Allegory and Empiricism: Interpreting God's Two Books in Newtonian England.

Allegorical biblical interpretation is often criticized as being far more interested in heavenly than in earthly realities. This perspective is consistent with the fact that the popularization of empirical science in Newtonian England was accompanied by a rejection of allegory. But the interpretation of Ps 19 in Newtonian England suggests that interest in empirical science can equally be fueled by allegorical biblical interpretation. George Watson interprets the term sun in Ps 19 as a reference to Christ. For Watson, however, this interpretation is not a justification to dispense with the physical object we call the sun. To the contrary, it is what spurs him on to study it empirically. Psalm 19 accordingly becomes a window of divine contemplation that invites the interpreter to explore the analogical relationship between what the sun does in the physical world and what Christ does in the spiritual realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]