Edward B. Davis

Professor of the History of Science

Messiah College

Grantham, PA 17027

voice/messages: (717)-766-2511, ext 6840

fax: (717)-691-6002

 mailto:tdavis@messiah.edu

As Director of the Central Pennsylvania Forum for Religion and Science, I plan a wide variety of public events. Please check the Forum webpage for more information--and bookmark it for future reference.

Several sections of this webpage contain links to various URLs related to science and Christian faith.  They are placed here as a resource for students, colleagues, scholars at other institutions and the general public, in an effort to provide helpful, reliable materials on a much-misunderstood topic.  Look for items in RED below.

EDUCATION:

• B.S. (Physics), Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), June 1975
• M.A. (History and Philosophy of Science), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), October 1981
• Ph.D (History and Philosophy of Science), Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), August 1984. Dissertation title: "Creation, Contingency, and Early Modern Science: The Impact of Voluntaristic Theology on 17th Century Natural Philosophy". Major professor: the late Richard S. Westfall.

POST-DOCTORAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

• Professor of the History of Science, Messiah College, 1996-present; Distinguished Professor chair, 2002-present
• Associate Professor of Science and History, Messiah College, 1990-1996
• Assistant Professor of Science and History, Messiah College, 1985-1990
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Departments of History and Philosophy, Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN), 1984-85

MAIN AREAS OF INTEREST

• Christianity and science since 1600
• The "Scientific Revolution," especially Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
• Early history of antievolutionism, especially Harry Rimmer (1890-1952)
• Protestant modernist efforts to control the image of science in America
• The physical sciences since Copernicus

  Personal interests include:

  • Running and cycling
  • Baseball and college basketball
  • Classical music, especially Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
  • Travel

