Books by Derrick Peterson
Cascade Books
We are all haunted by histories. They shape our presuppositions and ballast our judgments. In ter... more We are all haunted by histories. They shape our presuppositions and ballast our judgments. In terms of science and religion this means most of us walk about haunted by rumors of a long war. However, there is no such thing as the “history of the conflict of science and Christianity,” and this is a book about it. In the last half of the twentieth century a sea change in the history of science and religion occurred, revealing not only that the perception of protracted warfare between religion and science was a curious set of mythologies that had been combined together into a sort of supermyth in need of debunking. It was also seen that this collective mythology arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by historians involved in many sides of the debates over Darwin’s discoveries, and from there latched onto the public imagination at large. Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes takes the reader on a journey showing how these myths were constructed, collected together, and eventually debunked. Join us for a story of flat earths and fake footnotes, to uncover the strange tale of how the conflict of science and Christianity was written into history.
"Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers a comprehensive and compelling demolition of the tired myth of an enduring conflict between science and religion. Peterson not only exposes the historical bankruptcy of this familiar story, but also shows how it became a foundational narrative for Western modernity and why it persists. Beautifully written
and impeccably researched, this book deserves a wide readership."
-Peter Harrison, Former Andreas-Idreos Chair of Science and Religion, Oxford University, Current Australian Laureate Fellow and Author of The Territories of Science and Religion
"Peterson shows himself a gifted storyteller as well as scholar, combining true accounts of famous events (which prove no less interesting than the legends that have grown up around them and in some cases have replaced them) with the story of how those events were overlaid and refashioned into the myth so many treat as common
knowledge today: the untrue history of the war between religion and science. In an era full of so much untruth, Peterson's book is a breath of fresh air."
--James F. McGrath Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University and Author of Science Fiction Theology.
"This work on the historiography of science and Christianity is
must-reading for high schoolers and college students, along with their parents and professors, and will, if heeded, change the way future generations will see the world. It
It is not easy to debunk a history that never happened, but Peterson has done precisely that, and achieved it admirably. The history of science is littered with stellar figures of immense importance, erudite thinking, and deeply Christian convictions. A new generation of Christians needs to be reacquainted with these scientific saints and Peterson's
work is a sure guide to this task."
--Myk Habets, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Laidlaw College, New Zealand. Author of Theology in Transposition: A Constructive Appraisal of T.F. Torrance
"Peterson is seeking to wake us from our dogmatic slumbers. Historians of
science, scholars of religion, and theologians often plough separate furrows, paying little attention to each other's work. But in Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, Peterson has brought them all into conversation, condensing a truly vast amount of scholarship. He has shown, moreover, that scholars ignore each other at their own peril. Despite over
a hundred years of scholarship debunking the so-called 'conflict thesis,' the idea thatscience and religion are at war, perceptions of conflict persist. The only way forward from our scholarly impasse is to combine these fields of scholarship to paint a more comprehensive picture of what is going on. Impeccably researched and thoroughly readable, Peterson offers the reader a tour de force of the best research in the history
of science, religion, and theology."
--James C. Ungureanu, honorary research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict
"Those who set the historiographical terms of debate frame the narrative involving the alleged conflict of Christian faith and science. Derrick Peterson's learned interdisciplinary study tracing the formation and deconstruction of the erroneous though ever-popular warfare thesis carefully sets the stage for future constructive work recounting
the complex developments of scientific history involving Christianity. Flat
Earths and Fake Footnotes provides the kind of critical analysis and creative catalyst so greatly needed today if we are to build nuanced understanding and trust between the scientific and faith communities for the sake of human flourishing."
--Paul Louis Metzger, Multnomah University & Seminary, Author of The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: The Sacred
and the Secular Through the Theology of Karl Barth
"Why won't this stubborn pseudohistory die? To the rescue comes Peterson, a historian extraordinaire with many stories to tell. Exuding a palpable glee, he quests to debunk the grand pseudohistorical myths of conflict. His book about books leads the reader in an adventure across centuries. Hacking through the webs of false references and out-right fabrications, the payoff is a glimpse of what really happened.
