Religion and science in the Eastern mediterranean

“Science and Orthodox Christianity: An Overview” is an ambitious survey that reminds scholars of science in Islamic societies that the conversation between Islam and science is really a conversation between Islam and science in different contexts and that conversations between Islam and science can be found with less renowned scientific developments such as prophetic medicine. This response points out parallels in how Greek Orthodox and Ottoman Muslim scholars mediated new developments in Western European science and in how both Greek Orthodox and some Ottoman Muslim scholars propounded a mathematical humanism. Finally, it argues that the account of post-1453 scientific exchange is more complex than “Science and Orthodox Christianity” intimates. At the least, if there was no scholarly exchange between Greek Orthodox Christians, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, Muslims and Jews—who, in turn, enjoyed scholarly exchange with the West well after 1453—there are clearly two different Easts.