During the Middle Ages Christian theology at one point sought to delimit Aristotelian natural science; specific propositions from Thomas Aquinas's effort to synthesize revelation and Aristotelian science were condemned by the bishop of Paris in 1277 (and not formally revoked until 1325). The trial of Galileo Galilei for his support of Copernican astronomy is another widely cited example. (The 1633 edict of the Inquisition was not formally revoked until 1992.) The 1925 trial of
Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes concerned with the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public schools is yet another celebrated case, as is mentioned in an entry on its contemporary echo, the "Evolution–Creationism Debate."
Analyzing these and related cases scholars have distinguished a spectrum of possible interactions between science and religion, some focusing more on theological issues, others on ethics. No one has done more to parse these debates than the physicist and theologian Ian G. Barbour, winner of the 1999 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. According to Barbour (2000), there are at least four distinctive relations between science and religion: conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. In a series of books published over a forty-year period, Barbour explores such relations across history, in different theological communities, and in diverse branches of science such as astronomy and cosmology, quantum physics, evolutionary biology, and genetics.
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