Science, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

This essay considers some of the major theological differences between Eastern and Western traditions of Christianity and puts forward proposals about how these might be related to the divergent trajectories of the formal study of nature in these two cultural contexts. A key difference lies in the “other-worldly” orientation of Eastern Orthodoxy and its emphasis on deification, which contrast sharply with ideas of original sin and fall–redemption theology in the West. These latter ideas came to play a significant role in the rise of Western science, with the sciences being understood as part of a practical redemptive exercise that could help alleviate the material consequences of original sin.