The truth is far more hopeful than the fiction. Rather than inevitable conflict, the true arc of science and religion might be dialogue, maybe even friendship. May this book
get the wide readership it deserves."
--S. Joshua Swamidass, M.D., Ph.D., Author of The Genealogical Adam and Eve
"Peterson offers us more than simply another genealogy debunking the warfare thesis. Rather, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers us a deeply learned and absorbing meta-genealogy: a story of why and how the historiography that manufactured the myth of faith/science
conflict came to be superseded by the alternative and debunking historiography that we find today. The result is among the clearest and most bracing articulations I've read on the complex historical interplay between religion and science. Peterson's narrative
corrects our retellings of that interplay in the past. But more than that, Flat Earths challenges us to make explicit our present interests in such retellings and encourages us to imagine what sort of future for science and religion we are projecting with our historiographies. A remarkable first book by a formidable young scholar."
--Sameer Yadav, Author of The Problem of Perception and the Experience of God: Toward a Theological Empiricism
"In this remarkable volume, Peterson collates and contributes to a quiet revolution in the world of scholarship that is just now being disseminated to the masses. In your hands lies not just a book but the intersection of more scholarly threads than I thought possible in a single volume. Like a relentless detective, Peterson removes the dramatic
curtain that has been put over our collective consciousness for so very long, and what remains is a tale of mere mortals, behaving very much as they do today. None will leave without enduring the slow dissipation of myths that we didn't know we believed.
The cosmos that remains is, of course, so much more interesting and grand. This should serve as the definitive nail in the coffin of the warfare thesis for a generation to come. Even more than that, and especially delightful, it is a model of intellectual curiosity--of what scholarship ought to be."
--Joseph Minich The Davenant Institute
"Peterson's detailed and well-researched description and argument ought to dispel any notion that the earliest 'scientists' were hindered by religion in their pursuit of understanding the natural world. A must read."
--Mike L. Gurney, Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics, Multnomah University
"Peterson's book is another nail in the coffin of the Warfare Thesis and takes a different tack and gives an interesting and illuminatingly different perspective than the standard fair. Highly recommended."
-Michael Roberts. Retired Anglican priest and Historian of geology and Genesis. Author of Evangelicals and Science
"As a *very* hopeful agnostic, I have a keen interest on the relationship between science and faith. This book is probably the most delightful exploration of this history that I have ever read. In an erudite yet entertaining manner, Peterson explores this history in a way that undoubtedly makes the case that the enmity between science and religion, although undoubtedly present, has been rather exaggerated. Peterson acts as an ideal ambassador between these two disciplines. ... Using the obligated--yet fully felt--remark, I must say: Highly recommended."
--Oné R. Pagán, PhD, Professor of Biology, West Chester University.
Author of 'The First Brain', 'Strange Survivors', and 'Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins'.
Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History, 2020
A working bibliography for my upcoming book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of ... more A working bibliography for my upcoming book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History.
Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History, 2020
Draft of two chapters for my upcoming book, "Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of ... more Draft of two chapters for my upcoming book, "Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How The Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History." These two chapters focus upon the construction and deconstruction of the fallacious notion of the "Dark Ages," caused by Christians. Along the way, many myths that help build this misunderstanding are dealt with, such as the burning of the library of Alexandria, the death of Hypatia, Christian destruction of ancient knowledge, and even the peculiar notions that Christians forbade human dissection. Above all, these two chapters aim to demonstrate that, much as the myth of the warfare of science and Christianity generally, the notion of the Dark Ages was catalyzed and weaponized in the latter half of the nineteenth century as a general weapon against the established Churches of Catholicism and Anglicanism by many like Huxley, Draper, White, and Tyndall.
What Happened to Divine Simplicity in the 20th Century? Robert Jenson once wrote that "it is prec... more What Happened to Divine Simplicity in the 20th Century? Robert Jenson once wrote that "it is precisely at this point [Divine Simplicity]" that contemporary theology rebels against. What happened to cause this shift? While there are certainly many conceptual difficulties with DDS, this paper argues that several major criticisms are actually the result of caricature and historical distortion. These historical distortions can be traced to the coining of the category "Classical Theism," which itself isn't so classical but arose as a term of polemic by Process theologians and philosophers in the mid-20th century.