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

• History of Science Society
• American Scientific Affiliation

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

• Review of Matthew Stanley, Practical Mystic: Religion, Science, and A. S. Eddington (Unniversity of Chicago Press, 2007). In Journal for the History of Astronomy 39.3 (2008): 417-19.
• “Fundamentalist Cartoons, Modernist Pamphlets, and the Religious Image of Science in the Scopes Era.” In Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America, ed. Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008), pp. 175-98. For information about the conference leading to this book, click here.
• “Robert Boyle's Religious Life, Attitudes, and Vocation.” Science and Christian Belief 19.2 (2007): 117-38. For an abstract, click here.
• “Cosmic Beauty, Created Order, and the Divine Word: The Religious Thought of Michael Idvorsky Pupin (1858-1935).” In Nicolaas Rupke (ed)., Eminent Lives in Twentieth-Century Science and Religion (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2007), pp. 197-217. For an abstract, click here. A slightly revised version will appear in the second edition of this book.
• “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” Essay review of Owen Gingerich, God's Universe. In First Things (May 2007): 52-54.
• (with Michael Hunter) “The Making of Robert Boyle's Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature (1686).” Updated version. In Michael Hunter, with contributions by Edward. B. Davis, Harriet Knight, Charles Littleton, and Lawrence M. Principe, The Boyle Papers: Understanding the Manuscripts of Robert Boyle (Ashgate, 2007), pp. 219-76. This book also includes the updated version of Hunter's massive “Catalogue of the Boyle Papers, Letters, Notebooks and Associated Manuscripts,” a project to which I made major contributions.
• “The Word and the Works: Concordism in American Evangelical Thought.” In The Book of Nature in Early Modern and Modern History, ed. Klaas van Berkel and Arjo Vanderjagt (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 195-207. To request an electronic copy, send me an email. [This is a shorter version of the essay with a similar title listed below.]
• Review of Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle (Harvard University Press, 2005). Isis 97.3 (Sept 2006): 581-2.
• “Intelligent Design on Trial.”Religion in the News 8.3 (Winter 2006): 8-11 and 26. My observations on the Dover trial, based on attending four days of the trial and in light of my background knowledge of science education, intelligent design, and the philosophy of science. To download the pdf, click here.
• “Boyle, Robert.” In Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, ed. Carl Mitcham et al. (Macmillan, 2005).
• “Science and Religious Fundamentalism in the 1920s: Religious pamphlets by leading scientists of the Scopes era provide insight into public debates about science and religion.” American Scientist 93.3 (May-June 2005): 253-60. For an abstract and web access to this article, click here.
• “Is There a Christian History of Science?” In Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation, ed. Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 63-75. For an abstract, click here.
• “Science as Christian Vocation: The Case of Robert Boyle.” In Reading God's World: The Scientific Vocation, ed. Angus Menuge (Concordia Publishing House, 2004), pp. 189-210.
• “Creationism.” In The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, ed. John L. Heilbron (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 186-7.
• Review of John Hedley Brooke, Margaret J. Osler, and Jitse M van der Meer, eds., Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions (University of Chicago Press Journals Division, 2001). Journal of the History of Philosophy 41.2 (April 2003): 277-8.
• “Christianity, History of Science and Religion.” In Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, ed. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen et al. (Thomson Gale, 2003), pp. 123-7.
• “The Word and the Works: Concordism and American Evangelicals.”  In Perspectives on an Evolving Creation, ed. Keith Miller (Eerdmans, 2003), pp. 34-60. For an abstract, click here. [For a shorter, updated version, see above.]
• “Boyle, Robert.”  In The Encyclopedia of Protestantism, ed. Hans Hillbrand (Routledge, 2003), p. 291.
• “Robert Boyle as the Source of an Isaac Watts Text Set for a William Billings Anthem.” The Hymn: A Journal of Congregational Song 53.1 (January 2002), 46-7.
• Review of Kenneth R. Miller, Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground between God and Evolution (Harper Collins, 1999). Reports of the National Center for Science Education 22.1-2 (Jan-Apr 2002): 47-8. For a longer version, click here.
• The faith of a great scientist: “A Priest Serving in the Temple of Nature: Robert Boyle's Career Blended Faith, Doubt, and the Use of Science to Heal Disease and Fight Atheism.”  Christian History 21.4 (November 2002): 28-31.
• (with Michael P. Winship)  “Early Modern Protestantism.”  In Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, ed. Gary B. Ferngren (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 117-29. [Reprinted from The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia, ed. Gary B. Ferngren, Edward J. Larson, and Darrel W. Amundsen (Garland, 2000), pp.281-7.]
• (with Robin Collins) “Scientific Naturalism.” In Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, ed. Gary B. Ferngren (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), pp. 322-34. [Reprinted from The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia, ed. Gary B. Ferngren, Edward J. Larson, and Darrel W. Amundsen (Garland Publishing, 2000), pp. 201-7.]
• Editorial about the "Big Bang" theory and belief in God, “Is the Big Bang Theory Irreligious?”. From Harrisburg Patriot-News, 25 July 2002, p. A-13.
• (Editor, with Michael Hunter). The Works of Robert Boyle,14 volumes. The Pickering Masters series. London: Pickering & Chatto, 1999-2000
• “Boyle, Robert.”  In Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution: From Copernicus to Newton, ed. Wilbur Applebaum (Garland, 2000), pp. 99-102.
• “Appreciating a Scientist-Theologian: Some Remarks on the Work of John Polkinghorne.” Zygon 35.4 (December 2000), 971-6.
• Review of Robert Pennock, Tower of Babel: The Evidence against the New Creationism (MIT Press, 1999), Endeavor 24.2 (2000), 90.
• “Rimmer, Harry.”  In American National Biography, ed. Michael Van Atta (Oxford University Press, 1999), vol. 18, pp. 520-1.
• “Christianity and Early Modern Science: The Foster Thesis Reconsidered.”  In Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective, ed. David N. Livingstone, D.G. Hart, and Mark A. Noll (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 75-95.  For an abstract, click here.
• Review of James Gilbert, Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science (University of Chicago Press, 1997). American Scientist 86 (July/August 1998), 391. [Reprinted with additional material in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 18.2 (March/April 1998), 34-5.  For this longer version, click here.]
• "Debating Darwin: The Intelligent Design Movement." Essay review of Michael Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, Phillip E. Johnson, Defeating Darwinism, by Opening Minds, and J.P. Moreland, ed., The Creation Hypothesis: Scientific Evidence for and Intelligent Designer.  The Christian Century 115 (20) (15-22 July 1998), 678-81.  Reprinted with additional material in Reports of the National Center for Science Education 18.6 (November/December 1998), 20-3.  For this longer version, click here.]
• "A God Who Does Not Itemize Versus a Science of the Sacred."  Essay review of John Polkinghorne, Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale University Press, 1998) and Chet Raymo, Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection between Science and Religion (Walker and Company, 1998). American Scientist 86 (November/December 1998), 572-4.
• Contributed a statement to the volume, Can Science Dispense with Religion?, ed. Mehdi Golshani (Tehran: Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, 1998), pp. 43-7. Now in its 3rd edition (2004).
• (with Michael Hunter) "The Making of Robert Boyle's Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature (1686)." Early Science and Medicine 1 (1996), 204-71.
• (Editor, with Michael Hunter). Robert Boyle, A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature. Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• "Rationalism, Voluntarism, and Seventeenth-Century Science." In Facets of Faith and Science. Volume 3: The Role of Beliefs in the Natural Sciences, ed.Jitse M. van der Meer (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996), 135-56.
• (Editor, and author of introduction). The Antievolution Pamphlets of Harry Rimmer. Volume 6 of the series, "Creationism in Twentieth-Century America," Ronald L. Numbers general editor. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995.
• "Fundamentalism and Folk Science Between the Wars."Religion and American Culture 5 (1995), 217-48. [Named an Exemplary Essay in Humility Theology, 1996, by The John M. Templeton Foundation; click here for an abstract.]
• "Parcere nominibus: Boyle, Hooke, and the Rhetorical Interpretation of Descartes." In Robert Boyle Reconsidered, ed. Michael Hunter (Cambridge, 1994), 157-75.
• "The Anonymous Works of Robert Boyle and the Reasons Why a Protestant Should not Turn Papist (1687)." Journal of the History of Ideas 55 (1994), 611-29. Click here for an abstract.
• The real story behind the false story of a modern Jonah: "A Whale of a Tale: Fundamentalist Fish Stories." Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 43 (1991), 224-37.  This episode was featured on "Making History," broadcast every Friday afternoon on BBC radio 4, in August 2000.
• "Newton's Rejection of the `Newtonian World View': The Role of Divine Will in Newton's Natural Philosophy."  Fides et Historia 22 (Summer 1990), 6-20. [Reprinted in Science & Christian Belief 3 (1991), 103-117. Reprinted with some additional material, in Facets of Faith and Science. Volume 3: The Role of Beliefs in the Natural Sciences, ed. Jitse M. van der Meer (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1996), 75-96.] Named an Exemplary Essay in Humility Theology, 1997, by The John M. Templeton Foundation; click here for an abstract.
• "God, Man, and Nature: The Problem of Creation in Cartesian Thought." Scottish Journal of Theology 44 (1991), 325-48.
• An article about predestination, free choices, and decision theory: "Newcomb's Problem and Divine Foreknowledge." Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation 36 (March 1984): 9-12.

