List of Christians in science and technology

This list concerns the issue of The relationship between religion and science, but is specific to Christian history. As a list this is only supplementary to the issue as lists are by themselves not equipped to answer questions on this topic. The purpose is to act as a guide on this issue. The names, annotations, and or links are to provide use for further study on this topic. A small section on science or scientists repressed by Christians is also included to avoid imbalance and aid study of negative appraisals.

To achieve its goals each name must have a credible source or in least an explanatory note. If you can find multiple sources this is better, but it is not a requirement. However sourcing is necessary to show that they contributed to both religious and scientific history. It is also preferred, but not required, that the people named here wrote or lectured on the topic of Christianity's relationship to science. A sense of denomination of each scientist is listed by color, but uncertainty can be acknowled hence the "other or unspecified" option.

All these provisos noted there are aids to ease the adding of names to this list. At the bottom of this page potential sources are listed that you can use. Added to this several McTutor mathematician biographies mention if the mathematician or scientist did Christian religious or theological works. An effort should be made to assure the sources section of tables are not blank, but additions are welcome.

Finally because of religious freedom issues and the evolution of the concept of science names from before the seventeenth century will be noted as such. This will be done by placing their names in italics and adding an asterix next to their name.

Main article: List of Christians

Before the Nineteenth Century

Those born before the seventeenth century have asterixes and their names are italicized.

Key:	Roman Catholic Church	Eastern Orthodox Church	Anglicanism	Protestant	Other or Unspecified

