Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Sunday, August 08, 2004

Kepler's Witch

Just finished the book of the above title. Really interesting book for me because Kepler was a man who possessed many of the same viewpoints and struggled with many of the same issues I seem to. He saw within the natural world the mind of God and sought to reveal and understand it. He was a man of deep faith and strongly held religious convictions who was willing to suffer for what he believed to be true, even when it meant he could not find a home church or a denomination willing to accept his faith without a blind loyalty to the tenets/dogmas of the denomination. He saw the world as it was and realized that the intolerance creeping into the religious dialogue would eventually explode and burn everyone who chose to fan the flame and an awful lot of people who didn't. His accomplishments are set against the background of the culture in which he lived which means an examination of the events and attitudes that led to the Thirty Year's War.

The title comes from the trail of Kepler's mother for witchcraft that occupied a great deal of energy for many years of his life. I don't want to give a book report here but the details of this sordid affair gives the reader an insight into the power of myth, superstition and fear when mixed with political jealousy, bad decisions after a night of drinking and not a little bit of overarching greed. There is a widely spoken adage that floats around our college campus from time to time that warns one to never underestimate the power of large groups of stupid people. This portion of the book is more about not underestimating the power of small-minded but deeply fearful local officials, especially those who might have an "in" with the local duke.

Anyway, if you are one who goes in for deeply personal biography, history and a need to connect the dots, I'd recommend this book. There's no math and while there is some discussion of Kepler's scientific work, the main focus is on the man himself and how he interacted in a world gone mad. Highly recommended for "geeks" all around (you know who you are).

Next up will be Owen Gingerich's new work on Copernicus, "The Book Nobody Read" as well as Grep Boyd's monograph explaining the basis and ideas of the "Open View" of God's pre-knowledge. I've read the first chapter and found Boyd's ideas interesting but not yet philosophically or theologically satisfying. I may post more later but as someone who is already in the free will camp I'm not finding his arguments particularly compelling at this point. His critique of the ideas of pre-determinism or the strongly Calvinist perspective is pretty good but he has done little more than sum up the arguments of many centuries of free-will thinkers. Hopefully the second chapter will hold more.

Thanks for reading.

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