Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

Well, today is the anniversary of the death of one of the most fascinating thinkers of the Middle Ages.

In addition to his extensive discoveries in the sciences, Roger Bacon revolutionized how the Bible was studied.

His influence can still be seen in both theology

and science today. Born in 1214 to a well-off family in England, Bacon first attended Oxford and

then studied for a short while at the University of Paris. After returning to England, he joined the

Franciscan order. Bacon believed in direct firsthand observation.

He disagreed with the theologians of the University of Paris, who taught theology from

Peter Lombard's sentences, a sort of study guide to scripture in the works of the early

Christian fathers.

By that method, students learned to look at the Bible only after their ideas had first

been formed by sentences.

Also, these scholars refused to learn

or teach the biblical languages of Hebrew and Greek, but instead relied on defective Latin

translations of the Bible. Bacon advocated a text-based approach to theology. He believed the Bible

should be studied first before studying Lombard sentences. He also believed the Bible should

be studied in the original

languages in order to make firsthand observations of the text. That order, first Bible, then sentences,

became the standard approach at Oxford. Prioritizing the study of original languages, however,

would not happen for nearly 300 years. To aid in the study of Scripture, Bacon developed a sophisticated

theory of language

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