The dispute between Galileo and the Catholic Church Parts 1 & 2
DONALD DEMARCO The Galileo affair is essentially a human drama played out by a cast of flawed and finite characters. It has the plausible pretext of being a loftier dispute involving science, philosophy, theology, and society. But in the main, it is a clash of souls, some less noble than others. There is a subtle […]
The Galileo Legend
THOMAS LESSL The extent to which people are mislead by the Galileo legend first began to dawn on me several years ago when I was teaching a doctoral seminar in the history of rhetoric — my own academic field. Galileo Galilei(1564-1642) One day, as I was outlining some of the positive contributions made by medieval […]
The Papacy and Galileo
PATRICK MADRID Many have unwittingly embraced the myth that Galileo Galilei, a 17th-century Italian astronomer, discovered the heliocentricity of the solar system and, because his discovery conflicted with Catholic teaching, was tortured until he recanted. It’s often said that after recanting Galileo obstinately muttered under his breath, “E pur si muove” (Italian: “And yet it […]
Faith can never conflict with reason
Pope John Paul II The ‘Galileo case’ teaches us that different branches of knowledge call for different methods, each of which brings out various aspects of reality In 1979 Pope John Paul II expressed the wish that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences would conduct an indepth study of the celebrated and controversial “Galileo case”. A […]
The Galileo Legend
THOMAS LESSL The extent to which people are mislead by the Galileo legend first began to dawn on me several years ago when I was teaching a doctoral seminar in the history of rhetoric — my own academic field. Galileo Galilei(1564-1642) One day, as I was outlining some of the positive contributions made by medieval […]
Galileo and the Inquisition
William E. Carroll Introduction [1] On the occasion of the publication, in March 1987, of the Catholic Church’s condemnation of in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and fetal experimentation, there appeared a cartoon in a Roman newspaper, in which two bishops are standing next to a telescope. In the distant night sky, in addition to Saturn and the Moon, […]
The Galileo Affair
No episode in the history of the Catholic Church is so misunderstood as the condemnation of Galileo. It is, in Newman’s phrase, the one stock argument used to show that science and Catholic dogma are antagonistic. To the popular mind, the Galileo affair is prima facie evidence that the free pursuit of truth became possible only after […]
Galileo Galilei
BERTRAND CONWAY This article clears up some of the misinformation that still swirls around the Galileo case. Among other things it shows that the Jesuits were not the ones responsible for his condemnation, that Galileo was not forced to recant his convictions against his will, that the Church’s doctrine of infallibility was not involved and […]
Galileo
ANNE W. CARROLL In terms of its effect on science, the scientific revolution was all to the good. However, since the universe came to be seen as working according to rigid laws, God began to be thought of as unnecessary to its day-to-day operation. Out of the scientific revolution came a controversy which has been […]