Galileo and the Interpretation of the Bible
Galileo's understanding of the relationship between science and the Bible has frequently been celebrated as anticipating a modern distinction between the essentially religious nature of scripture and the claims of the natural sciences. Galileo's reference to the remarks of Cardinal Baronius, that the Bible teaches one how to go to heaven and not how the heavens go, has been seem as emblematic of his commitment to the distinction between the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture. This essay argues that, contrary to the common view, Galileo shares with the theologians of the Inquisition the same fundamental principles of biblical interpretation: principles which include traditional scriptural hermeneutics enunciated by Augustine and Aquinas, as well as those characteristic of Counter-Reformation Catholicism. Although Galileo argues that one should not begin with biblical passages in order to discover truths about nature, he does think that the Bible contains scientific truths and that it is the function of wise interpreters to discover these truths. The dispute with the theologians of the Inquisition occurred because they thought that it was obviously true scientifically that the earth did not move and, on the basis of this view, they read the Bible as revealing the same thing. They reached this conclusion because, like Galileo, they thought that the Bible contained truths about nature. Of course, what these theologians accepted as scientifically true, Galileo denied.