Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32701/dp.27.1.4
The Emergence of the Scientific Method Within the Paradigm of Christianity
Luka Popov
orcid.org/0009-0006-6257-2276
; Zagreb, Croatia
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Modern science rests upon a set of foundational presuppositions that are not
themselves empirically demonstrable yet are indispensable for the scientific enterprise.
These include the existence and knowability of the universal laws of
nature, the universality of logic, the basic reliability of human senses, and the
mathematical intelligibility and structural unity of fundamental laws. Historical
analysis reveals that these presuppositions achieved their most systematic
and coherent articulation within medieval and early–modern Latin Christianity.
This paper argues that the Christian doctrine of creation—particularly the
concepts of a rational Creator who governs through secondary causes, the imago
Dei, the Incarnation, and divine simplicity—provided the metaphysical and
epistemological framework that rendered the scientific method not only possible
but intellectually compelling. While not denying the significant scientific
achievements of other civilizations, this thesis is advanced as a qualified philosophical–
historical proposal and situated within the broader historiographical
debate concerning Christianity and the rise of modern science.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
345814
URI
Publication date:
26.3.2026.
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