Download or read book Physica Sacra: Wunder, Naturwissenschaft und historischer Schriftsinn zwischen Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit written by Bernd Roling and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-09-12 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was it a whale or a shark that devoured Jonah? And how were the walls of Jericho brought down? In his wide-ranging study, Physica Sacra, Bernd Roling shows that the natural sciences and biblical exegesis have not always stood in stark opposition to one another. From the high Middle Ages, Bible commentators such as Albertus Magnus and Alonso Tostado made extensive use of the knowledge available in their times about zoology, medicine and astronomy to explain the wonders of revelation and to defend their historical basis. Even with the advent of modern Biblical criticism and in the age of Enlightenment, as is shown here in detail, their arguments were valid enough to refute critics like Spinoza, Isaac de la Peyrère and Voltaire.