David on A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom

“One of the reigning views of modern scholarship is that it is inappropriate to employ martial metaphors such as "warfare" in discussing the historical relationship between science and religion.”

“In the... monumental two volume work, the American historian Andrew Dickson White depicted the engagement of Christianity and science as a series of "battles" between narrow-minded, dogmatic theologians and truth-seeking men of science. ...Some Christian apologists have gone so far as to reframe the relationship... as an essentially harmonious engagement ...By the last quarter of the twentieth century many historians of science and Christianity were growing increasingly uncomfortable with the triumphalist narratives of both the warriors and the harmonizers. ...they laid aside polemical goals, choosing to understand rather than to judge...”