Philosophy and the Christian: The Quest for Wisdom in the Light of Christ, 2018
The West's sense of itself, its relation to its past, and its sense of its future were all profou... more The West's sense of itself, its relation to its past, and its sense of its future were all profoundly altered as cognitive values generally came to be shaped around scientific ones. Amidst these changing values a whole slew of mythology concerning how theology, scripture, natural philosophy, and science have related to one another. This essay briefly looks at several case studies--the flat earth, the Galileo affair, and the doctrine of creation from nothing--to dispel many myths and give examples of how many factors like socio-cultural, economic, and personal psychology all played a role.
This is an overview essay of a book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, forthcoming with Cascade Boo... more This is an overview essay of a book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, forthcoming with Cascade Books in 2019. Our book will detail the sea-change in the historiography of Christianity and science that has taken place in the last fifty or so years, which has completely dismantled the so-called “conflict thesis” describing the perennial war between science and Christianity. With this dismantling of the trope of warfare also comes the question: how, when, and by whom was this story of conflict constructed? The book will attempt to answer those questions in three narrative-driven sections of multiple chapters each: the first section will detail the changes in historiography of science and Christianity, as well as key moments in the myth of warfare’s construction. The second section will then explore how versions of the so-called “secularization thesis” in their many forms led to theology being overlooked, even deleted from the historical record. This new absence of theology as a formation context in the historical record in turn leads to an exaggeration of the perceived antagonisms between science and theology that the myths from the first section create. Finally, a third section will detail how the myth of war and the deletion of theology from the historical record has affected perceptions of theology as a discipline today, especially focusing on how contemporary misconceptions retroactively warped the richness of a Christian theology of creation.
Papers by Derrick Peterson
Collecting together a few major ideas from the last thirty or so years of work done on the histor... more Collecting together a few major ideas from the last thirty or so years of work done on the history and historiography of Christianity and Darwinism.
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Mar 1, 2022
We are all haunted by histories. They shape our presuppositions and ballast our judgments. In ter... more We are all haunted by histories. They shape our presuppositions and ballast our judgments. In terms of science and religion this means most of us walk about haunted by rumors of a long war. However, there is no such thing as the “history of the conflict of science and Christianity,” and this is a book about it. In the last half of the twentieth century a sea change in the history of science and religion occurred, revealing not only that the perception of protracted warfare between religion and science was a curious set of mythologies that had been combined together into a sort of supermyth in need of debunking. It was also seen that this collective mythology arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by historians involved in many sides of the debates over Darwin’s discoveries, and from there latched onto the public imagination at large. Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes takes the reader on a journey showing how these myths were constructed, collected together, and eventually debunked. Join us for a story of flat earths and fake footnotes, to uncover the strange tale of how the conflict of science and Christianity was written into history. "Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers a comprehensive and compelling demolition of the tired myth of an enduring conflict between science and religion. Peterson not only exposes the historical bankruptcy of this familiar story, but also shows how it became a foundational narrative for Western modernity and why it persists. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, this book deserves a wide readership." -Peter Harrison, Former Andreas-Idreos Chair of Science and Religion, Oxford University, Current Australian Laureate Fellow and Author of The Territories of Science and Religion "Peterson shows himself a gifted storyteller as well as scholar, combining true accounts of famous events (which prove no less interesting than the legends that have grown up around them and in some cases have replaced them) with the story of how those events were overlaid and refashioned into the myth so many treat as common knowledge today: the untrue history of the war between religion and science. In an era full of so much untruth, Peterson's book is a breath of fresh air." --James F. McGrath Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University and Author of Science Fiction Theology. "This work on the historiography of science and Christianity is must-reading for high schoolers and college students, along with their parents and professors, and will, if heeded, change the way future generations will see the world. It It is not easy to debunk a history that never happened, but Peterson has done precisely that, and achieved it admirably. The history of science is littered with stellar figures of immense importance, erudite thinking, and deeply Christian convictions. A new generation of Christians needs to be reacquainted with these scientific saints and Peterson's work is a sure guide to this task." --Myk Habets, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Laidlaw College, New Zealand. Author of Theology in Transposition: A Constructive Appraisal of T.F. Torrance "Peterson is seeking to wake us from our dogmatic slumbers. Historians