Georges Lemaître: A Brief Introduction to His Science, His Theology, and His Impact

Abstract

For several decades historians of astronomy have overlooked the achievements in cosmology of the Belgian priest and professor of physics, Georges Lemaître (1894–1966). In 1927 he became the first to propose a theory of the expansion of the universe to explain the redshifts of galaxies, an advance that is often attributed to Edwin Hubble. Lemaître published the original version of the Hubble Law, and he produced the first estimate of the Hubble constant. He proposed a “Fireworks Universe” that became better known as the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe, for which he is now popularly regarded as the “father of the Big Bang.” This Introduction gives an overview to the 13 chapters in this book, which is devoted to the science and theology of a remarkable scholar, cosmologist, and theologian.

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