ROBERT HOOKE

religion.

 

Robert Hooke grew up during the Scientific Revolution, in which society steered away from religious aspects of life and leaned more toward a scientific and secular perspective. Hooke experienced England’s shift from an emphasis on Anglicanism to an emphasis on the secular sciences (“British Art in the 17th Century and Historical Background,” 43). Thus, this new uprising encouragement to explore the sciences dominated the middle class of the urbanizing society. This gave Robert Hooke an excuse to let go of the religious expectations of his family in order to pursue a life as a scientist. Hooke came from a highly religious Anglican family, and his father, John Hooke, expected him to become an Anglican clergyman himself (“The Religious Affiliation of Robert Hooke,” 54). The ill physical conditions of Hooke as a child caused his parents to eventually give up on his educational expectations, since they doubted that he would be able to survive. Thus, they left his undecided education up to the decision of Robert Hooke himself (“The Religious Affiliation of Robert Hooke,” 55). With an undecided education ahead of him, Robert Hooke’s decision to become a scientist was directly impacted by the transformation within society from a religious emphasis to a more secular and scientific emphasis. After the death of John Hooke, society dived into a new era of the Scientific Revolution, and left behind the old principle emphasis on religion. Thus, this affected Robert Hooke and influenced his destiny of becoming a scientist and natural philosopher, rather than a clergyman of the Anglican Church. Accordingly, in 1653, Robert Hooke left Westminster for Christ Church of Oxford, considering the fact that the Anglican Church was abolished between the years of 1643 and 1660 (“The Religious Affiliation of Robert Hooke,” 55). Furthermore, this shift from religion to secularism led Hooke to continue to pursue the study of fossils despite the lack of religious support of this subject due to the Bible’s own account of creation (Westfall, 72).