Levitin Dmitri
Early Sci Med. 2014;19(1):28-75. doi: 10.1163/15733823-00191p02.
Recent historiography has claimed that a radically new, non-dogmatic physico-theology gained prominence with, and simultaneously promoted, the new science. This article challenges this view by focusing on an important physico-theological work by the young Oxford cleric Samuel Parker, published in 1665. It received a glowing review in the first volume of the Philosophical Transactions and gained its author election to the Royal Society, yet has been almost entirely ignored by modern scholars. Parker's work demonstrates both how easily the pious rhetoric of the naturalists could be incorporated into the traditional--largely humanist--knowledge gained by a typical M.A. student in mid-seventeenth-century England. Moreover, far from being non-dogmatic, Parker's physico-theology culminated in a remarkable deployment of the new philosophy (specifically Thomas Willis's neurology) to explain scriptural passages referring to God's passions. Parker believed himself not to be doing something radically new, but to be working in the traditions of scholastic theology. At the same time, his work was one of the most important conduits for the early English reception of both Descartes and Gassendi.
近期的史学研究称，一种全新的、非教条式的物理神学随着新科学的兴起而崭露头角，并同时推动了新科学的发展。本文通过聚焦年轻的牛津神职人员塞缪尔·帕克于1665年发表的一部重要的物理神学著作，对这一观点提出了质疑。该书在《哲学汇刊》第一卷中得到了热情洋溢的评论，并使作者入选了皇家学会，但几乎完全被现代学者忽视。帕克的著作既展示了自然主义者虔诚的言辞是多么容易被纳入17世纪中叶英国典型文科硕士所获得的传统——很大程度上是人文主义的——知识之中。此外，帕克的物理神学远非非教条式的，它最终以一种引人注目的方式运用新哲学（特别是托马斯·威利斯的神经学）来解释提及上帝情感的经文段落。帕克认为自己并非在做全新的事情，而是在遵循经院神学的传统。与此同时，他的著作是早期英国接受笛卡尔和伽桑狄思想的最重要渠道之一。
