Professor Rob Iliffe
Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton (OUP, September 2017)
Newton's unusual — or even downright heretical — religious opinions were well known to a number of his contemporaries. For over two centuries the exact nature of his religious beliefs was a matter of intense debate, but by the middle of the nineteenth century it was public knowledge that he had held highly unorthodox conceptions of the Trinity. Until the early 1970s, very few of Newton's private theological researches had been made publicly available, and scholars did not determine his views with any precision.
In the Media
Inaugural Lecture: Science Fictions: The triumph of the imagination and the invention of scientific creativity
In this lecture Prof Iliffe will describe the various attacks on the imagination launched by natural philosophers in the seventeenth century, and account for the dramatic change in its reputation that occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century, when a powerful imagination became the defining characteristic of the recently-invented scientific genius.
8 November 2018
'Making History' - Stukeley and Stonehenge
Tom Holland is joined by Rob Iliffe, Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oxford and Dr David Haycock the author of ‘William Stukeley: Science, Religion, and Archaeology in Eighteenth-century England.
BBC Radio 4
20 June 2017
Current DPhil Students
Teaching
I would like to hear from potential DPhil students in any areas of my research interests (see under Research)
I currently teach:
Masters:
- Methods and Themes in the History of Science and Technology
- Malthus, Darwin and Society, 1790-1950
- The Scientific Revolution, 1540-1740
Chemistry Undergraduate Supplementary Subject:
- History and Philosophy of Science