MYSTERIOUS BISHOP: Father of British science to be honored

A theologian from Bishop Grosseteste University in the city of Lincoln has called for the erection of a statue of Bishop Robert Grosseteste, the medieval thinker, in his home city of Lincoln.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Dr. Jack Cunningham said that a statue should be built to pay tribute to Britain's forgotten scientist philosopher.

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According to Dr. Cunningham, the 13th century scholar was so far ahead of his time and his ideas about the universe prefigured the Big Bang theory. Grosseteste was also the first scientists to identify refraction of light as the cause of rainbows.

Grosseteste was born in Suffolk in 1175 but much of his life remains a mystery. By 1229 he was teaching at Oxford, and among the subjects he taught were the scientific method, the creation account as told in Genesis and the theological nature of truth. One of his most famous pupils was Roger Bacon.

A 20th century historian of science, AC Crombie, called Grossesteste "the real founder of the tradition of scientific thought in medieval Oxford, and in some ways, of the modern English intellectual tradition."

This weekend marks the third international Robert Grosseteste Conference at the university that shares his name, and Dr. Cunningham is expected to launch his campaign there, with a petition.

"Robert Grosseteste was undoubtedly the most eminent figure associated with out city. One of his most famous biographers, Sir Richard Southern, called him the greatest product of Oxford University.

"Grosseteste was revolutionary in the history of science because he knew that everything was about mathematics and that good scientists should base their knowledge on what they observe and not what they think. He has been called the founder of the tradition of scientific thought and a minor planet has even been named after him. And yet very few people have even heard of him."

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