Concordia scientiae cum pietate : Leibnizian Models for the Relationship Between Science and Theology

Leibniz was precocious aware early on of the challenge that the emergence of the ‘new science’ of nature posed to the traditional religious worldview ; at the same time, he was prepared to avert the growing danger of a conflict between science and religion and to find an effective antidote to this danger. His global project was to reconcile science with piety. This ar- ticle will trace the various manifestations of this project in Leibniz’s life. Leibniz’s reform of the science of motion and bodies coincides with an important shift in his model of the relationship between ‘scientific knowledge’ and theology. We can therefore distinguish between an early period of his apologetic commitment up to the Paris period and a later one, from the end of his stay in Paris to his early years in Hanover.