A Christian History of the Earth?

Abstract This essay aims to address little-known aspects of the confessionalization of natural philosophy in sixteenth-century Italy, with a focus on controversies surrounding the age and nature of the Earth. Sources suggest that – rather than causing a process – reactions to the Protestant Reformation accelerated and shaped developments already underway at the beginning of the sixteenth century when critics of Aristotelian eternalism began to call for a science of nature more in line with Christian beliefs. While a Christianized history of the Earth emerged as an explicit program in late-sixteenth century Italy, I would argue that Counter-Reformation cultural policies favored, but did not enforce, the confessionalization of the field and that largely secular approaches remained vital, legitimate, and influential.