PUBLICATIONS in process:

• “Robert Andrews Millikan (1868-1953): His Religious Life and Thought.” Forthcoming in Nicolaas Rupke (ed)., Eminent Lives in Twentieth-Century Science and Religion, 2nd edn. (Peter Lang Verlag, 2008). For information about the conference leading to this book, click here.
• “Samuel Christian Schmucker’s Christian Vocation.” Forthcoming in Seminary Ridge Review, the journal of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.
• “Smashing Newton’s Clock: Refuting the Claim that Isaac Newton’s Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God,” Forthcoming in Galileo Goes to Jail, and Other Myths about Science and Religion, ed. Ronald L. Numbers (Harvard University Press, 2008).
• “Galileo and the Garden of Eden: Historical Reflections on Creationist Hermeneutics.” Forthcoming in Interpreting Nature & Scripture: History of a Dialogue in the Abrahamic Religions, ed. Jitse M. van der Meer and Scott H. Mandelbrote (Brill Academic Publishers, 2008).
• “Prophet of Science: Arthur Holly Compton on Science, Freedom, Religion, and Morality.” Under consideration for publication in a scholarly journal.
• Spiking Bryan’s Guns: Modernist Pamphlets About “Science and Religion” in a Fundamentalist Era. Book in progress.

COURSES I HAVE TAUGHT

• Introduction to Christianity and Science (lecture/discussion course awarded a prize by The John M. Templeton Founcation
  • To view a syllabus and course materials for this course,click here.
• Issues in Science and Religion (upper-division seminar chosen as a model course by the Templeton Foundation)
• Religion and Science in Modern America
  • To view some important primary texts used in this course,click here.
• History of Modern Science
• Darwin and Darwinism (a course focusing on the controversy about intelligent design)
• Ancient Scientific Ideas
• Introductory Physics (for pre-med, biology, chemistry students), including an 8-week unit on the history and philosophy of modern physics
• Physical Science for Elementary Education
• Capstone: Natural Sciences (senior seminar on historical, philosophical, ethical, and theological aspects of modern science)
• First Year Seminars:
  • Galileo and the Church, both regular and Honors versions of this course
  • Baseball and American Life
• Christendom, Reformation, and Enlightenment (team-taught)
• The Story of the Universe (team-taught)
• Europe to 1789: Religion, Science, and Society (team-taught)