Name	Image	Reason for inclusion	Sources
Maria Gaetana Agnesi		A mathematician appointed to a position by Pope Benedict XIV, she later became a nun studying the Church Fathers.	McTutor and Catholic Encyclopedia [1]
*Georg Agricola	[[Image:Georg_Agricola.jpg	70px]]	A German scholar, real name Georg Bauer, who was known as the "Father of mineralogy." Although he supported Martin Luther's initial ideas he stayed firm to Catholicism. This caused him to face hostility after his region switched to Lutheranism.	Catholic Encyclopedia [2] and 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica [3]
Antoine Arnauld		Jansenist theologian who wrote New Elements of Geometry and was compared to Euclid.	McTutor and the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
*Roger Bacon		He was an English philosopher who placed considerable emphasis on empiricism, and has been presented as one of the earliest advocates of the modern scientific method.	Catholic Encyclopedia[4]
Isaac Barrow		English divine, scientist, and mathematician. He wrote Expositions of the Creed, The Lord's Prayer, Decalogue, and Sacraments and Lectiones Opticae et Geometricae.	A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature and MacTutor
Thomas Bayes	File:Thomasbayes.jpg	Presbyterian minister, Bayes' theorem and Divine Benevolence, or an Attempt to Prove That the Principal End of the Divine Providence and Government is the Happiness of His Creatures.	McTutor
Rudjer Boscovich	File:Boscovich.jpg	He was a Jesuit and became famous for his atomic theory, given as a clear, precisely-formulated system utilizing principles of Newtonian mechanics. He also persuaded Pope Benedict XIV to remove the obsolete decree of the Index against Heliocentrism.	Catholic Encyclopedia Encyclopedia Britannica Fairfield University [5]
Robert Boyle		Scientist and theologian who argued that the study of science could improve glorification of God.	ASA and Stanford University [6]
*Thomas Bradwardine		He was an English archbishop, often called "the Profound Doctor". He developed studies as one of the Oxford Calculators, of Merton College, Oxford University. These studies would lead to important developments in mechanics.	Catholic Encyclopedia
*Jean Buridan	[[Image:Vatican Seal.gif	70px]]	He was a Catholic priest who sowed the seeds of religious scepticism in Europe. He developed the theory of impetus, that was the first step toward the modern concept of inertia.	Catholic Encyclopedia[7]
Juan Caramuel y Lobkowitz		Cistercian monk who once tried to solve theological problems by mathematical rules.	McTutor
Temple Chevallier	File:CompassRose.gif	Priest and astronomer who did Of the proofs of the divine power and wisdom derived from the study of astronomy.	Royal Meteorological Society
Humphry Ditton		He published, Discourse on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and wrote on fluxions. He also was elected mathematical master at Christ's Hospital, although the painting shows it as it was 55 years after his death.	University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
*Robert Grosseteste	[[Image:grosseteste-color.png	70px]]	A catholic bishop. A.C. Crombie calls him "the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in mediaeval Oxford, and in some ways, of the modern English intellectual tradition".	Catholic Encyclopedia[8]
*Laurentius Paulinus Gothus		A professor of astronomy and Archbishop of Uppsala. He wrote on astronomy and theology.	Uppsala University
Johan Ernst Gunnerus		He was a Church of Norway bishop and botanist. The plant genus Gunnera is named for him, he researched sea creatures as well as birds, and he helped found The Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters. He also was a professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen.	Norwegian University of Science and Technology [9]
Athanasius Kircher		Jesuit who had a theory seen as one of the antecedents to germ theory and helped rebuild a shrine to Mother Mary.	Fairfield University
Colin Maclaurin		Briefly a Divinity student, had a Christian institute named for him.	The Maclaurin Institute
*Albertus Magnus		Patron saint of scientists in Catholicism, may have been the first to isolate arsenic.	Catholic Encyclopedia[10]
Nicolas Malebranche		He researched the nature of light, studied infinitesimal calculus, and was elected to the Académie des Sciences. He also tried to make Rene Descartes ideas more in line with orthodox Catholicism, but his works were at times banned by the Catholic Church.	McTutor
Thomas Malthus		He wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population which influenced both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, and natural theologian William Paley, founded the economic school of thought Malthusianism, and founded the field of demography. He is best known for the concept of Malthusian catastrophe.	American Scientist and UWC
Isaac Newton		He wrote Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John(Nontrinitarianism)	Gutenberg.org copy of that book
*Nicholas of Cusa		Theologian who made contributions to the field of mathematics by developing the concepts of the infinitesimal and of relative motion.	McTutor and Catholic Encyclopedia[11]
*Nicolas Oresme	[[Image:Oresme-Nicole.jpg	70px]]	Passionate theologian and Bishop of Lisieux, he was one of the principal founders and popularizers of modern sciences, and probably the most original thinker of the 14th century.	Catholic Encyclopedia[12]
Blaise Pascal		Convert to Jansenism known for Pascal's law(physics), Pascal's theorem(math), and Pascal's Wager(theology)	McTutor
Joseph Priestley		Nontrinitarianism clergyman who wrote the controversial work History of the Corruptions of Christianity. He is also credited with discovering oxygen. (Although Carl Wilhelm Scheele did so years before)	Starr King school for the ministry
John Ray		An English botanist who wrote The Wisdom of God manifested in the Works of the Creation. (1691) The John Ray Initiative of Environment and Christianity is also named for him.	University of California, Berkeley [13] and ASA
*Giovanni Battista Riccioli		He was a Jesuit and an astronomer. He extensively studied the Moon, much of the nomenclature of lunar features still in use today is due to him. He was the first to measure the rate of acceleration of a falling body.	Catholic Encyclopedia
Gaspar Schott		Jesuit who wrote Mechanica Hydraulio-pneumatica and gave an early description of a Universal joint, object pictured. He also taught moral theology at the Jesuit college at Palermo	Catholic Encyclopedia, Fairfield University, and University of Florida
Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita		Capuchin astronomer. He dedicated one of his astronomy books to Jesus Christ, a "theo-astronomy" work was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he wondered if beings on other planets were "cursed by original sin like humans are."	Cosmovisions and The Galileo Project Rice University's Galileo Project
Nicolas Steno		Lutheran convert to Catholicism, his Beatification in that faith occurred in 1987.	Australian E-Journal of Theology and Paleontologia Electronica
*Michael Stifel		Led to the development of Logarithms, hence the picture, and wrote on Biblical prophecies.	University of Florida and McTutor
Emanuel Swedenborg		His writing is the basis of the Swedenborgianism religion and several of his theological works contained some science hypotheses.	Swedenborgian site
*Pope Sylvester II	File:Vatican coa.png	He influenced the teaching of math and astronomy in church-ran schools.	Truman University and an article by William Wallace, O.P. Visiting Professor, Philosophy and History, Committee on History and Philosophy and Science at University of Maryland, College Park [14]
Samuel Vince		Cambridge astronomer and clergyman. He wrote Observations on the Theory of the Motion and Resistance of Fluids and The credibility of Christianity vindicated, in answer to Mr. Hume’s objections.	Royal Society and Thoemmes
John Wilkins		He was a Bishop of Chester and wrote Mathematical Magick, or the wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry.	McTutor
Christopher Wren		He designed St Paul's Cathedral and held the Savilian Chair of Astronomy at Oxford. He spoke of astronomical arguments use in Biblical accounts, studied Saturn, and wrote on geometric progression.	McTutor

