Isaac Newton: Physicist and Radical Heretic

English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton was one of the most influential and famous scientists in history. We know him for his theories of the laws of gravity and motion that laid the very foundation for modern physics and greatly influenced how we perceive the world around us. But Newton was also a deeply religious man. In his day, Newton was considered a radical heretic with religious beliefs that were unorthodox and not in keeping with the doctrine of the Anglican Church.

Newton as a religious thinker is the focus of a new biography that explores the philosopher’s extensive theological writings, which have become accessible to the public in recent years thanks to the Newton Project.

Robert Iliffe is a general editor of the Newton Project and professor of the history of science at the University of Oxford. Iliffe discusses his new book, “Priest of Nature – The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton,” which chronicles how Newton reconciled his faith with his passion for explaining the natural world.