The Rise of Modern Science and the Decline of Theology as the ‘Queen of Sciences ’ in the Early Modern Era

The early modern period witnessed an important transformation in the Christian tradition of determining who had the authority to speak for nature and to read the Deity’s mind in nature. This profound change was inextricable from the rise of modern science. This essay will argue that the development of modern scientific reasoning was preconditioned largely by the dethroning of theology from its status as the queen of sciences, with reference to the works of Nicolas Copernicus, Johan-nes Kepler, and Galileo Galilei. Impelled by the growing discrepancy between their new astronomical discoveries and traditional scholastic philosophical thought, they developed new conceptions and re-defined their relation to theology. To establish the science of astronomy on new foundations, they argued that Scripture was not intended to describe the phenomena of the world; hence theology had no business assessing the merit of astronomical arguments. These pioneers refused to accord any priority to theology in explaining and interpreting the phenomena of astronomy. They asserted that astronomy was not a ‘handmaiden to theology ’ rather an authoritative means of speaking for nature. They all admitted that in relation to divine things, theology was indeed superior to all other sciences in explaining human salvation and redemption. On natural phenomena, however, its conventional role was no longer secure in the face of astronomical discoveries. Theology concerns transcendent issues, science mundane ones; the first deals with salvation and the sec-ond with the workings of nature