What was Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben's views on the relationship between science and religion?

by KierkeBored

Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben (1806-1849) was a physician, philosopher, and poet. He appears to be acutely familiar with Christian concepts and phrases, which is perhaps to be expected from someone living in 19th-century Austria. For example, in a single page in his Principles of Medical Psychology (1847: 166), he mentions both "the old Adam" and a "prophet divining". However, it is difficult to gather whether he is speaking from a Christian perspective of devout belief, in which he thinks these concepts are compatible with science, or whether he is simply using them as foil, as an educated man might do in speaking to his audience. (If it helps, "Baron Ernst von Feuchtersleben" is an entry in the Catholic Encyclopedia, yet it says nothing about his religious beliefs, or any contribution to the Church.)

KierkeBored

I think I found at least a partial answer: in response to a charge that “the study of medicine…favours a disposition to materialism,” Feuchtersleben replies that this charge is simply “unjust” (1847, 8). “No one has more occasion than the physician, to recognise the power of mind and the perishable nature of matter; and if he do not attain to this recognition, the fault is not in the science, but in himself, in not having thoroughly studied it, for here, we may say as Bacon did of philosophy, ‘when superficially studied it excites doubt, when thoroughly explored it dispels it’” (1847, 8).

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So Feuchtersleben at least thinks that medical science is consistent with the denial of materialism. And he favorably quotes Sir Francis Bacon, a devout Anglican. (The puzzle pieces are coming together...)