“Stigmata Science: Naturalizing Supernatural Wounds.” Guest Post by Kristof Smeyers

Kristof Smeyers is a historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-century religion and folklore, currently focusing on so-called supernatural phenomena within European Christianity. He is writing a PhD on stigmata in Britain and Ireland as member of the Religious Bodies research team at the University of Antwerp. He previously worked as a research assistant in the Archaeology of … Read more

Medical Astrology: How to Read Richard Napier’s Casebooks. By Joanne Edge

Dr. Joanne Edge specialises in late-medieval and early modern European social and cultural history, with an emphasis on medicine and the ‘occult’ sciences: divination, magic and astrology. She did her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of London, and held a four-year postdoctoral position as Assistant Editor on the Casebooks Project at the University … Read more

A Categorical Mistake: ‘Science’, ‘Magic’ and ‘Religion’ in the Middle Ages. By Joanne Edge

Dr. Joanne Edge specialises in late-medieval and early modern European social and cultural history, with an emphasis on medicine and the ‘occult’ sciences: divination, magic and astrology. She did her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of London, and held a four-year postdoctoral position as Assistant Editor on the Casebooks Project at the University … Read more

Divination and Medicine: “Piss Prophets” and the Wheel of Urine. By Lindsey Fitzharris

Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris is a bestselling author and medical historian with a doctorate from the University of Oxford. Her debut book, The Butchering Art, won the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science in the United States; and was shortlisted for both the Wellcome Book Prize and the Wolfson History Prize in the United Kingdom. Dr. … Read more

Making and Unmaking Gold: Confessions of an Anti-Alchemist. By Hasok Chang

Hasok Chang is Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, and the current British Academy Wolfson Research Professor. A past President of the British Society for this History of Science, Hasok is the author of Is Water H2O? Evidence, Realism and Pluralism (Springer, 2012), and Inventing Temperature: Measurement … Read more

Astronomy and Astrology: The Siamese Twins of the Evolution of Science. By Thony Christie

Thony Christie (Twitter handle @rmathematicus) is a British-born historian of early modern science and mathematics currently living in Franconia, Germany. He runs the blog, The Renaissance Mathematicus, and he was the editor of Whewell’s Gazette. Supporters of science, especially those who believe that empirical science is the only purveyor of truth in the world, like … Read more

Max Weber in the Realm of Enchantment. By Jason Josephson-Storm

Jason Ā. Josephson-Storm (Twitter: @Ghost_Image_) is Chair & Associate Professor of Religion at Williams College. Josephson-Storm received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Stanford University in 2006 and has held visiting positions at Princeton University, École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Paris, and Ruhr Universität, Germany. He is the author of The Invention of Religion in Japan (2012, … Read more

Scientific Revolutions and the “Will to Believe”: The Birth of Heliocentrism. By Bob Rosenberg

Bob Rosenberg received a PhD in History of Science and Technology from Johns Hopkins University. He spent two decades at Rutgers University on the staff of the Thomas A. Edison Papers, the last seven as director of the project. Since 2001 he has lived on the San Francisco Peninsula, working from 2005 to 2013 for … Read more

Robert Hare, the Spiritoscope, and Playfulness in Science. By Simone Natale

Simone Natale is a Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. He is the author of Supernatural Entertainments: Victorian Spiritualism and the Rise of Modern Media Culture, published by Pennsylvania State University Press in 2016. You can follow him on Twitter and Academia.edu. One of the peculiarities of spiritualism, a religious … Read more

The Mathematician and the World Beyond: The Visions of Girolamo Cardano. By Andrew Manns

Andrew Manns is a doctoral student at the Warburg Institute. His research focuses on the psychological and political theories of Renaissance philosopher Tommaso Campanella. As the founding editor of thethinkersgarden.com and a contributor to Abraxas Journal, Andrew has written on a number of topics in the history of religion, science, and magic. Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) … Read more