Retconning Science in a Distrustful Age

Peter Harrison's Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age demonstrates the indebtedness of modern naturalism to theological commitments concerning nature and history. The book challenges the depiction of modern science as emerging from protracted religious disputes and functioning as a neutral zone where truth claims no longer depend on appeals to divine revelation, demonstrating instead science's direct dependence on theological-anthropological concerns. The historical revisions offered by Harrison and several other recent scholars converge on a challenge to the foundational myths surrounding 'secular science.' This article invokes the popular culture idea of 'retconning,' the retroactive revision of a canon of knowledge for the sake of coherency, to engage Harrison's account of modern naturalism and think through some of the implications for how science is represented and perceived today, especially within the contemporary context of institutional distrust.