Galileo: Faith and Science at the Dawn of the Modern

Galileo's astronomy profoundly unsettled religious and scientific orthodoxies. Placed on trial for his view that the sun and not the earth was at the center of the universe, his ideas and his conflict with the Church transformed him into an icon of modernity. In this class we explore the historical context of Galileo's ideas with attention to both early modern science and faith. While the class begins as a lecture class with discussion, students will towards the end of the semester re-enact Galileo's famous trial itself, deepening their grasp of the often surprising currents of thought that shaped the intersections of faith and reason at the dawn of modernity.