How did Martin Luther view Copernicus? and how long did Calvin view Copernicus? for AP Euro Summer work?

Question

this is from the book A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester for an AP Euro class

please answer if you are taking AP Euro

Answer 1

If you're asking what MANCHESTER says about Luther & Calvin's view, it's been years since I read the book you mention, but I'm rather clear he was highly critical of these men, but not on a very solid basis. In other words, he was quick to accept legends and caricatures.

(I recall Manchester's views to be something on the order of the popular but patently false claim that Columbus's opponents in the church thought the world was flat -- in fact, they ALL believed it to be spherical, only his critics thought it LARGER than he did. . . in fact, THEY were correct on that point!!)

Unfortunately, some of the MAIN sources quoted on these matters are people who wrote with a strong anti-religious bias (esp. Andrew White, who helped spread the Columbus story without ever checking his facts), or those who rely on them (e.g., sadly, Thomas Kuhn, the source of the case student's blog entries cited in another answer).


As for what Luther and Calvin REALLY thought about Copernicus:

1) neither of them ever made any official statement about Copernicus's theories

2) Luther's only comments were offhand remarks made around his dinner table in 1539, and recorded variously by his students. (It's clear Copernicus was involved, since that very year University of Wittenberg mathematics professor Georg Joachim Rheticus went to visit Copernicus, to learn from him and eventually bring C's MAJOR work *On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres* to press.. as C was on his deathbed).

3) Note again the DATE -- 1539, that is FOUR YEARS before Copernicus's magnum opus was published! There was SOME knowledge of his views in the scholarly community, but most did not learn much about them until after Rheticus's efforts (for which he has been dubbed "the first Copernican")

4) Copernicus's system was, in the mid 16th century, still VERY short on data. It was not until Tycho Brahe's detailed observations and the work of Johannes Kepler that the theory could be firmly established (Newton's work on gravity was also an important ingredient). Also, since Copernicus still believed the planetary motions to be CIRCULAR (Kepler first argued for elliptical paths), his theories were not as simple and clear as what we NOW know as the "Copernican system". Epicycles, for example, still played an important part.

5) I'm posting links to a couple of solid articles --one on Luther, one on Calvin-- that gives you a better idea of what they did and didn't say. Again, NEITHER attempted a scholarly attack on it. In particular, they did not argue that this view, or theories like it, would undermine or contradict Scripture. For that matter, when they DID speak on the role of science and its connection to Scripture, they took a very open view. And BOTH took the general position that Scripture's language about the natural world was "phenomenological" -- that is, it simply reflected "common sense observation" (how things LOOK from ordinary, daily human experience) and did not necessarily teach us exactly how the physical world operates. (Modern day example -- we STILL speak of "sunrise" and "sunset"!!)

http://www.leaderu.com/science/kobe.html
http://www.nd.edu/~mdowd1/postings/CalvinAstroRev.html

Answer 2

~Luther viewed Copernicus from his present into the far distant past. Actually, he ended up not viewing Copernicus at all. All he could look upon was the crypt. Even the bones were gone when Marty tried to dig him out for a better look. Thanks to the grave robbing, Calvin didn't get to view that much so he didn't spend a lot of time trying. From all reports, it was something in the neighborhood of two minutes and thirty-seven seconds.

Answer 3

Article on the subject of Protestantism and Copernicus there:

http://blog.case.edu/singham/2005/04/26/the_role_of_protestant_opposition_to_copernicus

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Answer 4

Protestant religions look style of empty and soulless, but indignant and ridiculous even as. Calvin claimed the street to hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized toddlers. Yet, Luther knew accumulation of wealth and promoting of heavenly dividends was once flawed and was once ready to influence difference. I is also flawed however all prodestants are derived from Luthers holiday after the ninety five theses. The truly holiday from Rome demands to come back from the AMERICAN Catholic Church. They enable married clergy start manage and different ultra-modern reforms whilst retaining the principal catholic ceremonies.