Galileo

By Mitch Stokes

We learn about life through the lives of others. Their experiences, their trials, their adventures become our schools, our chapels, our playgrounds. Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church through prose as accessible and concise as it is personal and engaging. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. Whether the person is Galileo, William F. Buckley, John Bunyan, or Isaac Newton, we are now living in the world that they created and understand both it and ourselves better in the light of their lives. Their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires uniquely illuminate our shared experience.

HERO OR HERETIC? GENIUS OR BLASPHEMER?

It's no mystery how profound a role Galileo played in the Scientific Revolution. Less explored is the Italian innovator's sincere, guiding faith in God. In this exhaustively researched biography that reads like a page-turning novel, Mitch Stokes draws on his expertise in philosophy, logic, math, and science to attune modern ears with Galileo's controversial genius.

Emerging from the same Florentine milieu that produced Dante, da Vinci, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Amerigo Vespuci, Galileo questioned with a persistence that spurred his world toward an unabating era of discovery. Stokes confronts the myth that Galileo's stance on heliocentricity stood astride a church vs. science divide and explores his calculations for the dimensions of Dante's hell, his understanding of motion, and his invention of the pendulum clock.

To read this volume is to journey through Galileo's remarkable life: from his inquisitive childhood to his dying days, when, although blind and decrepit, he soldiered on, dictating mathematical thoughts and mentoring young proteges. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Apr 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781595553935

Mitch Stokes

Mitch Stokes is a Fellow of Philosophy at New St. Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Notre Dame under the direction of Alvin Plantinga and Peter van Inwagen. At Yale, he earned an M.A. in religion under the direction of Nicholas Wolterstorff. He also holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering and, prior to his philosophy career, worked for an international engineering firm where he earned five patents in aeroderivative gas turbine technology. He and his wife, Christine, have four children.

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Reviews for Galileo

[hoosiers80 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Galileo by Mitch Stokes is a look into the life and faith of Galileo Galilei. Known by many already as a great scientist, Galileo was also guided by a faith that did not pit science vs. church. This book shows the relationship Galileo saw between science, mathematics and faith. Follow Galileo through his many scientific discoveries, his troubles with the Roman Catholic Church, and eventually until his death.This biography was very interesting to read, and was very well written by the author. Biographies can tend to be very dry, but I never found that to be the case with this book. While the faith of Galileo is evident in the book, it was not expounded upon in this book as much as I would have liked to see. Much time is spent on the scientific discoveries of this great scientist, but little is shown of how his faith played a role until his troubles with the church. He was a good Roman Catholic in that he deferred to the authority of the church on matters of faith and even science when they collided with the views of the Roman Catholic church. It is interesting to look back and see areas of science that Galileo was correct about, but backed off because the church wrongly believed something else. I would recommend reading this book. It presents a picture of Galileo that you may not know. You will find a man that definitely shaped science, and what it means to be a christian scientist.

[nanajlove_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Christian Encounter Series attempts to shed light on some of our greatest thinkers and public figures who seem to be historically misunderstood, and even misquoted. This brief biography of Galileo is well written and an enjoyable read and the academic and scientific explaination are kept simple and to a minimum. The author has focused on Galileo's attempts to fuse together two divisions of the day which were seen as incompatible. Galileo believed that one could still be a good Catholic and a respectable scientist, and he spent a great deal of his time trying to subtly present his view to the Catholic church while trying to stay clear of being charged as a heretic. This book is well written and presents to the reader Galileo the man, Galileo the Catholic, and Galileo the revolutionary scientist. Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author through the BookSneeze Book Reviewer program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 [...] : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."