Nicholas Spencer, Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion (London: Oneworld, 2023). Pp. 480. £25.00 (hbk). ISBN 9780861544615

The twin histories of science and religion have always been intertwined.Traditionally, this marriage has been viewed as an unhappy one.The received view is that science and religion have always been at war with one another.From the abjuration of Galileo in 1633 to the Huxley-Wilberforce debate in 1860 and the Scopes 'monkey' trial of 1925, all these events have in the past been used to highlight this perceived fight for dominance.Nicholas Spencer rejects this view as entirely outdated and oversimplified.He argues that the phrase 'the history of science and religion' is itself a misnomer and that there is, in fact, no such thing as a history of science and religion, let alone the history of science and religion.Instead of a coherent narrative, what we're in possession of is a confusing collection of interconnected tales.The blame for this can be laid at the feet of John William Draper, whose History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science (Appleton & Co., 1875) took aim primarily at the Catholic Church and not necessarily religion itself.It's this argument that Spencer primarily concerns himself with, arguing that not only were religion and science not locked in a never-ending war with one another, but that for much of history, religion and science were in something of a symbiotic relationship.The former actively supported the latter, legitimising, preserving, and developing scientific ideas and activities.Spencer begins by exploring quite a substantial period, from the fifth century through to the seventeenth.He begins with the murder of the celebrated female philosopher and mathematician Hypatia in Alexandria in 415, whom, he argues, was not so much a martyr for science as a casualty of the ferocious power politics inherent in Alexandrian society at the time.Spencer's main argument is that the science of antiquity was very different to modern science: astronomy and mathematics (both of which Hypatia was an accomplished practitioner of) were part of a wider, philosophical search for truth.He argues that neither science nor religion, as we understand both terms today, existed in the classical or medieval European, Islamic, Indian, or Chinese worlds.It wasn't until the nineteenth century that science became an independent discipline.Spencer also examines the 'Golden Age' of Islamic science, covering individuals from Baghdad to Al-Andalus, as well as dedicating space to the attitudes of science in Judaism during the period in question, before exploring Christian Europe during the Middle Ages and how a 'Dark Ages' style misunderstanding obscures some lesser known, though undoubtedly scientifically minded, individuals.For instance, Robert Grosseteste, a bishop