The latest book from the director of the Vatican Observatory combines personal reflection with a detailed history of Jesuit engagement with astronomy.
By Joseph Tulloch
Br Guy Consolmagno, the director of the Vatican Observatory, has published a new book entitled A Jesuit’s Guide to the Stars.
Published on the 4th February, the book charts the long history of Jesuit engagement with astronomy.
As Consolmagno notes in the book’s introduction, this is a story which has its origin in the very earliest days of the Society of Jesus. The founder of the Jesuit order, St Ignatius of Loyola, says in his autobiography (which, somewhat confusingly, is written in the third person) that “the greatest consolation that he received . . . was from gazing at the sky and stars, and this he did often, and for quite a long time.”
The story then continues with figures such as Angelo Secchi, the 19th century Italian Jesuit and astronomer – who Consolmagno says “might be the greatest scientist most people have never heard of” – and Gerard Manley Hopkins, a well-known Jesuit poet and “talented amateur astronomer”.
A Jesuit’s Guide to the Stars is also a very personal book, filled with Consolmagno’s own reflections and even a chapter on how he discovered his vocation to the Jesuit order. A Detroit native, Consolmagno obtained degrees from MIT and the University of Arizona and taught physics at university level before entering the Jesuits in 1989.
The book also contains nuanced reflections on the relationship between faith and science. For instance, Consolmagno warns against ‘concordism’, or the attempt to find connections between scientific discoveries and the teachings of the Bible.
“Both religion and science must preserve their autonomy and their distinctiveness,” Consolmagno notes, quoting Pope John Paul II. “Religion is not founded on science nor is science an extension of religion.”
