Mechanica Medicina Sacra: Biblical Vegetarianism in Philippe Hecquet’s Theological Medicine

In the early eighteenth century, the French Jansenist physician Philippe Hecquet began publishing prolifically on the benefits of what he called “meatless medicine,” calling for a “Catholic cook” to guide France’s physical, moral, and spiritual health. This paper analyzes Hecquet’s defense of vegetarianism as an early modern example of a distinct kind of Biblical medicine – what Hecquet termed “theological medicine” – in the context of his understanding of bodily mechanism, natural history, and Biblical literalism, in his Traité des dispenses du carême (1709) and La medecine théologique, ou la medecine créée (1733). I argue that vegetarianism was the first principle of Hecquet’s Biblical medicine, which he considered both a natural and revealed truth to be grasped and applied by the pious physician.

The Spatial History of Revelation in Carl Ritter’s Erdkunde (1817–59)

Traditional theological concepts, including revelation, shaped academic disciplines as they emerged in nineteenth-century Germany. The first university professor of geography, Carl Ritter, crafted an intriguing spatial history of revelation in his masterful Earth Science in Relation to Nature and the History of Man (1817–1859). The teleological bent of Ritter’s geography and his commitment to intelligent design have encouraged most commentators to regard Ritter as a late manifestation of physicotheology. However, this long-standing explanation of a crucial geographer’s religious platform misconstrues the field’s theological commitments. Physicotheology suffered irreversible losses in the German states in the late eighteenth century. Ritter’s adherence to primordial revelation and biblical literalism typify the religious awakening of the Napoleonic period more than enlightened rationalism. He is best understood as a geographer of religion, dedicated to evangelical missions and intrigued by how the Earth’s features shaped the spread and transformation of religious ideas and practices, including Buddhism.

Nonoverlapping Magisteria

There is no conflict between science and religion. Creationism is only a local movement, prevalent only among the few sectors of American Protestantism that read the Bible as an inerrant, literally true document. Creationism based on biblical literalism makes little sense in either Catholicism or Judaism, for neither religion maintains any extensive tradition for reading the Bible as literal truth. The lack of conflict arises from a lack of overlap between the respective domains of professional expertise of science and religion. No conflict should exist because the magisteria of science and religion do not overlap. According to the principle of NOMA — “nonoverlapping magisteria” — science covers the empirical universe, while religion covers questions of moral meaning and ethical value. This principle was obeyed by both Pius XII and John Paul II. They both saw no conflict between Catholic faith and a theory of evolution. However, there is one important difference between their positions. Pius XII admitted evolution as a legitimate hypothesis, but at the same time he proclaimed that the theory of evolution had not been proven and might well be wrong. On the other hand, John Paul II stated that evolution can no longer be doubted. Now, he stated, evolution must be accepted not merely as a plausible possibility but also as an effectively proven fact. This fact is no threat to religion if one accepts the principle of NOMA. As a consequence of this principle, religion can no longer dictate the factual conclusions that belong to the magisterium of science, nor may scientists decide on moral truths.

Demanding a Verdict: Science and the Apologetics of Biblical Literalism

For many Americans, fundamentalist Christianity is associated with movements to promote biblical literalism and its key tenet, young-earth creationism. Fundamentalism has, for this and other reasons, garnered a widespread reputation for anti-intellectualism in America. However, an effort has been made within certain fundamentalist and evangelical groups to support literalist beliefs with rhetoric and data that imitate scientific discourse. This paper examines examples of science writing from three sources within popcultural apologetics: the bestselling book Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World; the fundamentalist apologetics ministry Answers in Genesis, and the evangelical parachurch organisation known as the Institute for Creation Research.

Non-biblical Tonalities

Chapter 1 revolves around Josef Tal’s 1955 opera Saul at Ein-Dor, whose libretto is word-for-word the narrative given in 1 Samuel 28. Through this opera the chapter examines the actualization of the Bible in Hebrew culture and its promotion of territorial nationalism, as well as the artistic formulations that contested the literalist way Zionists had selectively appropriated the Bible. Under the purview of what Anita Shapira terms “biblical literalism” and Jean-Christophe Attias calls “Zionist biblocentrism,” the literal reading of selected texts facilitated a national allegory that actualized tropes of return, of redemption, and of territorial expansionism. To understand the cultural networks activated by such readings, the chapter studies the works of Ben-Haim, Orgad, Boskovich, and additional works by Tal. A parallel discussion on the portrayals of King Saul in modern Hebrew poetry complements the entire narrative, and a thorough analysis of the post-tonal devices in Tal’s opera concludes the chapter.