of science, scholars of religion, and theologians often plough separate furrows, paying little attention to each other's work. But in Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, Peterson has brought them all into conversation, condensing a truly vast amount of scholarship. He has shown, moreover, that scholars ignore each other at their own peril. Despite over a hundred years of scholarship debunking the so-called 'conflict thesis,' the idea thatscience and religion are at war, perceptions of conflict persist. The only way forward from our scholarly impasse is to combine these fields of scholarship to paint a more comprehensive picture of what is going on. Impeccably researched and thoroughly readable, Peterson offers the reader a tour de force of the best research in the history of science, religion, and theology." --James C. Ungureanu, honorary research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict "Those who set the historiographical terms of debate frame the narrative involving the alleged conflict of Christian faith and science. Derrick Peterson's learned interdisciplinary study tracing the formation and deconstruction of the erroneous though ever-popular warfare thesis carefully sets the stage for future constructive work recounting the complex developments of scientific history involving Christianity. Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes provides the kind of critical analysis and creative catalyst so greatly needed today if we are to build nuanced understanding and trust…
Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, 2021
Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, 2021
Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, 2021
Cultural Encounters, 2013
I briefly look at how the largely forgotten debate between Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson play... more I briefly look at how the largely forgotten debate between Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson played into the historiographical backbone supporting what later came to be called the Analytic-Continental divide in philosophy. While I do not claim this is *the* reason for the divide, or the perception of the divide, it is a key moment that has been largely neglected by recent literature.
A paper examining some of the historiographical contours of the use of Duns Scotus in the movemen... more A paper examining some of the historiographical contours of the use of Duns Scotus in the movement known as Radical Orthodoxy
A cliff-notes version of some of the claims made on early Christian reception of Darwinism in my ... more A cliff-notes version of some of the claims made on early Christian reception of Darwinism in my book Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How The Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History
There have been many attempts to coin a phrase or concept that best expresses the essence of the ... more There have been many attempts to coin a phrase or concept that best expresses the essence of the modern age—the coming of age of humanity, the Copernican revolution, the turn to epistemology, the turn to the subject, the age of anxiety—and most have quite a bit to recommend themselves as useful, if incomplete. For this presentation I would like to suggest one more historiography: modernity can be understood as the age of theodicy.
Ad Fontes, 2018
"Classical Theism" has become a term both of censure and praise--but where did the phrase come fr... more "Classical Theism" has become a term both of censure and praise--but where did the phrase come from? And do the concepts often associated with it actually represent many thinkers sheltered under its umbrella like Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, or many of the Eastern Fathers? In this essay we discover that "classical theism" was actually a term of polemic coined by Process Theologians and Philosophers, and that it carries with it many distortions that do not represent the figures being critiqued.
Ad Fontes, 2018
Copernicus and Galileo are frequently misunderstood to be textbook case studies of how scripture ... more Copernicus and Galileo are frequently misunderstood to be textbook case studies of how scripture was used by the Church against scientific innovation. Our paper briefly explores both how this perception came to be historiographically, and how scripture and science were utilized in the debates over heliocentrism. Far from "science vs. religion," these situations embody a complex array of hermeneutical and scientific reasoning which show that
Our paper will explore how versions of the so-called “secularization thesis” in their many forms ... more Our paper will explore how versions of the so-called “secularization thesis” in their many forms led to theology being overlooked, even deleted from the historical record. This new absence of theology as a formation context for many important ideas and practices we today consider "non-theological" in turn led and still leads to an exaggeration of the perceived antagonisms between science and theology. Finally, we will detail how the myth of war and the deletion of theology from the historical record has affected perceptions of theology as a discipline today, especially focusing on how contemporary misconceptions retroactively warped the richness of a Christian theology of creation.
Cultural Encounters: A Journal for the Theology of Culture, 2016
Trinitarianism has become less about the Trinity and more about how the Trinity overcomes "this p... more Trinitarianism has become less about the Trinity and more about how the Trinity overcomes "this problem" or "that history" thereby often distorting the doctrine for the sake of application. This becomes even worse when some of the problems and histories are misunderstood, or caricatured. This essay looks at three categories used liberally in recent Trinitarianism in order to make the case that many of the constructive moves made are based on the fear of misunderstood histories: Classical theism, Rahner's Rule, and the so-called "De Regnon Paradigm."
