Blending Theology with Science: Thomas Browne’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica and the Tradition of Vulgar Errors

Abstract

This article investigates the nature of Thomas Browne’s method of scientific enquiry. It will make comparisons between Bacon’s experimental method and the theological and patristic traditions, with particular regard to the problem and definition of error. Browne was convinced that reason and faith, and nature and religion, were in a relation of cooperation, and shared not only the same origin but the same end, that of God and truth. In light of this, Browne’s use of mutually integrated theological and scientific sources is analyzed to shed some light on the problem of his idiosyncratic notion of experimentalism. The article ultimately attempts to demonstrate that Browne’s method for enquiry was indeed experimental because of the way he investigated theological issues through the collection of data from nature and traditional scriptural materials.