Sciences and religions in the late modern period

Sunni caliphal dynasty whose capital was Baghdad and who dominated the Middle East, part of Northern Africa and Central Asia from the 8th to the 13th century. Their empire was built on the ashes of the Umayyad Empire in 750. It met its end at the hand of the Mongols in 1258.

founded in 1920 and active to this day, it proposes to ensure the respect of US citizens and residents' liberties and rights.

defence and justification of a theory by means of through reasoned arguments

thought and thought framework the authors of which claim filiation to Aristotle (384-322 BC), a Greek philosopher and tutor to Alexander the Great. He represents one of the major references in Greek, Syriac, Arabic and Latin speaking societies from the end of Antiquity to the Early Modern Period.

Set of techniques aimed at preventing the contamination of an object (body, surface) by micro-organisms. Its rules were derived from practices set up by Pasteur.

Congregation of Catholic friars founded in 1845 by Emmanuel d'Alzon (1810-1880). In a society undergoing rapid transformations due to the progress of industry and communications, this priest sought to define new models of evangelisation.

In the US, a broad swathe of South-Eastern States which evinces a strong presence of Evangelical protestant movements, notably Baptist

a concept according to which the Christian Bible ferries no factual error given that it was inspired from its first to its last word by God. This concept is notably upheld by all Protestant fundamentalist movements.

Catholic hospitaller order founded in Spain in the 16th century. Arrived in France a century later, the brothers of St John have dozens of hospitals to their name, particularly oriented towards the support of the mentally insane like in Charenton or Cadillac.

Surgical experiment whereby the baby can be removed from the mother's uterus through incision. Practiced since high antiquity, Caesar sectioning was the object of much discussion in the 18th and 19th century as exemplified by the trial of obstetrician Jean-Louis Baudeloque in 1804. With the progress of asepsy, the procedure was to generalise gradually.

Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by a Church leadership for its government. In this instance it is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church as drafted in the version of Canon Law published in 1917. Canon 883 can be accessed in English @ http://tinyurl.com/pl4uxbr.

Exegetic practice aiming to correlate scientific findings with data found in texts attributed to a revelation and in the doctrines they have spawned. This praxis appeared in the 19th century at a time when scientists broke increasingly free from religious authorities.

a theory in physics that proposes that light is made up of small discrete particles called "corpuscles" (little particles)

created in 1963, the CRS is a US Christian research group that, through publications, including a journal and a creation-based biology textbook, as well as other activities engages in creation science.

religious doctrine that holds that the dogma of the creation of the world by divine agency excludes all possible evolution of living beings (according to creationists species as a whole have been created much as they see them).

Protestant churches separated from the Anglican Church, England's established church. Churches belonging to the Anglican communion outside England are known as Episcopal (having bishops).

axiomatic geometry as set forth by Greek mathematician Euclid (3rd century BC) which postulates a flat space (with no intrinsic curvature)

Protestant trend that began and grew as from the 18th century in Europe and America. Evangelical Protestantism sets much store by the daily reading of the Bible and by personal devotion. Broadly speaking, it holds for conservative political and social positions. Evangelical Protestantism is the fastest growing Protestant trend.

Practice consisting in minimal intervention on the body allowing nature to take its course

Approach promoted by Claude Bernard (1813-1878) in the 1860s on the basis of his treatise An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865). It applies to physiology the scientific praxis observed in physics, chemistry and biology: observation of the facts, hypothesis, experimentation.

Ppersonal obligation according to the Fiqh or Islammic jurisprudence that specifies that it is imperative if the group does not perform its own duty.

A collective duty among the body of believers, but which may not require direct involvement from each individual Muslim.

Ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church that was held from 1868 to 1870. It is remembered notably for its proclamation of papal infallibility according to which the pope cannot be in error when he speaks in a pastoral role on issues of doctrine and morality.

Until the 19th century in Occident, the most largely believed theory on the origin of species was fixism. The species always are what they have been since their origin. They are fixed and never change. This theory is in most cases associated to creationism.

