Proceedings of the International Conference "Science & Religion" held by the National Hellenic Research Foundation- Institute of Historical Research and the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens – Epistemology & Science Education Lab in Athens, 3 – 5 September 2015.
The present paper aims to provide an initial but illuminating account of the work already accomplished for the Byzantine period essentially between the 5th and 15th centuries. After a preliminary presentation of our current progress until now (May 2014) and the general, conceptual framework of our research still in progress, we shall present in brief some remarks on texts and writers selected before closing with a thematic classification of the problematics and topics that we have already explored for the period below.
Project NARSES’ research focus includes the dialogue between the natural sciences and religion, as it was conducted in 19th and mid-20th century Greece. As such, it aims to create an online, searchable database of all relevant material published in Greek space at that period. Primary sources are to be catalogued, indexed and archived, and thus made accessible to all stakeholders. As a symbolic inaugural date for this part of the project, the year 1832 was chosen, since it is widely considered the funding date of the modern Greek State.
The topic of this paper will be the interaction of scientists with religion in 19th century Greece.. This research is part of a project undertaken by the Hellenic Research Foundation to map the relations between the discourses of nature and religion in eastern Christianity, from the late antiquity to the present. Again, my aim today will be much more modest. I will focus on the public utterings, in the sense of the term pioneered by Jan Golinski, of Greek men of science to discuss how they dealt with religion within their discourse.
Today I would like to talk about my part within the NARSES project. I will talk about the characteristics of the research as we move into the 19th and mid-20th century and as we focus on a specific region, that of the Greek State.
This presentation will not be about final or definite results. NARSES is still in its first year and there are still many things to do. I will rather describe a work in progress, focusing on the aim and structure of the research, not its findings. I will be talking about raw data and their problems, in a rather informal way.