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Books by Derrick Peterson
"Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers a comprehensive and compelling demolition of the tired myth of an enduring conflict between science and religion. Peterson not only exposes the historical bankruptcy of this familiar story, but also shows how it became a foundational narrative for Western modernity and why it persists. Beautifully written
and impeccably researched, this book deserves a wide readership."
-Peter Harrison, Former Andreas-Idreos Chair of Science and Religion, Oxford University, Current Australian Laureate Fellow and Author of The Territories of Science and Religion
"Peterson shows himself a gifted storyteller as well as scholar, combining true accounts of famous events (which prove no less interesting than the legends that have grown up around them and in some cases have replaced them) with the story of how those events were overlaid and refashioned into the myth so many treat as common
knowledge today: the untrue history of the war between religion and science. In an era full of so much untruth, Peterson's book is a breath of fresh air."
--James F. McGrath Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University and Author of Science Fiction Theology.
"This work on the historiography of science and Christianity is
must-reading for high schoolers and college students, along with their parents and professors, and will, if heeded, change the way future generations will see the world. It
It is not easy to debunk a history that never happened, but Peterson has done precisely that, and achieved it admirably. The history of science is littered with stellar figures of immense importance, erudite thinking, and deeply Christian convictions. A new generation of Christians needs to be reacquainted with these scientific saints and Peterson's
work is a sure guide to this task."
--Myk Habets, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Laidlaw College, New Zealand. Author of Theology in Transposition: A Constructive Appraisal of T.F. Torrance
"Peterson is seeking to wake us from our dogmatic slumbers. Historians of
science, scholars of religion, and theologians often plough separate furrows, paying little attention to each other's work. But in Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, Peterson has brought them all into conversation, condensing a truly vast amount of scholarship. He has shown, moreover, that scholars ignore each other at their own peril. Despite over
a hundred years of scholarship debunking the so-called 'conflict thesis,' the idea thatscience and religion are at war, perceptions of conflict persist. The only way forward from our scholarly impasse is to combine these fields of scholarship to paint a more comprehensive picture of what is going on. Impeccably researched and thoroughly readable, Peterson offers the reader a tour de force of the best research in the history
of science, religion, and theology."
--James C. Ungureanu, honorary research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict
"Those who set the historiographical terms of debate frame the narrative involving the alleged conflict of Christian faith and science. Derrick Peterson's learned interdisciplinary study tracing the formation and deconstruction of the erroneous though ever-popular warfare thesis carefully sets the stage for future constructive work recounting
the complex developments of scientific history involving Christianity. Flat
Earths and Fake Footnotes provides the kind of critical analysis and creative catalyst so greatly needed today if we are to build nuanced understanding and trust between the scientific and faith communities for the sake of human flourishing."
--Paul Louis Metzger, Multnomah University & Seminary, Author of The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: The Sacred
and the Secular Through the Theology of Karl Barth
"Why won't this stubborn pseudohistory die? To the rescue comes Peterson, a historian extraordinaire with many stories to tell. Exuding a palpable glee, he quests to debunk the grand pseudohistorical myths of conflict. His book about books leads the reader in an adventure across centuries. Hacking through the webs of false references and out-right fabrications, the payoff is a glimpse of what really happened.
The truth is far more hopeful than the fiction. Rather than inevitable conflict, the true arc of science and religion might be dialogue, maybe even friendship. May this book
get the wide readership it deserves."
--S. Joshua Swamidass, M.D., Ph.D., Author of The Genealogical Adam and Eve
"Peterson offers us more than simply another genealogy debunking the warfare thesis. Rather, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers us a deeply learned and absorbing meta-genealogy: a story of why and how the historiography that manufactured the myth of faith/science
conflict came to be superseded by the alternative and debunking historiography that we find today. The result is among the clearest and most bracing articulations I've read on the complex historical interplay between religion and science. Peterson's narrative
corrects our retellings of that interplay in the past. But more than that, Flat Earths challenges us to make explicit our present interests in such retellings and encourages us to imagine what sort of future for science and religion we are projecting with our historiographies. A remarkable first book by a formidable young scholar."