Adventure racing in which pilots attempted to link geographic points through feats (of distance, height, speed, etc...). The overcoming of symbolic obstacles (seas, oceans, mountains) represented both the most dangerous and thereby their most coveted aim.

born at the end of the 19th century, fundamentalism has experienced a significant growth after WWI especially in the United States. Fundamentalism, an offshoot of Evangelical Protestantism insists on 5 “fundamental” points: Biblical inerrancy, the divinity of Christ, the Virgin birth, the notion of Christ's sacrificial expiation of human sins, the second coming. Applied to other religious groups the tem “fundamentalist” is debatable.

Electrotype (electro): a duplicate printing plate consisting of a thin copper or nickel shell deposited by electrolytic action in a wax, lead, or plastic mold of the original and backed with lead alloy. More durable than type and cuts, electros are used instead of the original for long press runs, to avoid wear and damage.

the book of the Hebrew Bible, thought right up to the 18th century to have been written by Moses. Genesis opens on different accounts of the creation of the world (chapters 1 and 2)

conception of the cosmos based on the principle that the earth is at the centre of the universe and that the planets, the moon and the sun turn around it

« faits » et les « dits » attribués au prophète de l'islam qui ont été compilés et mis par écrit dans des recueils.

conception of the cosmos based on the principle that the sun is at the centre of the universe and all the planets (including the earth) revolve around it)

the art of interpreting and explicating a text, notably a Biblical one.

A method applying scientific and critical analysis to the Bible. It was born in 19th century Germany. The historical critical exegesis (interpretation of the Biblical texts) foregoes traditional ideas about the authenticity (authorship) of Scripture (e.g. Moses did not write Genesis). It proposes to help understand the texts by replacing them within their historical context.

A set of practices aiming to advance a protective medicine which took into account all external factors liable to impact on health: air light, housing, nutrition. At the end of the 19th century, this movement was influenced by Pasteur's discoveries and gave birth to a powerful social and political hygienist movement.

Thought of as a female illness caused by the behaviour of the uterus in the 18th century, it was considered in the 19th century as a mental or cerebral illness. It yielded a substantial scientific production which induced debates on the nature of evil and positioned the sufferer as a major social figure thereafter exploited in literature in particular.

Ijtihad: literally taking trouble over something/ diligence. In this sense the term refers to individual thinking. The ulama and Muslim jurists produce this effort of critical thought in order to interpret Islam's founding texts and draw from them sharia law. Muslim thinkers from the end of the 19th century called for a “re-opening of the Ijtihâd gates” towards a reform of Islam.

The Index of Prohibited Books, or simply "Index", is used in a restricted sense to signify the exact list or catalogue of books, the reading of which was once forbidden to Catholics by the highest ecclesiastical authority. (source: New Advent)

Institution set up by Pope Innocent III in the 13th century in order to fight “heresy”. First used against the Cathars or Albigensians, it became in the 15th and 16th century the instrument the Spanish church used, with the assent of the monarchs, to fight “heterodoxy” in all its forms, notably targeting the “new Christians”. We had here an institution that made it possible to transcend the mere union of the crowns (Castile and Aragon) to give Spain the Identity its two sovereigns wished for it. More broadly the inquisition became an ecclesiastical tribunal serving to assess the conformity of a doctrine in respect of the dogma upheld by the Roman Catholic Church. (see module 1 of this course)

Trend of thought asserting the dominance of intellectual thought in human activity in contrast with emotivism and voluntarism.

This doctrine aims to distance itself from Creationist flights of fancy (recent creation of the world) whilst claiming in self-proclaimed scientific terms that the world, far from emerging by chance was born of the will of a superior intelligence.

