Stephen Gaukroger shows that science was bitterly contested during the early modern period. It did not distance itself from religion but rather entered into an alliance with it to provide a comprehensive picture of the world - transforming not just science but also religion in the process. [A] substantial and impressive book...I am not aware of any other treatment of these themes that combines so magisterially a discerning account of changing boundaries between disciplines with a dispassionate analysis of the changing relations between theology and the sciences. The result is a scholarly exploration on the grand scale.