Religion and the Changing Historiography of the Scientific Revolution

Abstract

The article covers «traditional» historiography of the Scientific Revolution, from Auguste Comte to Richard Westfall, and sheds light on the positivist sources that inspired its key ideas and practices. The author believes that positivist views neglected the role of religion in the Scientific Revolution. The situation radically changed in the 19601970s, when historians started to pay attention to a wide variety of cultural factors that took part both in the process of birth of the modern science and in shaping modernity as a whole.