The modern sciences, including the natural sciences, played a part in "secularizing" perception and thinking. The objective of this three-volume work is to show how different this scientific contribution was from case to case. It is noted, for instance, that it is often more appropriate to speak of a "Christianization" of thinking and that even "libertarianism" did not have a directly secularizing effect. Through examples of early modern science and literature anticipating the early 19th century, the concept of secularization is given historical contour. Diverging a good deal of current research, these volumes portray secularization as a long-term accumulation of knowledge and insight into interrelationships in the natural world. This first volume is a monograph on early modern processes of secularization in the medical discourse literature. Together, the three works create a conceptual and analytical foundation for understanding secularization, a key concept in research on early modern cultural and intellectual history.
