Secularization of nature during the early Enlightenment: conceptions of water circulation as an impulse for secularization

Abstract

The seventeenth century view of water focused on the forces of erosion. Behind this was a pessimistic, conservative worldview which saw the world declining as the result of the fall of Adam. Man had to fight against the declining natural processes as they were conspicuously represented by the forces associated with water. In opposition to this view, the early Enlightenment saw water and water circulation as the expressions of God’s providential love. It was driven by an optimistic and progressive worldview. Philosophers of the Enlightenment perceived the qualities of water that provide and sustain life; the leading figure was the German physico-theologian, Johann Albert Fabricius, who developed a theology of water.