A LIBRARIAN’S ORIENTATION
What this book explores
Edited by Ronald Numbers, this collection tests twenty-five recurring claims about science and religion against historical evidence. Its distinctive value is showing that the relationship has been conflictual, cooperative, and entangled in ways slogans obscure.
EDITORIAL NOTE
Why it’s in the Library
It replaces a master slogan with evidence-rich particularity. Travelers can see conflict, cooperation, institutional power, and changing categories without being pushed toward either religious defense or secular triumphalism.
Good starting place if…
You keep encountering confident stories about an eternal war between science and religion and want to test them against historical scholarship.
Know before you begin…
This edited collection corrects twenty-five specific claims; it does not argue that science and religion have always been harmonious. Multiple contributors and cases make it more episodic than a single continuous history.