This term must be understood here as meaning “Islam” as until the beginning of the 20th century Orientalists added the “ism” suffix by analogy with the other religions (Judaism, Hinduism etc...)

religious order which has the particularity to make a special vow of obedience to the pope. They are a noted presence in the fields of education, scientific and spiritual research and mission

Stewardship of the earth

Fundamental rights defined by Imam al-Ghazali in the 11th century as “the purpose of the law, as far as humankind is concerned is to preserve for them their religion (din), their life (soul nafs), their intellect (al-aql), their progeny (nasl) and their property (mal). Whatever encompasses the preservation of these fundamentals is a maslaha (that which contributes to public well being) and whatever fails these fundamentals is a mafsada (source of corruption) the averting of which is a maslaha” (as quoted by Felicitas M M Opwis)

Doctrine which holds that all reality boils down to matter, which is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all phenomena, including mental phenomena and consciousness, are the result of material interactions. The materialists find themselves in direct opposition with the spiritualists who uphold the reality of the spirit.

Process through which behaviour and praxis were gradually integrated into medical science.

Line of thought defined and condemned by pope Pius X in 1907 on grounds of leading to the relativization of the Catholic doctrine. By extension strategies aiming to release any academic, no matter what their disciplinary field, from a prioris arising from an atemporal understanding of faith

Resulting from the extensive therapeutic use of opium in the 19th century, morphine, discovered in 1804, was used as an analgesic and an anesthetic especially after the mainstreaming of the use of syringes for injections in the 1850s.

In the Catholic church, an official document issued by the Pope on his own in initiative and personally signed by him.

The direct or indirect application of burning moxa (dried mugwort) sticks to the body, a traditional eastern medical practice that arrived in Europe in the 19th century.

Literally translates as awakening in Arabic . The term refers to a full range of reforms brought about in the political, literary, artistic, social and religious fields in the Arab Middle East in the second half of the 19th century as a result of contacts with Europe.

Theological and scientific trend which proposes that the observation of the “great book of nature” leads to the knowledge of the “Creator” equally as well as the study of Scripture. First developed at the end of the 17th century it was influential in Britain and in traditionally Protestant countries. It did however spread in some Catholic countries of Continental Europe in a modified form.

discipline studying the shared traits, presuppositions, methodology, object and implications of what in a society is given as “science”.

Science based on the study of crania with a view to infer from the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium some indication of character and mental abilities. Phrenology enjoyed an enthusiastic following in the 1st half of the 19th century.

the terms awakening or revival have been used to refer to periods of rekindled spiritual interest. The Great Awakening reached the American colonies during the 1730s-1740s. Throughout the 19th century the history of Protestantism records a number of revivals.

A reforming trend of thought influent in the 19th century. Its founder, Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon set forth the principles of a reorganization and total transformation of society founded in an “industrial utopia” constructed in reaction to the Ancien Régime social order. The purpose was to arrive at a happy humankind thanks to industrial and scientific progress. To this end the old feudal theology has to be abandoned. Based on its faith in mankind, Saint-Simonianism thus aimed to create the novel conditions towards a new, fraternal and pacific society benefiting from, a " ... union of men engaged in useful work", the basis of "true equality”. Its aim was to create the conditions for a fraternal, peaceful life founded in the manual, intellectual, industrial, commercial yield from all participants who would replace the erstwhile aristocratic elites.

meaning ancestor in Arabic. In this context it refers to the first members of the Muslim community, Muhammad's entourage.

Salaf means ancestor in Arabic. The term refers to trends in the Islamic reformist movement of the end of the 19th century in Egypt; it aims to regenerate Islam from within taking its inspiration from the “pious ancestors”. Muhammad Rashid Rida is considered by many as one of Salafism's founding fathers.

secularism is a political principle which sets the spheres of religion and the state apart to a greater or lesser extent and which keeps state institutions from religious influence

(in the 19th century): broad range of therapeutic practices sharing the distinction of standing without the remit of academic medicine

element in evolutionary theory developed from a book by Biologist Richard Dawkins (born 1941, The Selfish Gene, Oxford 1978) which sets the principle that natural selection operates at genetic level not at that of organisms or indeed populations.

born in the middle of the 20th century the movement resulted from an awakening. Their name highlights the facts that believers await the return, the second coming of Christ on earth. Unlike other Evangelicals, Adventists observe the Sabbath: the Day of Rest is for them on Saturday, not Sunday.