Nineteenth century to present

An exclamation point before the name indicates those who are still living.

Name	Image	Reason for inclusion	Sources
Charles Babbage		The Difference Engine and the Ninth Bridgewater Treatise.	Victorian Web and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University [15]
! Ian Barbour	File:Duke shield.jpg	A graduate of Duke University, their logo is seen in the preceeding image, who wrote Christianity and the Scientists in 1960, and When Science Meets Religion ISBN 006060381X in 2000.	Templeton Prize site.[16]
Ernest William Barnes	File:Bishofbirmarms.PNG	Theologian and mathematician. He was Bishop of Birmingham from 1924 to 1953. His The Rise of Christianity angered Anglo-Catholics due to its Modernist outlook. In math he is linked to the Barnes G-function and wrote 29 papers before 1910.	McTutor
!R.J. Berry	File:CompassRose.gif	He is a former president of both the Linnean Society of London and the Christians in Science group. He also wrote God and the Biologist: Personal Exploration of Science and Faith (Apollos 1996) ISBN 0851114466	iv press and Christians in Science
Francesco Faà di Bruno	File:Italy torino coat.png	An Italian mathematician most linked to Turin. He is known for Faà di Bruno's formula and being a spiritual writer beatified in 1988.	McTutor and the Catholic Encyclopedia[17]
William Buckland	File:CompassRose.gif	Anglican priest/geologist who wrote Vindiciae Geologiae; or the Connexion of Geology with Religion explained.	University of Oxford site.[18]
Georg Cantor	File:Georg Cantor.jpg	Lutheran who wrote on religious topics and had an interest in Medieval theology.	IUPUI [19]
Teilhard de Chardin	File:De-chardin.jpg	A member of the Society of Jesus, a Paleontologist linked to the finding of Peking Man, and a philosopher linked to the Omega Point idea.	Fairfield University [20]
!Guy Consolmagno		Jesuit who works at the Vatican Observatory and speaks on religion and science.(Image is of the VATT Popescope)	A link from the Vatican Observatory [21]
Charles Coulson		Methodist who wrote Science and Christian Belief in 1955.	McTutor
!George V. Coyne		Jesuit, Director of Vatican Observatory	Baltimore Sun and Vatican Observatory.[22].
James Dwight Dana		Important figure in mineralogy and geology who won the Copley Medal. He also led Bible studies and played the piano for his church choir. On a different note his strong Protestant/Congregational background hindered his acceptance of evolution.	Yale Geology Department and the Gelogy Society of America's bio.
!William Dembski		Mathematician, theologian, and Intelligent Design advocate.	His own article.
!Laurance Doyle		A scientist at SETI who argues that his faith, Christian Science, encouraged a scientific revolution.	Christian Science site and [SETI
Pierre Duhem	File:Duhem.jpg	He worked on Thermodynamic potentials and wrote histories advocating that the Roman Catholic Church helped advance science.	McTutor and Scientist and Catholic: Pierre Duhem by Stanley Jaki [23]
Henry Eyring		Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints member whose interactions with LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith on science and faith are a part of LDS history.	National Academy of Sciences [24]
Michael Faraday		A Glasite church elder for a time, he discussed the relationship of science to religion in a lecture opposing Spiritualism.	BBC [25] andAdherents.com
Pavel Florensky		Russian Orthodox saint who wrote a book on Dielectrics and wrote of imaginary numbers having a relationship to the Kingdom of God.	Second paragraph of Page 26 in a paper from Middlesex University [26]
!Owen Gingerich		Mennonite who has written about people of faith in science history.	Space.com[27] and Cambridge Christians in Science.[28] The proceeding picture is of a house linked to Menno Simons.
Kurt Gödel	File:Kurt Gödel.jpg	Lutheran for both Gödel's ontological proof and Gödel's completeness theorem	His own article
Philip Henry Gosse		Marine biologist who wrote Aquarium (1854), and A Manual of Marine Zoology (1855-56). He is more famous, or infamous, as a Christian Fundamentalist who coined the idea of Omphalos (theology).	University of Houston hosted article.[29]
