God, Science, and Natural Philosophy in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

Andrew Cunningham and Roger French have made important and provocative claims about natural philosophy and science to which the author likes to reply. The major claim asserts that the object of natural philosophy as a discipline was the study of God's creation and God's attributes. The author evaluates the exant writings of medieval natural philosophers. When investigating connections between God and natural philosophy in the Middle Ages, it is essential to distinguish two quite different aspects of this relationship: (1) the intrusion of God, His creation and theology into the commentaries and questions on Aristotle's natural books, and therefore into natural philosophy; and (2) the intrusion of natural philosophy into theology, that is, the importation of natural philosophy into theological treatises by theologians where natural philosophy was treated in traditional terms as a 'handmaiden to theology', or to combat heretical opinions. Keywords: Aristotle's natural books; God's attributes; God's creation; middle ages; natural philosophy; Roger French; science