Editing Christendom (section)

==Christian civilization==
{{Off topic|date=January 2018|Christianity and science}}
{{Main|Christianity and science}}
[[File:God the Geometer.jpg|thumb|[[Science]], and particularly [[geometry]] and [[astronomy]], was linked directly to the divine for most medieval scholars. Since these Christians believed God imbued the universe with regular geometric and harmonic principles, to seek these principles was therefore to seek and worship God.]]

===Medieval conditions===
{{Main|Medieval science|Medieval technology|List of Christian thinkers in science}}

The [[Byzantine Empire]], which was the most sophisticated culture during antiquity, suffered under [[Early Muslim conquests|Muslim conquests]] limiting its scientific prowess during the [[Medieval period]]. Christian [[Western Europe]] had suffered a catastrophic loss of knowledge following the fall of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. But thanks to the [[Roman Catholic Church|Church]] scholars such as [[Aquinas]] and [[Buridan]], the West carried on at least the spirit of scientific inquiry which would later lead to Europe's taking the lead in science during the [[Scientific Revolution]] using [[Latin translations of the 12th century|translations of medieval works]].

[[Medieval technology]] refers to the [[technology]] used in [[medieval Europe]] under Christian rule. After the [[Renaissance of the 12th century]], medieval Europe saw a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth.<ref>Alfred Crosby described some of this technological revolution in his ''The Measure of Reality : Quantification in Western Europe, 1250–1600'' and other major historians of technology have also noted it.</ref> The period saw major [[technology|technological]] advances, including the adoption of [[gunpowder]] and the [[astrolabe]], the invention of [[spectacles]], and greatly improved [[water mill]]s, [[building]] techniques, [[agriculture]] in general, [[clock]]s, and [[ship]]s. The latter advances made possible the dawn of the [[Age of Exploration]]. The development of water mills was impressive, and extended from agriculture to [[sawmill]]s both for timber and stone, probably derived from [[Roman technology]]. By the time of the [[Domesday Book]], most large villages in [[Great Britain|Britain]] had mills. They also were widely used in [[mining]], as described by [[Georg Agricola]] in [[De Re Metallica]] for raising ore from shafts, crushing ore, and even powering [[bellows]].

Significant in this respect were advances within the fields of [[navigation]]. The [[compass]] and [[astrolabe]] along with advances in shipbuilding, enabled the navigation of the [[Ocean|World Oceans]] and thus domination of the worlds economic trade. [[Johann Gutenberg|Gutenberg]]'s [[printing press]] made possible a dissemination of knowledge to a wider population, that would not only lead to a gradually more [[egalitarian society]], but one more able to dominate other cultures, drawing from a vast reserve of knowledge and experience.

===Renaissance innovations===
{{Main|History of science in the Renaissance|Renaissance technology}}

During the [[Renaissance]], great advances occurred in geography, astronomy, chemistry, physics, math, manufacturing, and engineering. The rediscovery of ancient scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople, and the invention of [[printing]] which would democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas. ''[[Renaissance technology]]'' is the set of artifacts and customs, spanning roughly the 14th through the 16th century. The era is marked by such profound technical advancements like the [[printing press]], [[Perspective (graphical)|linear perspectivity]], [[patent law]], [[Santa Maria del Fiore|double shell domes]] or [[Bastion fortress]]es. Draw-books of the Renaissance artist-engineers such as [[Taccola]] and [[Leonardo da Vinci]] give a deep insight into the mechanical technology then known and applied.

[[History of science in the Renaissance|Renaissance science]] spawned the [[Scientific Revolution]]; science and technology began a cycle of mutual advancement. The ''Scientific Renaissance'' was the early phase of the Scientific Revolution. In the two-phase model of [[early modern]] science: a ''Scientific Renaissance'' of the 15th and 16th centuries, focused on the restoration of the natural knowledge of the ancients; and a ''Scientific Revolution'' of the 17th century, when scientists shifted from recovery to innovation. Some scholars and historians attributes Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the [[Scientific Revolution]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Harrison|first1=Peter|title=Christianity and the rise of western science|website=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=8 May 2012|url=http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/05/08/3498202.htm|access-date=28 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{citation | last = Noll | first = Mark | author-link = Mark Noll | title = Science, Religion, and A.D. White: Seeking Peace in the "Warfare Between Science and Theology" | publisher = The Biologos Foundation | page = 4 | url = http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | access-date = 14 January 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150322013257/http://biologos.org/uploads/projects/noll_scholarly_essay2.pdf | archive-date = 22 March 2015 | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 = Lindberg | first1 = David C. | author-link = David C. Lindberg | last2 = Numbers | first2 = Ronald L. | author2-link = Ronald L. Numbers | title = God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter Between Christianity and Science | place = Berkeley and Los Angeles | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1986 | chapter = Introduction | pages = 5, 12 | isbn = 978-0-520-05538-4 }}</ref><ref name="Gilley1">{{cite book |last= Gilley |first= Sheridan |others=Brian Stanley|title=The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities C.1815-c.1914 |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0521814561|page=164}}</ref>

Professor [[Noah Efron|Noah J Efron]] says that "Generations of historians and sociologists have discovered many ways in which Christians, Christian beliefs, and Christian institutions played crucial roles in fashioning the tenets, methods, and institutions of what in time became modern science. They found that some forms of Christianity provided the motivation to study nature systematically..."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILIPEAAAQBAJ|title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion|pages=80|isbn=9780674057418 |last1=Numbers |first1=Ronald L. |date=8 November 2010 |publisher= [[Harvard University Press]] }}</ref> Virtually all modern scholars and historians agree that Christianity moved many early-modern intellectuals to study nature systematically.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILIPEAAAQBAJ|title=Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion|pages=80–81|isbn=9780674057418 |last1=Numbers |first1=Ronald L. |date=8 November 2010 |publisher= [[Harvard University Press]] }}</ref>