Have science and Christianity been at each other's throats for centuries? Or have they coexisted in harmony? Although both characterizations are misleading at best, they've nevertheless dominated most popular and scholarly debates over science and religion. Through careful attention to actual lived encounters, When Science and Christianity Meet demonstrates that the truth lies somewhere in between--sometimes Christian beliefs and practices have encouraged scientific investigation, and sometimes they have hampered it, depending on the time, place, and people involved. Providing much-needed historical contexts for the science and religion debate, this book explores key interactions between Christianity and science from the Middle Ages through the twentieth century. Twelve richly detailed case studies vividly evoke particularly notorious, interesting, or instructive historical episodes, discussing the intellectual issues at stake, the relevant social and cultural circumstances, and the often quite colorful personalities involved. As the contributors bring to light, even cases that have been frequently cited as evidence of Christian suppression of scientific inquiry, such as the Catholic Church's seventeenth-century condemnation of Galileo or the Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925, reveal great complexity. For anyone curious about how science and Christianity have related to each other over the centuries, When Science and Christianity Meet provides an in-depth understanding of crucial events from their shared history.