Catholic organisation founded in Le Mans in 1884 by surgeon Jules Le Bêle. It belongs with moves towards unionisation and association in the medical profession. It gradually brought together Catholic practitioners involved in apologetics and the defence of Catholic prohibitions in the medical realm. In 1963, it was the mainstay of the Centre catholique des médecins français.

in Aristotelian physic all that took place beneath the moon.

in Aristotelian physics all that took place on and beyond the moon.

A set of expounded doctrines that may be formulated as axioms, along with the presuppositions and accepted methodology in their support and inferences.

The belief in one God, free of all representation: a unique, independent and indivisible being, who is independent of the entire creation and has no equal. The term also entails directing all the acts of worship to God alone, whose name in Arabic, the language of the Quran is Allah.

was published in 1611, under King James I. This English translation of the Bible (which has undergone minor updating) is also known as the Authorized Version (AV) as it was to be used in the established Anglican Church or the King James Version (KJV), especially in America where it was brought by Dissenters and where there is no established church. Of all the printed output in the English language, the King James Bible (KJB) is the book most printed and with the most far-reaching influence.

theory of the structure of spacetime which was mostly developed by Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and which, among other things defines the curvature of spacetime

series of destructive wars that ravaged Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 involving most European powers.

Torah (Hebrew) or Pentateuch (Greek): the name given to the first five books of the Bible, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers ands Deuteronomy

according to Roman Catholic teaching during the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine is changed into the body and blood of Christ even as their outward appearance (their “accident”) remains unchanged.

Thirty Years War: series of destructive wars that ravaged Central Europe between 1618 and 1648 involving most European powers.

scholars specialised in Islamic religious sciences. They may be referred to as “Doctors of Islamic law”

(in this context) the community of all Muslims regardless of nationality, kinship or type of government.

“A science which may be described as independent ('ilm mustaqill bi-nafsih), which is defined by its object: human civilization (al-'umran al-bashari) and social facts as a whole” (Ibn Khaldun)

fondée à l'initiative de la dynastie chiite des Fatimides au Xe siècle, Al-Azhar est la plus ancienne institution d'études de l'islam au Moyen-Orient. Elle représente, après la chute des Fatimides, la référence majeure du sunnisme de langue arabe. Concurrencée par d'autres établissements surtout depuis la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, elle reste, aujourd'hui encore, un centre universitaire de renom pour l'islam sunnite.

Medical trend based on the theory according to which body and soul are not separate and benefit from a vital force external to them. At the beginning of the 19th century this trend enjoyed notable support in Montpellier medical school.

The middle way, justly balanced, avoiding extremes, moderation.

a theory in physics that proposes that light is an electromagnetic wave

at the end of antiquity and in the Middle Ages, the term covers all the originally Latin-speaking regions in Europe and Northern Africa that had been reached by Christianity.

Opponents to Sultan Abdul Hamid's politics. Organised in committees, one of their objectives was to reinstate the Ottoman constitution suspended by the Sultan in 1878. Soon exiled, the movement got organised abroad, where it merged with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) the membership of which was mostly military. Under pressure, the Sultan reinstated the constitution on 23 July 1908 and when the decision was made public on the following day, it was immediately associated to a revolution (inqilab), especially among intellectuals, writers and journalists who saw in it the beginning of an era of freedom especially for the political and news sectors. Although, in the long term, Young Turks politics with its relentless turkification of the Empire would be a thorough disappointment for Arab thinkers, they had no less warmly greeted it at the outset, viz. Muhammad Rashid Rida who signed in the review Al-Manar of 28 July1908 an article in which he eulogises the Young Turk revolution.