Isaac Newton: Inventor, Scientist, and Teacher (Sower Series)

Rating:
Summary: Invents a cardboard Newton to fit Fundamentalist needs.
Review: This book serves up a bowdlerized version of Sir Isaac Newton that has been carefully crafted to make him look like a modern Evangelical Fundamentalist. It makes good Sunday-school reading, perhaps, but it doesn't make for accurate biography.

Sir Isaac Newton was indeed a committed Christian and an almost obsessed Biblical scholar, as well as a towering mathematical genius. However, his years of scholarship ultimately led him to reject the doctrine of the Trinity and adopt a system of Christian belief that was closer to Arianism than to orthodox Christianity. See the essays collected in John Fauvel's <> for more information on this view of Newton and the evidence for it in his personal notebooks. See also Dr. Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs' careful study <> to understand how important the thirty years Newton spent investigating the claims of alchemy were in the development of his mature scientific philosophy.

Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: This book should be placed in the adult section at church in addition to the children's section. These days new books are coming out claiming Newton to have been a deist and to have dabbled in alchemy, while his Christianity has been completely ignored. This book blows the covers off of those myths. Newton is shown to have been a dedicated Christian believer as well as a dedicated scientist. Many quotes from his one million word commentaries on the Bible are mentioned. His relationships with other important Christian scholars of the day are explored, and his true genius are revealed. The book will even bring a tear to your eye. Highly recommended.