Steven Matthews, Theology and Science in the Thoughts of Francis Bacon (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008), ix + 150 Pps., $99.00.
Steven Matthews is Assistant Professor in the History Department at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He holds a Ph.D. in European History from the University of Florida, where his emphasis was in Early Modern History. Matthews is forthright in asking, in his preface, why there is need for yet another book on Francis Bacon. Fortunately for the reader of this title, Matthews substantiates a case for the need of another book on Bacon in six chapters that are erudite and lucid in their coverage of the life, theology, and legacy of Francis Bacon. He attempts to fill the lacunae of scholarship regarding the systematic development of Bacon’s religious outlook (ix).
The lack of scholarly consensus on how Bacon related to the dominant cultural force of his era, reformation era Christianity, often leads to disparate charges of him being an atheist, a Puritan, a generic ‘Christian’, or an unconcerned believer. Most of the conflicting images of Bacon’s religion reflect concerns of latter eras, and not the era of Bacon himself, Matthews asserts. Matthews asseverates that Bacon’s own faith is especially important to the discussion of his impact upon the discussion, especially considering the fact that Bacon is often viewed as the founding figurehead of the modern scientific method and worldview. Matthews’ methodology in this text is to allow Bacon’s own words to inform the reader as to his philosophical outlook on the relation of science and theology. The common reading of Bacon today, that is, that he taught the domains of religion and science should be kept separate, Matthews claims, is an errant one. Matthews validates his point on this issue by noting the voluminous mention of religion in all of Bacon’s writings.
The first chapter of this text, ‘Breaking with a Puritan Past’, covers the features of the English Reformation that shaped Bacon’s life and thought. The second chapter, ‘Bacon’s Turn toward the Ancient Faith’, traces Bacon’s development away from his strict Puritanical upbringing, and toward an eclectic, non-Calvinistic, religious position (Bacon became disenchanted with many aspects of Calvin’s system of faith in his later life, note). Chapters three, four, and five, titled ‘In the Beginning: The Creation of Nature and the Nature of the Fall’, ‘On the Way of Salvation: Bacon’s Twofold Via Salutis’, and ‘In the Autumn of the World: Features of the Age of Instauration’, respectively, examine the features of Bacon’s theology. A final, summative chapter, focuses upon ‘Bacon’s Circle and his Legacy’. It is the salient features of the final four chapters of this book that will consume the remainder of this review.
Matthews dialogs extensively with Bacon’s idea of Instauratio, which Bacon referred to as the culmination of a step-by-step process that resulted in the restoration of paradise on earth and the full illumination of humanity. This notion derived, ultimately, from Bacon’s reading of Scripture, from which he got the idea that he was on the cusp of an age of tremendous advances. From the book of Genesis, Bacon derived the ideas that God was a God of order, and as a result the cosmos is intelligible (a requirement for science, note), which natural philosophy also reveals (69). Moreover, Bacon allowed that God’s action need not be immediate in all things, but is proximate instead (note that if God acted immediately in all things, he would be the cause of evil, and experimentation would not be possible), which was a notion he also gained from Scripture. Interestingly, Bacon claimed that the Fall was not occasioned by the pursuit of knowledge per se, but the ambitious and proud desire of moral knowledge of good and evil by the progenitors of humanity, with an eye toward revolting from God and making laws for themselves (cf. 67).
However, as noted by Matthews, Bacon saw the intervening years from the Genesis Fall to the seventeenth century as humanity’s attempt to regain what was lost in the Fall. This restoration was one that regained the former fruitful state of the natural world, which, according to Bacon, was the visible direction of history through the actions of God in the world (cf. 81). Indeed, this instauration was taking place in front of Bacon in the imperfect world (101). Moreover, the restitution of the science, while being proximately the product of human agency, was taking place according to the guidance of the divine plan, according to Bacon (89– 90). In fact, according to Bacon, those who participated in the advance of science not only had a divine mandate for their activity, but also participated with God in their activity (104). As a result of this view, human beings could be the agents of their own recovery, provided that they choose to set out upon the new way God had prepared and that Bacon was making known (108).
In reading through this book, it has repetitively arisen within me how Bacon might interact with the postmodern manifestation of Process Theology. There are several points at which Bacon is in agreement with Process Theology, so this is an interesting question that Matthews does not address. For example, according to Bacon, God’s activity permeated all of creation, past, present, and future. One could readily extend this notion, it seems, to the idea that God is ‘in, with, and under’ all activities of the natural world, which not only affirms a panentheistic perspective, but also gives support to a proto-Process perspective as well. Additionally, Bacon seemingly allowed that God created unformed matter (the duration of the creation is unclear), which he thereafter shaped and gave form unto (59), which is another possible corollary to Process Thought, in my opinion.
All in all, this book lives up to its stated goal: to fill the lacunae of scholarship regarding the systematic development of Bacon’s religious outlook, especially in relation to his scientific endeavors. Indeed, Bacon was not so much concerned that religion and science should not be mixed, but that they should not be mixed in the wrong ways. Understood in such a manner, the two books of God – the Bible and nature – attest together the glory and majesty of God. I unabashedly recommend this title for those who have interests in early modern studies, philosophy of science, and the relation of science and religion.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA