Michael B. Foster

Michael Beresford Foster (b. 1903; d. 1959) was a tutor in philosophy of Oxford University's Christ Church. For a period up until his death he was the chairman of the British Student Christian Movement. Works of his that remain important to the history of science include "The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science" (Mind, Volume 43, 1934, p.446-468), "Christian Theology and Modern Science of Nature." (Mind, Volume 44, 1935, pp. 439-466 (part I) and Volume 45, 1936, pp. 1-27 (part II)).

These articles provide a philosophical analysis of the relation between various docrines of God and their respective philosophies of nature. [Foster] specifically connects the voluntaristic doctrine of God with early modern natural philosophy (Empiricism)...his articles are the basis of some later works which do apply his analysis to seventeenth-century England.

Works

• Mystery and Philosophy, Michael Beresford Foster, SCM Press, 1957, pages 96
• "Man's Idea of Nature", The Christian Scholar, Volume 41, Number 3, September 1958, pages 361-366
• The Political Philosophies of Plato and Hegel, Michael Beresford Foster, Major Bronson Foster, Russell & Russell, 1965 (originally published 1935), 207 pages
• "The Christian Doctrine of Creation and the Rise of Modern Natural Science" in "Daniel O'connor and Francis Christopher Oakley (eds.), Creation: The Impact of an Idea, 1969, Charles Scribner's Sons set of 36 contemporary book citations

Citations

In the 27 page essay "Religious Belief and the Content of the Sciences", Osiris, 2nd Series, Volume 16, Science in Theistic Contexts: Cognitive Dimensions(2001),pp. 3-28 Oxford University theologian John Hedley Brooke states

Links between a voluntarist theology of the Creation and the advocacy of experimental methods were given prominence by Michael Foster in a series of articles published in Mind during the 1930s. For a critical update on the resulting literature, see Cameron Wybrow, ed., Creation, Nature, and Political Order in the Philosophy of Michael Foster (1903-1959) (Lampeter: Mellen, Press, 1992), and Margaret J. Osler, Divine Will and the Mechanical Philosophy: Gassendi and Descartes on Contingency and Necessity in the Created World (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Further reading

Creation, Nature, and Political Order in the Philosophy of Michael Foster (1903-1959): The Classic Mind Articles and Others, with Modern Critical Essays, Cameron Wybrow, Michael Beresford Foster, E. Mellen Press, 1993, ISBN 0773492070, 347 pages