Interest and areas of expertise
My teaching and research emphasize the human side of science, especially the interaction of Christianity and science during the Scientific Revolution (the period from Copernicus to Newton) and in America since 1800.
Education
My training crosses the gap between the sciences and the humanities. Originally I studied physics, intending to become an astrophysicist. However, as I learned more about science and Christianity after college, I decided to do graduate study in the history of science, in order to turn my growing fascination with that subject into a career as a college professor.
- B.S. Physics (Drexel University)
- M.A. and Ph.D. History & Philosophy of Science (Indiana University)
Classes I teach
I retired from teaching in 2021.
Examples of Published Work (recent articles)
“Robert Boyle, the Bible, and Natural Philosophy.” Religions 14, no. 6 (2023): 795.
“A World of Love and Light” and “‘The Religion of Geology’: Edward Hitchcock.” Christian History, issue 134 (2020): 34-7 and 38.
“Boyle’s Philosophy of Religion.” In The Bloomsbury Companion to Robert Boyle, ed. Jan-Erik Jones (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2020), pp. 257-82.
Eleven entries in Dictionary of Christianity and Science, ed. Paul Copan, Tremper Longman III, Christopher L. Reese, and Michael G. Strauss (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017).
“Early Modern Protestantism [and science].” In Science and Religion: A Historical Introduction, 2nd edition, ed. Gary B. Ferngren (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017), 110-22.
“Reading the ‘Book of Nature’: Christianity and the Scientific Revolution.” Christian History, issue 119 (2016): 25-29.
“Science Falsely So Called: Fundamentalism and Science.” In The Blackwell Companion to Christianity and Science, edited by J. B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2012), pp. 48-60.
Examples of Published Work (editions of historically important sources)
Science and Religion, Chicago Style: Protestant Modernist Pamphlets in the Scopes Era. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024.
Edward B. Davis, editor, The Antievolution Pamphlets of Harry Rimmer. Volume 6 of the series, Creationism in Twentieth-Century America, Ronald L. Numbers, general editor. Reissued with updated introductory material. Routledge Revivals. Abingdon: Routledge, 2021.
Michael Hunter and Edward B. Davis, editors, The Works of Robert Boyle, 14 volumes. London: Pickering & Chatto, 1999-2000.
Edward B. Davis and Michael Hunter, editors, Robert Boyle, A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996
Research
I publish scholarly research on the religious dimensions of science, especially since 1650. I am active in academic societies devoted to studying the history of science and interactions between science and religion.