What is the theme in Science and the Enlightenment by Thomas L. Hankins?

One of the key disputes during the enlightenment was between mechanical and vital explanations of natural phenomena, especially motion. The proponents of the mechanical view included Descartes and Newton, while the vitalists were led by Leibniz. Mechanists held that the physical world was purely a world of matter and that God's direct intervention was necessary for motion to occur. That is, force was explained in some sense by the intervention of God.