LINKS TO HELPFUL SCIENCE/RELIGION SITES:

• A science/theology center with many good links: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences.
• Excellent resources (including a comprehensive bibliography on science and theology): The John Templeton Oxford Seminars on Science and Christianity.
• Good source for reflective commentary on various contemporary issues: "Leadership University".
• Metanexus, a serious forum for science/faith conversations.
• Counterbalance, an excellent place to start learning about religion/science issues.
• Bob Schneider's "Science and Faith" Page, some thoughtful essays and helpful links designed for readers with little background but a strong interest in the subject. By a retired professor of classical languages at Berea College.
• Allen Harvey's archive of provocative book reviews and commentary.

SOME HONORS AND FELLOWSHIPS:

• Dissertation Year Fellow, Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation, 1983-84
• Esther L. Kinsley Ph.D. Dissertation Prize [best doctoral dissertation in Arts & Sciences], Indiana University, 1985
• Research Grant, National Science Foundation, 1989
• Excellence in Teaching Award, Messiah College, 1990
• Mellon Fellow in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania, 1991-92
• First prize in a competition to pick model courses in science/religion, The John M. Templeton Foundation, 1994
• Grant from Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts to direct a Summer Institute for Fellowship Applicants and Advanced Graduate Students, 1998
• Scholarship Chair, Messiah College, 1998-2000
• Award Winner, Quality and Excellence in Teaching Science and Religion Awards, The John M. Templeton Foundation, 1998
• Resarch Grant (Scholars Award), Science and Technology Studies Program, National Science Foundation, 1999-2000
• Research Grant, The John W. Templeton Foundation, 2001-2

REPRESENTATIVE PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:

• Invited observer, Carner Foundation Conference on "Christianity and Science: 2000 Years of Conflict and Compromise" (University of Wisconsin, April 1981)
• Organized session and presented paper, "The Role of Divine Freedom in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy," at annual meeting of History of Science Society (Indiana University, November 1985)
• Invited lecturer on "Science and Religion in the Seventeenth Century," at workshop for college teachers on "Christianity and the History of Science" directed by David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers (George Fox College, Newberg, OR, July 1986)
• Delivered commentary in session devoted to "Ethnography of Creationism: Non-Polemic Studies of Creationism as a Social Phenomenon," at annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Philadelphia, December 1986). Delivered similar commentary in a session devoted to "Historical Studies of American Antievolutionism," at the annual meeting of the History of Science Society (Raleigh, October 1987)
• Organized session on "Fifty Years after Merton" and presented paper in this session on "The Role of Voluntarist Theology in 17th Century Science," at annual meeting of the American Historical Association (Cincinnati, December 1988)
• Invited contributor, Stalbridge conference on Robert Boyle (Templecombe, Dorset, December 1992)
• Presented paper (with Robin Collins), "Scientific Naturalism: An Historical and Philosophical Overview," at "Reasons to Believe: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Naturalistic vs. Non-Naturalistic Perspectives" (Elizabethtown College, PA, July 1997).
• Presented invited lecture on "Natural Theology in the Seventeenth Century," at “Templeton Seminars on the History of Christianity and Science," directed by Alister McGrath and John Roche (Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University, August 2000)
• Presented paper, "Is the Antievolution Movement Evolving?", at public forum on "The Teaching of Evolution in U.S. Schools: Where Politics, Religion, and Science Converge," at American Association for the Advancement of Science (Washington, September 2000).
• Presented invited lecture on “Unbinding the Two Books: Protestant Modernism, the Warfare Thesis, and the Religion of Science,” at international workshop on “Science and Religion: The Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture” (Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture, Erice-Sicily, July 2003).
• I have lectured at Brooklyn College, Carnegie Mellon University, Concordia University (Wisconsin), Cornell University, Dickinson College, Drexel University, Eastern Mennonite University, Emory University, Franklin & Marshall College, Georg-August-Universität (Göttingen, Germany), Harrisburg Area Community College, Houghton College, Indiana University, Kansas State University, Lebanon Valley College, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Malone College, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see the series, "The Faith of Great Scientists"), Oregon State University, the Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, Princeton University, Rijksuniversiteit (Groningen, The Netherlands), the University of Colorado, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin, West Chester University, Wheaton College (IL), and the Zygon Center for Religion and Science (Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago)
• Consulting editor for Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith since August 1990 and for Science and Christian Belief since January 2002.