit and the Soul’ ('De Differentia Spiritus et Animae') was one of the few works not attributed to Aristotle that was included in a list of ‘books to be 'read,' or lectured on, by the Masters of the Faculty of Arts, at Paris in 1254, as part of their study of Natural Philosophy. He was known for medical works admired by Muslims as well, such as Medical Regime for the Pilgrims to Mecca: The Risālā Fī Tadbīr Safar Al-ḥa.^[23][24]