Science and Roman Catholicism have both acted as powerful agents of change in Ireland and elsewhere. But the interaction between Catholicism and science in Ireland has received very little attention from historians to date. The purpose of this book, therefore, is to address this longstanding deficiency in Irish historical literature. There is a strong international dimension to this study. The period of interest is from the Famine to the "Celtic Tiger." The subject matter encompasses a diverse range of topics. Issues indigenous to Ireland include recurring controversies about university education, the relative paucity of Catholics scientists in nineteenth-century Ireland, the perception of science as a trait of a Protestant and colonial mindset, anti-Catholicism and science, the economic and political conditions in the Irish Free State which worked against the growth of science in Ireland, and the impact of science and technology on Irish Catholicism in recent decades. These subjects are interweaved with topics which extend far beyond Irish interest - such as evolutionary debates, the question of whether or not Catholicism was compatible with science, anti-modernism in the Catholic Church, Vatican pronouncements on science, the theological implications of extra-terrestrial life and of Big Bang cosmology, whether human freewill is real or not, and the importance of science in arguments about the existence of God.

In the popular imagination, historical relations between the Roman Catholic Church and modern science are best epitomized in the case of Galileo Galilei. Condemned in 1633 for advancing the theory of a moving earth and a stationary sun, he was only exonerated in 1992. Yet apart from relatively few and specialized studies, there have been no extensive historical treatments of Catholic attitudes toward science after Galileo.While Galileo's heliocentric universe had challenged the "inerrancy" of the Bible, Darwin's theory challenged the direct and immediate creation of the first humans. Through O'Leary's cast of characters - popes from Pius IX to John Paul II, polemicists like Thomas Henry Huxley and Irish physicist John Tyndall, Catholic apologists and scientists like St. George Jackson Mivart - we get a clear picture of the back and forth volleys between representatives of the scientific and ecclesiastical establishments as well as within each of those establishments. Besides evolution, a wide range of other issues receives attention, including agnosticism, biblical criticism, the philosophy and professionalization of science, contraception, "in vitro" fertilization, gene therapy, experimentation on embryos and organ transplantation. O'Leary explains the intricacies of all of these issues clearly and fairly, though their ultimate resolution may take decades to achieve.

In the popular imagination, historical relations between the Roman Catholic Church and modern science are best epitomized in the case of Galileo Galilei. Condemned in 1616 for advancing the theory of a moving earth and a stationary sun, he was only fully exonerated in 1992. Yet apart from relatively few and specialized studies, there have been no extensive historical treatments of Catholic attitudes toward science after Galileo. This is the first general history of the reactions of the RCC to developments in the natural sciences from about 1800 to the dawn of the twenty-first century. While Galileo's heliocentric universe had challenged the "inerrancy" of the Bible, Darwin's theories challenged the divine origin of the universe and the direct and immediate creation of the human soul. Through O'Leary's cast of characters - popes from Pius IX to John Paul II, polemicists like Thomas Henry Huxley and Irish physicist John Tyndall, and Catholic apologists and scientists like Sir George Jackson Mivart - we get a clear picture of the back and forth volleys between representatives of the scientific and religious establishments. Besides evolution, a wide range of other issues receives attention, including agnosticism, biblical criticism, the philosophy and professionalization of science, the nature of Catholic dogma vis-a-vis science and intellectual freedom vis-a-vis faith and ecclesiastical authority. While many of these issues achieved a certain resolution in the years before and after the Second Vatican Council, toward the end of the 20th century new issues facing the church and global society exploded with new urgency, with environmental concerns, on the one hand, and portentous developments in the biological sciences, on the other: contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization, gene therapy, experimentation on embryos, organ transplantation, withdrawal of medical treatment, diagnosis of death and euthanasia. O'Leary explains the intricacies all of these issues clearly and fairly, though their ultimate resolution may take decades to achieve.