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The Scientific Revolution denotes the rapid, cumulative transformation of European natural philosophy that produced modern science in the 16th and 17th centuries. This was in large part driven by an ongoing process of theological reform—across Catholic, Anglican, and Protestant churches—following the Protestant Reformation.

• 1543 – Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus; Vesalius’ De Humani Corporis Fabrica.
• 1600 — Johannes Kepler
• 1609–1610 – Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius.
• 1620 – Bacon’s Novum Organum: formalizes experimental method.
• 1660 – formation of The Royal Society, to glorify God and uplift mankind, on the basis of Francis Bacon's blueprint and vision.
• 1687 – Newton’s Principia Mathematica: universal gravitation.
• 1730s – Widespread acceptance of Newtonian paradigm signals consolidation; Enlightenment disseminates methods globally.

Religious drivers of the Scientific Revolution

Martin Luther suggested that the renovation of science would follow religious reform. And that is indeed what happened.

With the Protestant Reformation, the freedom of the individual conscience was elevated to an unprecedented degree, and with it, the sense of human destiny and capacity. Peter Harrison suggests the era of the Protestant Reformation saw an increased focus on the biblical creation accounts, with their claim that humanity is made in the Image of God, and called to understand and govern nature.

This may explain the rapid increase in scientific activity in the period 1517-1630.

However, this was not sufficient for maintaining a long-lasting scientific process. They also needed a scientific community and scientific institutions, where knowledge could be collected, tested, shared, and passed on to the next generation. Francis Bacon catalyzed this step, with his description of a social, missional scientific methodology. He articulated this in both analytical form, and in a science fiction story about a religiously advanced society, whose righteous living and liturgy generate profound scientific advancements. This led directly to the formation of The Royal Society in 1660.

People were very aware of the scientific revolution as it was happening, and many understood it as the fulfillment of the religious reform begun with the Protestant Reformation. Galileo, himself Catholic, understood it in part as the removal of Aristotle from the church's theology.

Why did the Scientific Revolution take so long to happen?

If the scientific revolution depended on the reforms brought by the Protestant Reformation, then the question is why the Protestant Reformation took so long to happen. The simplest hypothesis is that true, deep reform of ancient pre-Christian civilization and thought simply took a long time. Christianity integrated with both Roman society and Greek philosophy, and overhauled them both over roughly a thousand years. The Protestant Reformation was not the arrival of these reforming impulses, but the culmination of their work. And that work was not just manifested in the Protestant churches, but in the Catholic and Orthodox churches as well—after all, they were where it had begun.

References

• Peter Harrison. The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science (1998).