Psychological and Theological Predictors of Environmental Attitudes among a Sample of UK Churchgoers

This paper builds on previous studies of UK churchgoers by examining the factors that predict concern for the environment and willingness to make sacrifices to preserve it. A sample of 825 churchgoers from a range of denominations completed a questionnaire that contained items used to assess psychological preferences, biblical literalism, and a range of theological stances toward creation. Psychological variables showed both direct and indirect effects on environmentalism that were in line with previous work by environmental psychologists. Indirect effects were related to the way that some psychological type preferences either shape biblical interpretation or are associated with religious conservatism. Religious affiliation had no direct effects on environmentalism, but did have indirect effects through literalism and religious conservatism. Beliefs about dominion and eschatology directly reduced concern, but dominion was also positively associated with stewardship, which emerged as the main promoter of both concern and sacrifice.

The Influence of the Bible in Shaping the Negative Viewpoint of Korean Christians towards Nature

This paper proposes that the tremendous influence of certain brands of Western theology, historical premillennialism and premillennial dispensationalism, associated with the biblical literalism and dispensationalism which the early western missionaries to Korea taught to the early Korean Protestants, was one of the causes of indifference towards environment. Premillennialism, especially, premillennial dispensationalism has several key doctrines which lead to a negative attitude towards the environment: that the natural world is destined to be totally destroyed by God’s judgment and the devoted believers will be caught up (rapture) in the air from this wicked world in order to be with Christ prior to the great tribulation and then, will return to reign over the world forever. These doctrinal constructs bring certain eschatological N.T texts into clear and central focus, such as (Mk 13:24-27; 1Thess 4:13-5:11; Heb 12:25-29; 2 Pet 3:1-13; Rev 6:12-27; 8:1-13) which advocate these doctrinal constructs. At the same time, other eschatological N.T texts such as (Mk 1:12-13; Rom 8:19-23; Rev 21:1-7, 22:1-5) which illustrate cosmic renewal or reconciliation of all creation are marginalised. The Hermeneutical principles or doctrinal lenses of historical premillennialism and premillennial dispensationalism have shaped biblical interpretation among the early Korean Protestant Christians. This interpretive tradition and preunderstanding of N.T. eschatological texts permeated deeply into the theological thought and perception of Korean Christians towards nature. Such an abiding tendency of interpretation of the eschatological texts in the N.T. shapes Korean Christians’ attitude and indifference towards contemporary environmental issues today. Thus, we need to change both the key doctrinal constructs from the total destruction of earth’s ecosystems to reconciliation of all creation by God’s action in Christ and the central texts from those that seem to highlight earth’s destruction to those that indicate renewal and reconciliation in order to reconfigure the tradition in an ecological direction.

Crusading for Moral Authority: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Science

Numerous studies show biblicist Christianity, religiosity, and conservative political identity are strong predictors of Americans holding skeptical attitudes toward publicly controversial aspects of science, such as human evolution. We show that Christian nationalism—meaning the desire to see particularistic and exclusivist versions of Christian symbols, values, and policies enshrined as the established religion of the United States—is a strong and consistent predictor of Americans’ attitudes about science above and beyond other religious and political characteristics. Further, a majority of the overall effect of political ideology on skepticism about the moral authority of science is mediated through Christian nationalism, indicating that political conservatives are more likely to be concerned with particular aspects of science primarily because they are more likely to be Christian nationalists. Likewise, substantial proportions of the well-documented associations between religiosity and biblical “literalism” with views of science are mediated through Christian nationalism. Because Christian nationalism seeks to establish a particular and exclusivist vision of Christianity as the dominant moral order, adherents feel threatened by challenges to the epistemic authority undergirding that order, including by aspects of science perceived as challenging the supremacy of biblicist authority.