BUTTERFIELD,HERBERT (1900-79) AS A CHRISTIAN HISTORIAN OF SCIENCE

Why is Butterfield's best-seller The Origins of Modern Science (1949) such a powerful big picture, nearly impossible to move away from? Cons idered in the context of his life, the contrast between his attacks on Whig history and the contents of his best-seller reveals that his big picture of science continues at the centre because of his spiritual b eliefs and practices. Butterfield did not make explicit his Christian (Methodist) world view to his history of science readers, although one could infer this from his point that Christianity and the Scientific Revolution were the most significant events in universal history, tran scending cultural boundaries. As long as Christian beliefs and practic es continue to be at the centre of Western Society, so will Butterfiel d's big picture be at the centre. Western society is a Christian civil ization. For Butterfield, the meaning of history is Christianity and T he Origins of Modern Science is very much a Christian statement of the evolution of knowledge acquisition in Western society. To de-centre T he Origins would require first a de-centred view of Christianity. Copy right (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.