ABSTRACT
(with brief definitions of technical terms for reference)
The viability of scientific endeavour requires special conditions of the traditions of belief in which scientists are nurtured. Science-Fostering Beliefs (SFB) are needed to enable people to devote their lives to scientific endeavour with confidence that they will be successful. Among these is the belief that humans are capable of understanding the heights and depths of a cosmos they have never experienced directly. The prescientific cultural traditions from which modern science emerged must have portrayed the cosmos as sufficiently intelligible and the human psyche as adequately intelligent. Historians of science have documented such traditions in medieval and early modern European cultures, where they are found to be based on the idea of divine creation. We further trace the roots of this historic ‘creationist’ tradition back to the ancient Near East, Israel and Greece. Unfortunately, historical treatments of theology have largely neglected these aspects of the idea of creation, thereby reinforcing the erroneous impression that natural science is a nontheological endeavour. The challenge to theology is to bring into focus the role of creational beliefs in the history of secular disciplines like the sciences. A thick description of scientific endeavour, therefore, leads to a thicker view of historical theology.
