Why you should become a Bible-believing anarchist
who also believes the universe was created around 4004 B.C.
I asked ChatGPT:
Did any Christians do any scientific work or theory from the fall of Rome to the Reformation?
ChatGPT:
Yes — quite a lot, in fact. The thousand years between the fall of Rome (traditionally A.D. 476) and the Reformation (beginning A.D. 1517) were not a “dark age” for Christian thought or science.
Here’s a concise overview by period and theme:
1. The Early Middle Ages (5th–10th centuries)
Although Europe lost much classical infrastructure, Christian monasteries preserved and copied scientific and philosophical texts.
Key figures:
Boethius (c. 480–524) – translated Aristotle’s Categories and On Interpretation, keeping logic alive.
Isidore of Seville (560–636) – his Etymologiae gathered all known knowledge of nature, astronomy, and medicine; a sort of early encyclopedia.
The Venerable Bede (672–735) – wrote De temporum ratione (“On the Reckoning of Time”), calculating the age of the earth, Easter cycles, and earth’s spherical shape.
Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II, 946–1003) – introduced the abacus and Arabic numerals into Europe; an early advocate of observational astronomy.
2. The High Middle Ages (11th–13th centuries)
Christian universities emerged—Paris, Oxford, Bologna—and theology fostered systematic inquiry using Aristotelian method.
Key figures:
Adelard of Bath (c. 1080–1152) – translated Arabic works on astronomy, geometry, and physics; argued for studying God’s creation by reason as well as faith.
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253) – Bishop of Lincoln; emphasized experimentation and mathematical description of nature.
Roger Bacon (c. 1219–1292) – Franciscan friar; advanced optics, experimental method, and empirical verification—explicitly within a Christian framework.
Albert the Great (1200–1280) – Dominican scholar; wrote treatises on zoology, botany, and minerals; mentor of Thomas Aquinas.
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) – theologian-philosopher; synthesized faith and Aristotelian science, giving theological legitimacy to natural philosophy.
3. The Late Middle Ages (14th–15th centuries)
Scholasticism matured into mathematical and physical analysis anticipating early modern science.
Key figures:
Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1361) – proposed the impetus theory (a forerunner of inertia).
Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–1382) – analyzed motion using graphical methods; speculated on Earth’s rotation.
The Merton Calculators (Oxford, 14th c.) – quantified acceleration and velocity, prefiguring Galileo’s laws.
Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) – cardinal and polymath; envisioned an infinite universe and relative motion of stars and earth.
Regiomontanus (1436–1476) – devout Catholic mathematician; refined trigonometry and astronomical tables used by Copernicus.
4. Theological Context
All these thinkers saw science as a way to glorify the Creator by understanding His rational, ordered world. The assumption that creation was governed by laws discoverable through reason came directly from Christian doctrine: God is rational; therefore creation is intelligible.
I asked ChatGPT for some resources.
- Here’s a curated list of both scholarly and accessible works that demonstrate the intellectual, scientific, and cultural vitality of Christian Europe between Rome and the Reformation. I’ll group them by focus:
ߓ? General Rebuttals of the “Dark Ages” Myth
1. Thomas E. Woods, Jr., How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (Regnery, 2005)
A readable survey showing how the Church fostered science, education, law, economics, and art. Good for general audiences and homeschool settings.
2. James Hannam, God’s Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (Harper, 2009)
Perhaps the best single academic-to-popular bridge. Demonstrates that scientific progress accelerated under medieval Christian thinkers like Grosseteste, Bacon, and Oresme.
3. Edward Grant, The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 1996)
Rigorous but readable. Shows that natural philosophy in the medieval universities provided the conceptual framework for later empirical science.
4. David C. Lindberg, The Beginnings of Western Science (University of Chicago Press, 1992; 2nd ed. 2007)
A standard university text. Lindberg was one of the foremost historians of medieval science; he decisively dismantles the “science vs. religion” narrative.
5. Christopher Dawson, The Making of Europe: An Introduction to the History of European Unity (1932; reissued 2003)
A Catholic historian’s masterwork tracing how Christian monasteries, missions, and learning centers rebuilt civilization after Rome’s fall.
ߏ?️ Medieval Science and Philosophy
6. A.C. Crombie, Augustine to Galileo: The History of Science A.D. 400–1650 (Harvard University Press, 1952)
Classic overview of the continuity of Christian thought and empirical inquiry through the scholastic period.
7. Toby Huff, The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West (Cambridge University Press, 1993; 3rd ed. 2017)
Compares why Western Christendom—uniquely—produced the scientific revolution; credits the Church’s legal and institutional framework.
8. Stanley L. Jaki, Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe (Scottish Academic Press, 1974)
A Benedictine physicist-theologian shows how Christian metaphysics (creation ex nihilo, linear time) made science possible.
9. Pierre Duhem, Medieval Cosmology: Theories of Infinity, Place, Time, Void, and the Plurality of Worlds (University of Chicago Press, 1985; original French 1913)
Foundational early 20th-century research proving that scholastic thinkers anticipated key ideas of Copernicus and Newton.
ߏ? Universities, Monasticism, and Education
10. Lowell Monastic, The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages (Harper, 1958)
(Republished under various titles.) Surveys monastic scholarship, cathedral schools, and the rise of universities.
11. Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture (Fordham University Press, 1957)
A classic look at how prayer and study merged in monastic intellectual life.
12. Charles Homer Haskins, The Rise of Universities (Cornell University Press, 1923)
Still cited today. Haskins first popularized the idea that the 12th century was not “dark” but a period of revival.
ߎ? Broader Cultural and Economic Light
13. Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House, 2005)
Shows how Christian theology of reason and law fostered not only science but economic innovation.
14. Régine Pernoud, Those Terrible Middle Ages!: Debunking the Myths (Ignatius Press, 2000; trans. from French 1977)
Brilliant and witty defense of the Middle Ages as humane, progressive, and foundational to modern liberty and dignity.
15. Joseph Pearce, The Quest for Shakespeare and Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc
For understanding 20th-century Catholic intellectuals who fought against the “Dark Ages” narrative with historical clarity.
ߧ? Primary Sources and Medieval Voices
If you want to go straight to the sources:
Bede, The Reckoning of Time (tr. Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press)
Roger Bacon, Opus Majus
Albert the Great, On the Causes and the Procession of the Universe
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I.q.2–46 (on creation and natural philosophy)
What evolutionists don't like is that the middle ages were predominantly Christian, not atheistic, so they call Christian ages "The Dark Ages." It's a myth. Mass Formation Psychosis. The darkest times were the "classical" times.