The focus of the study is the three major attributes of the Deity: omnipotence, omnipresence and providence. By close documentation of the mutations that took place within each of these attributes, Funkenstein, who is. a professor of Jewish culture and history at Stanford University, demonstrates the demise of the medieval "theocentric" theology and its replacement by a "cosmocentric" theology, which dominated the crucial phase of the scientific revolution.
The three divine predicates are chosen with good reason. The author is correct to claim that the divergent speculations concerning the extent of God's power were relevant and crucial to the emerging "new science" as well as to post-reformation theology.
By drawing on his wide knowledge of medieval philosophical and theological writings, Funkenstein is able to depict the ways in which the barriers between the disciplines were crumbling in the late Middle Ages. He is also able to show how changes in ...
