The founder of modern astronomy... His real dream was to enter the ministry, but economic necessity forced him to pursue mathematics. He would later recognize God's leading in the academic route he followed... Harrassment over his religious beliefs compelled him to leave Gratz [Austria] in 1597. He spent some time in Prague, but community opposition to his Lutheranism eventually drove him from there as well. The persecution led him to his big break. Kepler began working with Tycho Brahe...
[page 48] All of Kepler's writings and letters displayed deep religious convictions. He held that Scripture used the common expressions of mankind when it spoke about mundane things as opposed to spiritual mattes. Hence, he perceived the Bible to be a spiritual and not a scientific guide. He held reason to be above authority in matters of natural philosophy, while authority (that is, church and Scripture) ruled in matters of religion. Beneath it all, he saw himself as a priset of nature whose discoveries glorified the name of God.
Firmly believing that God created the universe, Kepler sought to discover how it was set in motion. "I wanted to become a theologian," he wrote. "For a long time I was restless. Now, however, behold how through my effort God is being celebrated in astronomy."
As a Lutheran working in areas controlled by Catholics, he suffered pangs of conscience when forced to make compromises. When Mysterium cosmographicum was printed, Kepler's school requested he delte passages referring to Scripture. He did so, but in a short tract explained his view on the relationship of Scripture to science. Unfortunately, Galileo borrowed from it freely and without attribution so that it came to be reprinted as his own work.
For this and numerous other citations about Kepler and his Lutheran faith click here. Werner Elert also has a very nice section on Kepler's Lutheran orthodoxy in his Structure of Lutheranism. M.H.
Prague Technical Museum introduces "Johannes Kepler in Prague"
The Technical Museum in Prague will be opening a new exhibition on Monday, looking at the life and works of famous German astronomer Johannes Kepler. The exhibition called "Kepler and Prague", is part of the international World View Network project and aims at informing the public about the ways in which famous astronomers have influenced our lives. More from the exhibition's curator Antonin Svejda:
"Our colleagues from Sweden's Landskrona, specifically the Tycho de Brahe Museum on the Island of Hven, decided to launch a project documenting the co-operation of various renowned astronomers. They chose to feature five great Modern Age scientists - Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Newton - and found five institutions that would be able to host exhibitions focusing on each one of these men. So, our museum was approached to introduce the significant years of Johannes Kepler in Prague. He actively worked in the Czech capital for twelve years, which were probably the most important and productive years in his life."
Johannes KeplerFrom 1600-1612, to be precise. Johannes Kepler is chiefly remembered for discovering the three laws of planetary motion that bear his name. But besides Kepler's work, visitors will also be able to see the various types of instruments used by astronomers at the time and how they worked.
"Some of the objects and publications at this exhibition are obviously borrowed from other museums. One such object is a beautiful sundial from the workshop of Erasmus Hebermel. It dates back to 1600 and was lent to us from Prague's Academy of Decorative Arts. We also have a piece that's called the Somnium, or the 'Dream', which is a publication on lunar astronomy. Kepler worked on it for dozens of years and most of it came to being while he was in Prague. It was so scientifically advanced that it wasn't until 1644 that it was published by Kepler's son Ludwig. It is a very interesting book that describes Kepler's journey to the moon. Written in Latin, he tells us what travellers would have to face on their trips to the moon - radiation, gravity - and the problems involved in the actual transfer. So, with this publication, Kepler was at least 350 years ahead of us, even though the first real trip to the moon was not until the second half of the twentieth century."
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"As a Lutheran working in areas controlled by Catholics, he suffered pangs of conscience when forced to make compromises. When Mysterium cosmographicum was printed, Kepler's school requested he delete passages referring to Scripture."
Although Johannes Kepler was a professor of the astronomy and mathematics at the University of Graz, Austria (until he left in 1597), his Mysterium cosmographicum was actually published in Tübingen, Germany, in 1596. Kepler was aided in the printing by his former University of Tübingen mentors, astronomer Michael Maestlin (who also accept heliocentrism as a physical reality) and Lutheran theologian Matthias Hafenreffer, whom Kepler called the "promoter of the printing."
And passages were NOT deleted because of Romanist control in Austria or because of Kepler's school at Graz. Instead it was the University of Tübingen, or more specifically Kepler's mentor, Matthias Hafenreffer, who convinced Kepler to delete an entire chapter from his book. In his Change and Continuity in Early Modern Cosmology (Springer, 2010), Johns Hopkins University scholar, Patrick J. Boner, explains (pp. 117-121):
"Kepler had hoped to include within the book a discussion of the manner in which one could reconcile Copernicanism with Scriptural passages that seemed to imply the centrality and immobility of the earth. However, when Kepler told Matthias Hafenreffer of this plan, Hafenreffer wrote to him and urged him to reconsider....
"Though Hafenreffer urged Kepler to act as an abstract mathematician and ignore the relationship between Copernicanism and Scripture, Kepler was strongly committed to the physical truth of the Copernican system, and a strictly mathematical approach was deeply unsatisfying to him. Hafenreffer, however went one step further, and argued for the omission of the proposed chapter on grounds that would have appealed much more strongly to Kepler. He urged Kepler to consider the cohesive bonds of community, rather than simply the strict bounds of doctrine. His concern, he wrote in a private letter to Kepler, was not merely that Kepler himself would be contravening an accepted truth of the church, but rather that since many Lutherans perceived Kepler's actions could only increase the strife and disagreement in an already contentious and fractured Lutheran Church, "I advise and admonish you as a brother," Hafenreffer implored, "that you not attempt to propound or fight for that stated harmonization publicly, for thus many good men would be offended, and not unjustly, and the whole business could either be impeded, or tainted with the grave stain of dissension." With this plea, Hafenreffer appealed not to Kepler's sense of orthodoxy, but rather to Kepler's desire for harmony in the church...."
(continued...)
"Despite Kepler's belief in the importance of his discovery, Kepler evidently found Hafenreffer's arguments persuasive - or perhaps, still felt too closely bound to his Tübingen roots to defy the advice of his mentor, particular on so contentious an issue. He followed Hafenreffer's advice and eliminated the proposed chapter on Copernicanism and Scripture from the Mysterium cosmographicum - though he later would include it in the Astronomia nova. "What are we to do?" he wrote to Maestlin, after describing Hafenreffer's position. "The whole of astronomy is not worth one of Christ's little ones being offended." Yet Kepler took pains to note that he did this out of respect for unity, and not because he felt that there was anything objectionable about the material he wanted to include. Moreover, he argued to Maestlin that the same was true for Hafenreffer himself....
"Kepler could not accept the possibility that a close mentor and friend, one whom he so respected, could have read his book and not been persuaded by the arguments he had so clearly outlined."
Ultimately it was his mentor, Matthias Hafenreffer, and Daniel Hitzler, a Tübingen alumnus and pastor in Linz, where Kepler moved following Romanist persecution in Prague, who objected to Kepler's refusal to unconditionally accept the Formula of Concord (Kepler specifically rejected the doctrine of Real Presence in the Lord's Supper). Kepler was eventually excommunicated from the Lutheran Church on July 31, 1619.
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