Between Science and Religion: Angelo Secchi and his Time

Abstract

In addition to his well-known scientific achievements, in his life as a scientist and a Catholic priest, Angelo Secchi (1818–1879) also illustrated the tensions and undertones—social, political, and cultural—of one of the most complex and important periods in the history of Italy and the relationship between the Catholic Church and scientific thought. With the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and Rome becoming its capital, the sociopolitical nature of the Catholic Church underwent a significant transformation. During his lifetime, Secchi addressed some important themes in the debate between the natural sciences and the Christian faith, many of which were destined to persist in later epochs: the possible influence of scientific thought upon materialism, biblical exegesis, the geological dating of the earth, biological evolution, and the possible presence of life in the cosmos. After reviewing some historical notes on astronomy and the Catholic Church in Italy, I examine in more depth two historical moments of Secchi’s life: (a) the events relating to a position of chair of astronomy at the University of Rome “La Sapienza,” which the Kingdom of Italy offered to Secchi but which he ultimately had to refuse; (b) the philosophical and scientific climate of the nineteenth century, including different currents in Italian Catholicism, which informed the intellectual framing of Secchi’s view on science and faith.