Asa Gray	File:AsaGray.jpg	His Gray's Manual remains a pivotal work in botany. His Darwiniana has sections titled "Natural selection not inconsistent with Natural theology", "Evolution and theology", and "Evolutionary teleology." The preface indicates his adherence to the Nicene Creed in concerning these religious issues.	Gutenberg text of Darwiniana and ASA
Edward Hitchcock	File:Amherst Seal.png	Geologist, paleontologist, and Congregationalist pastor. He worked on Natural theology and was third President of Amherst College, it's seal is pictured.(Born in 1793, but the work by him was done in the nineteenth century.	1911 encyclopedia and Amherst College [30]
!John T. Houghton	File:CompassRose.gif	A former Vice President of Christians in Science and leading scholar on climate change.	Christians in Science
!Stanley Jaki		Benedictine who won a Templeton Prize and advocates the idea modern science could only have arisen in a Christian society.	Seton Hall University site.[31]
John Kerr (physicist)		A Reverend in the Free Church of Scotland.	His own article at Wikipedia.
!Donald Knuth		(Lutheran) The Art of Computer Programming and 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (1991), ISBN 0895792524	His website.[32]
Lars Levi Læstadius		A botanist who started a revival movement within Lutheranism called Laestadianism. This movement is among the strictest forms of Lutheranism. As a botanist he has the author citation Laest and discovered four species.	University of Texas article pages 9 to 11
Georges Lemaître		His advocacy of the Big Bang theory raised theological and credibility issues as he was a Catholic priest.	The New York Times [33]
Gregor Mendel	File:Mendel.png	Augustinian Abbot who argued in favor of his monastery during a taxation dispute.	Catholic Encyclopedia.[34]
!Kenneth R. Miller	File:Van Wickle in snow.jpg	A biology professor at Brown University who wrote Finding Darwin's God ISBN 0060930497	St. Petersburg Times [35]
!Arthur Peacocke	File:CompassRose.gif	Anglican priest and biochemist, whose ideas may have influenced Anglican and Lutheran views of evolution.	Society of Ordained Scientists' website[36]
Michel Plancherel		He was President of the Mission Catholique Française de Zurich from 1938 to 1963. He also taught at ETH Zurich, ETH Zürich Zentrum pictured, and proved the Plancherel theorem.	McTutor
Michael Polanyi		He was born Jewish, but became a Tolstoyan and was also married in a Roman Catholic Church. In 1946 he wrote Science, Faith, and Society ISBN 0226672905 (Merton College, where he had a fellowship, is pictured)	ASA and Polyaniana
!John Polkinghorne	File:CompassRose.gif	Anglican priest who wrote Science and the Trinity (2004) ISBN 0300104456	His own website.[37]
George Salmon	File:CompassRose.gif	Provost of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh (Church of Ireland), mathematician, and opponent of women students. In the 1860s his Sermons preached in Trinity College Chapel were collected and he wrote A treatise on the analytic geometry of three dimensions.	St. Andrew's
George Stokes		A minister's son, he wrote a book on Natural Theology.	Gifford Lectures site.[38][39]
!Charles Townes		In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics and in 1966 he wrote The Convergence of Science and Religion.	University of California, Berkeley [40] and Templeton Prize's site.[41]
Henry Baker Tristram	File:CompassRose.gif	A founding member of the British Ornithologists' Union and a Bible scholar who wrote The Natural History of the Bible.	University of Durham
William Whewell		A professor of mineralogy and moral philosophy. He wrote An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics in 1819 and Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural Theology in 1833.	Stanford philosophy site and Middlesex University article
Theodor Wulf		About the radiation of high penetration capacity contained in the atmosphere, taught at the pictured Göttingen, and was a Jesuit who taught at a Jesuit school.	Physics article by him