The Fathers of the Early Christian Church and Their Relationship to Science and Medicine in Modern Historiography
Natalia Shok, PhD, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
Until the 1970s the historiographical tendency of twentieth-century historians of science was to assume a conflict between science and religion, especially Christianity. Historians who held this view argued that the Fathers of the early Christian church held negative views of science and medicine. Two commonly cited examples were Tatian (second century A.D.) and Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225). We shall argue that because both held heterodox views (Tatian became an enkratist and Tertullian a Montanist) that resulted in their excommunication from the church, their views cannot be considered as representative of the early Fathers. Moreover, an analysis of patristic sources of the second and third centuries reveals that the Alexandrian school of theology from Clement (160-215) to Dionysius the Great (d. 264/5) created an approach to natural philosophy that was based on the assimilation of classical philosophical ideas taken over from Plato and Aristotle and was strongly critical of atomism. This understanding of natural philosophy in the Alexandrian tradition had a positive influence on the development of natural science and medicine that helps to explain, for example, the influence of Galenism in the the third century.
Until the 1970s the historiographical tendency of twentieth-century historians of science was to assume a conflict between science and religion, especially Christianity. Historians who held this view argued that the Fathers of the early Christian church held negative views of science and medicine. Two commonly cited examples were Tatian (second century A.D.) and Tertullian (c. 160-c. 225). We shall argue that because both held heterodox views (Tatian became an enkratist and Tertullian a Montanist) that resulted in their excommunication from the church, their views cannot be considered as representative of the early Fathers. Moreover, an analysis of patristic sources of the second and third centuries reveals that the Alexandrian school of theology from Clement (160-215) to Dionysius the Great (d. 264/5) created an approach to natural philosophy that was based on the assimilation of classical philosophical ideas taken over from Plato and Aristotle and was strongly critical of atomism. This understanding of natural philosophy in the Alexandrian tradition had a positive influence on the development of natural science and medicine that helps to explain, for example, the influence of Galenism in the the third century.