Some Eighteenth Century Views of the Relationship of Science to Religion (Era Overview) (Report‪)‬

Abstract During the scientific revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the western world began to perceive reality as, in some way, separate from the self. The kind of truth that was sought prior to Descartes differed from that generally sought afterward. Explanations of why things were as they were became less interesting, while people became preoccupied with explanations of how they happened. Nevertheless, some theologians and "natural philosophers" of eighteenth century Britain were able to blend elements of these different viewpoints, combining differing world views. John Wesley, for example, genuinely respected and eagerly utilized scientific advances and new philosophical ideas, yet he used many of the thought forms of his day to create new syntheses. Marrying empiricism and rationalism in such as way as to inspire human imagination to an understanding which cannot be attained by rational calculation or logic in and of itself, Wesley and others like him were able to preserve a place for humanity in the larger context of the universe in which humans were neither mere machines nor objects. They thus did much to avoid bifurcation between such polarities as subject versus object, faith versus reason, or teleology versus ontology.