--Sameer Yadav, Author of The Problem of Perception and the Experience of God: Toward a Theological Empiricism
"In this remarkable volume, Peterson collates and contributes to a quiet revolution in the world of scholarship that is just now being disseminated to the masses. In your hands lies not just a book but the intersection of more scholarly threads than I thought possible in a single volume. Like a relentless detective, Peterson removes the dramatic
curtain that has been put over our collective consciousness for so very long, and what remains is a tale of mere mortals, behaving very much as they do today. None will leave without enduring the slow dissipation of myths that we didn't know we believed.
The cosmos that remains is, of course, so much more interesting and grand. This should serve as the definitive nail in the coffin of the warfare thesis for a generation to come. Even more than that, and especially delightful, it is a model of intellectual curiosity--of what scholarship ought to be."
--Joseph Minich The Davenant Institute
"Peterson's detailed and well-researched description and argument ought to dispel any notion that the earliest 'scientists' were hindered by religion in their pursuit of understanding the natural world. A must read."
--Mike L. Gurney, Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics, Multnomah University
"Peterson's book is another nail in the coffin of the Warfare Thesis and takes a different tack and gives an interesting and illuminatingly different perspective than the standard fair. Highly recommended."
-Michael Roberts. Retired Anglican priest and Historian of geology and Genesis. Author of Evangelicals and Science
"As a *very* hopeful agnostic, I have a keen interest on the relationship between science and faith. This book is probably the most delightful exploration of this history that I have ever read. In an erudite yet entertaining manner, Peterson explores this history in a way that undoubtedly makes the case that the enmity between science and religion, although undoubtedly present, has been rather exaggerated. Peterson acts as an ideal ambassador between these two disciplines. ... Using the obligated--yet fully felt--remark, I must say: Highly recommended."
--Oné R. Pagán, PhD, Professor of Biology, West Chester University.
Author of 'The First Brain', 'Strange Survivors', and 'Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins'.
Papers by Derrick Peterson
"Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers a comprehensive and compelling demolition of the tired myth of an enduring conflict between science and religion. Peterson not only exposes the historical bankruptcy of this familiar story, but also shows how it became a foundational narrative for Western modernity and why it persists. Beautifully written
and impeccably researched, this book deserves a wide readership."
-Peter Harrison, Former Andreas-Idreos Chair of Science and Religion, Oxford University, Current Australian Laureate Fellow and Author of The Territories of Science and Religion
"Peterson shows himself a gifted storyteller as well as scholar, combining true accounts of famous events (which prove no less interesting than the legends that have grown up around them and in some cases have replaced them) with the story of how those events were overlaid and refashioned into the myth so many treat as common
knowledge today: the untrue history of the war between religion and science. In an era full of so much untruth, Peterson's book is a breath of fresh air."
--James F. McGrath Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature, Butler University and Author of Science Fiction Theology.
"This work on the historiography of science and Christianity is
must-reading for high schoolers and college students, along with their parents and professors, and will, if heeded, change the way future generations will see the world. It
It is not easy to debunk a history that never happened, but Peterson has done precisely that, and achieved it admirably. The history of science is littered with stellar figures of immense importance, erudite thinking, and deeply Christian convictions. A new generation of Christians needs to be reacquainted with these scientific saints and Peterson's
work is a sure guide to this task."
--Myk Habets, Senior Lecturer in Theology, Laidlaw College, New Zealand. Author of Theology in Transposition: A Constructive Appraisal of T.F. Torrance
"Peterson is seeking to wake us from our dogmatic slumbers. Historians of
science, scholars of religion, and theologians often plough separate furrows, paying little attention to each other's work. But in Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, Peterson has brought them all into conversation, condensing a truly vast amount of scholarship. He has shown, moreover, that scholars ignore each other at their own peril. Despite over
a hundred years of scholarship debunking the so-called 'conflict thesis,' the idea thatscience and religion are at war, perceptions of conflict persist. The only way forward from our scholarly impasse is to combine these fields of scholarship to paint a more comprehensive picture of what is going on. Impeccably researched and thoroughly readable, Peterson offers the reader a tour de force of the best research in the history
of science, religion, and theology."
