Abstract:
This article investigates the naturalisation of the Bible. Three voices are of special importance
in the narrative presented in this article; they are Aristotle (384–322 BC), Rene Descartes
(1596–1650) and Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). This article will investigate the scientific method
and metaphysics espoused by each of the three scholars, thereby highlighting changes in
scientific method and metaphysics that lead to the naturalisation of the Bible. Firstly, Aristotle
pioneered a scientific method (his logic) that would dominate for centuries, as well as a highly
influential metaphysics. Secondly, Descartes, witnessing the horrors of the Thirty Years War
and seeing first-hand the new discoveries that brought about the scientific revolution, reacted
against Aristotle’s metaphysics. Ironically he then used Aristotle’s scientific method to provide
a foundation for the new science resulting in Descartes’s famous dualism. Thirdly, Spinoza,
equally horrified by the amount of religious violence of his time, reacts against Descartes’s
dualism, providing scholars with a monist metaphysics that would contribute greatly to the
naturalisation of the Bible. This article will be relevant to theologians who wish to engage
more fully with contemporary Western culture.
