Praise for Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written Into History

 

There are many books on whether or not there is a conflict between science and religion. There are only a few books on how such a conflict became imaginable in the first place. This is the best one. In three masterfully crafted sections, Derrick Peterson draws upon a century of scholarship across several disciplines which, collectively, demonstrate that our perception of conflict between science and religion is a historical idiosyncrasy. Especially for those who know what they are looking at, Peterson has truly consolidated a massive amount of scholarship between an affordable two covers … His endorsements come from some of the top intellectuals in the field, such as Peter Harrison and James Ungureanu. And if that were not enough, Peterson is an excellent and entertaining writer, converting a work of scholarly and interdisciplinary conversation into what reads like a detective novel full of the author’s own positive insights.

 

—Review excerpt of FEFF from Evangelical Quarterly by Dr. Joseph Minich

 

 

Unexpected and remarkable – [Derrick] Peterson’s ambitious volume Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes manages to walk the razor thin line combining academic rigor and breadth with entertaining and beautiful prose somehow geared to pop culture sensibilities. Make no mistake, this is a dense read, one that isn’t just entertainment. Within the two covers lay the cutting edge of academic publications on the topic. This is one of my new favorite works recounting the historiography of science and religion, and should be on everyone’s shelf.

 

—Dr. Gary Ferngren, Oregon State University, editor of Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction and author of Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity 

 

“Derrick Peterson’s Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes is a wonderful … book; the thesis is so true, and profound. It is my opinion that everyone needs to read this.”

 

—Conor Cunningham, Ph.D., Director of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy, and Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy, University of Nottingham, author of Darwin’s Pious Idea: Why the Ultra-Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong (Eerdman’s 2010)

One of the most potent integrations of theology, philosophy, and the history of the sciences I have encountered. Historiography is a discipline too often ignored by Christians, and this needs to be emended immediately. This book is dense, but its style is beautiful, and the level of research is astounding. The history of ideas has gained a triumphant book that is hopefully prophetic for more works to come from the author, and from those his first work has inspired.

--Dr. David Burrell, Theodore Hesburgh Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology, University of Notre Dame. 

 

This book was a rare delight to read. [Peterson is] incredibly thorough, while also bringing a daunting but necessary scope of vision. [He] combines expertise in disciplines far too often kept apart. I hope to see many more contributions like this from a young scholar. I give his first book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes, a hearty endorsement.

 

—Dr. Timothy Larsen, Carolyn and Fred McManis Professor of Christian Thought and Professor of History at Wheaton College, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 2025 President of the American Society of Church History, author of numerous works including Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth Century England, and The Slain God: Anthropologists and the Christian Faith

I was initially skeptical of Derrick Peterson’s book, Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes: The Strange Tale of How the Conflict of Science and Christianity Was Written into History. When I read that the author teaches at Multnomah University and Seminary, I thought, “Wait, isn’t that a conservative seminary? Oh no, this is book is just apologetics.” And to be blunt, when I think of modern apologetics, I think of works weak on academic scholarship and strong in polemics… However, the blurbs from distinguished academics from top universities caused me to pause and set aside my assumptions: “Maybe I’ll give the book a chance. After all, scholars a thousand times smarter than me are giving the book high praise.” … I’m glad I didn’t give in to my initial prejudices. … Peterson’s book is a must read for all those who seek to explore the history behind the much-propagated notion that Christianity has always been at war with science. While some might want to dismiss this book as nothing more than apologetics, the reality is that the primary purpose of this book is not to “defend” Christianity. But rather to point out with rigorous scholarships and real footnotes that the warfare thesis developed as a result of the propagation of specific inaccurate narratives and interpretations.

 

—Review Excerpt from Faithfully Radical Christian

 

 

[Peterson’s] book can be read by any interested lay reader, although the detail and research will be useful to academic readers … This book is good value, worth reading, and an excellent addition to the study of the development of the warfare myth. It is to be hoped that it will contribute to that myth’s worthwhile demise.

 

—Dr. Robert Brennan, Christian Perspectives on Science and Technology vol. 2 (August, 2023)

 

Peterson shows great command of the material, and is able to pull together many of the insights of what is now a considerable body of revisionist scholarship on the historiography of religion and science. … The book is written with great wit and humor, and while there is a polemical edge to the writing, this never detracts from the force of the argument. It is highly recommended.

 

—Ian Tragenza, “Review of Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes,” Journal of Religious History vol.46 no.1 (2022): 271-272.

 

Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes functions well as a primer for nonspecialists on the ideological origins of the conflict view and how badly it misled scholars in earlier generations, leading them to write many dungs that would not pass muster today; the book explains how the conflict view was eventually deconstructed. That is its main value--despite the annoying absence of an index--but the book is much more than a primer. The latter half of the book examines numerous bogus stories of conflict that are still often repeated, starting with the notion (referenced in the tide of the book) that most Christians before the rise of modern science believed on biblical grounds that the earth is flat. I found his debunking of the modern mythmakers Catherine Nixey and Stephen Greenblatt, authors of award-winning books advancing the conflict view, particularly on point. All lovers of truth should applaud this material. More importantly, Peterson has read widely in the history of ideas, enabling him to contextualize the history of science itself--which became an academic discipline in the twentieth century, substantially by embracing nineteenth-century versions of the conflict view.

 

—Edward B. Davis, “Review: Flat Earths and Fake Footnotes” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith vol. 74 no.1 (2022)

 

 

“Over the previous centuries, there has been an ever-increasing and ever-intensifying conflict in the relationship between science and religion, especially as it applies to Western science and Judeo-Christian positions. The ferocity of these debates has been likened to “warfare” in which there are the equivalent of open-field conflicts that receive significant public attention to subversive operations that chip away at the very foundations on which science and religion are built. In his proposed book, Derrick Peterson tackles an expansive literature of prior analyses and with tremendous insight and eloquence, he lays out a comprehensive approach from which to understand the apparent impasse in these disciplines within our modern-day society. The precision with which he writes beguiles his youth and concomitantly reveals a genuine depth of intellectual thought, accompanied by practical real-world common sense. In the proposed book, Mr. Peterson articulately lays out the revisionist reconstruction of the relationship between science and religion. With the precision of a laser surgeon, Mr. Peterson has captured the essence of this history. Although the subject matter that Mr. Peterson is taking on is dauntingly complex, his fluid and exact writing style is almost mesmerizing. The pictures that he paints and the choices of subject matter are exceptionally well done and his style portends well for an engaging and important literary contribution.”

 

—R. Stephen Lloyd, Ph.D., Director of Basic Research, Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences. Professor, Department of Molecular and Medical Genetics, Professor, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Oregon Health & Science University.

 

 

“I'll start with this: I fully and enthusiastically endorse this project.  I believe it to be very compelling, interesting, helpful, and imminently worthwhile. This volume will prove to make a substantial contribution to so scholarship and to historical understanding. It's all green lights from my point of view regarding Peterson’s proposal, and its thoroughness and rigorous documentation. 

 

—Rodney Stiling, Ph.D., Chair of History and Associate Professor at Seattle Pacific University.