--James C. Ungureanu, honorary research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland and in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Author of Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict
"Those who set the historiographical terms of debate frame the narrative involving the alleged conflict of Christian faith and science. Derrick Peterson's learned interdisciplinary study tracing the formation and deconstruction of the erroneous though ever-popular warfare thesis carefully sets the stage for future constructive work recounting
the complex developments of scientific history involving Christianity. Flat
Earths and Fake Footnotes provides the kind of critical analysis and creative catalyst so greatly needed today if we are to build nuanced understanding and trust between the scientific and faith communities for the sake of human flourishing."
--Paul Louis Metzger, Multnomah University & Seminary, Author of The Word of Christ and the World of Culture: The Sacred
and the Secular Through the Theology of Karl Barth
"Why won't this stubborn pseudohistory die? To the rescue comes Peterson, a historian extraordinaire with many stories to tell. Exuding a palpable glee, he quests to debunk the grand pseudohistorical myths of conflict. His book about books leads the reader in an adventure across centuries. Hacking through the webs of false references and out-right fabrications, the payoff is a glimpse of what really happened.
The truth is far more hopeful than the fiction. Rather than inevitable conflict, the true arc of science and religion might be dialogue, maybe even friendship. May this book
get the wide readership it deserves."
--S. Joshua Swamidass, M.D., Ph.D., Author of The Genealogical Adam and Eve
"Peterson offers us more than simply another genealogy debunking the warfare thesis. Rather, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes offers us a deeply learned and absorbing meta-genealogy: a story of why and how the historiography that manufactured the myth of faith/science
conflict came to be superseded by the alternative and debunking historiography that we find today. The result is among the clearest and most bracing articulations I've read on the complex historical interplay between religion and science. Peterson's narrative
corrects our retellings of that interplay in the past. But more than that, Flat Earths challenges us to make explicit our present interests in such retellings and encourages us to imagine what sort of future for science and religion we are projecting with our historiographies. A remarkable first book by a formidable young scholar."
--Sameer Yadav, Author of The Problem of Perception and the Experience of God: Toward a Theological Empiricism
"In this remarkable volume, Peterson collates and contributes to a quiet revolution in the world of scholarship that is just now being disseminated to the masses. In your hands lies not just a book but the intersection of more scholarly threads than I thought possible in a single volume. Like a relentless detective, Peterson removes the dramatic
curtain that has been put over our collective consciousness for so very long, and what remains is a tale of mere mortals, behaving very much as they do today. None will leave without enduring the slow dissipation of myths that we didn't know we believed.
The cosmos that remains is, of course, so much more interesting and grand. This should serve as the definitive nail in the coffin of the warfare thesis for a generation to come. Even more than that, and especially delightful, it is a model of intellectual curiosity--of what scholarship ought to be."
--Joseph Minich The Davenant Institute
"Peterson's detailed and well-researched description and argument ought to dispel any notion that the earliest 'scientists' were hindered by religion in their pursuit of understanding the natural world. A must read."
--Mike L. Gurney, Professor of Philosophy and Apologetics, Multnomah University
"Peterson's book is another nail in the coffin of the Warfare Thesis and takes a different tack and gives an interesting and illuminatingly different perspective than the standard fair. Highly recommended."
-Michael Roberts. Retired Anglican priest and Historian of geology and Genesis. Author of Evangelicals and Science
"As a *very* hopeful agnostic, I have a keen interest on the relationship between science and faith. This book is probably the most delightful exploration of this history that I have ever read. In an erudite yet entertaining manner, Peterson explores this history in a way that undoubtedly makes the case that the enmity between science and religion, although undoubtedly present, has been rather exaggerated. Peterson acts as an ideal ambassador between these two disciplines. ... Using the obligated--yet fully felt--remark, I must say: Highly recommended."
--Oné R. Pagán, PhD, Professor of Biology, West Chester University.
Author of 'The First Brain', 'Strange Survivors', and 'Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins'.