Keywords: faith and reason, science and religion, R. Boyle. Preface to the publication The question of how faith and reason relate to each other, or, in other words, the question of the limits of rational knowledge in theology, was as acute for Robert Boyle (1627-1691) as it was for other contemporaries who tried to justify the Christian religion in the face of a rapidly developing empirical science and, if possible, the question of the limits of rational knowledge in theology. so to speak, "a new European rationality". Of course, the claim that earlier, during the Middle Ages, faith and reason were constantly in perfect harmony with each other is a strong exaggeration, but, nevertheless, it was with the beginning of Modern times that Christian theology increasingly began to come under fire from rationalistic criticism. The point here was not only (and not so much) that page 150the scientific revolution and the new natural philosophy created skepticism about Christian dogma. A significant role was also played by the mutual attacks of representatives of various Christian denominations, who accused each other of "defending things that are impossible and contrary to reason," as William Chillingworth wrote about Catholics in his treatise "The Religion of Protestants" (1638)1. In England, a long interdenominational controversy led to a heated debate in the second half of the seventeenth century, which essentially focused on the question of how far the human mind can go in its attempts to rationalize biblical revelation. This discussion was probably initiated by English Socinians, such as John Biddle (1615-1662), author of the famous Double Catechism (1654). While rejecting the dogma of the Trinity, original sin, eternal punishment, etc., they relied primarily on common sense, logic, and a rationalistic interpretation of the Bible in their criticism of traditional Christian dogma. The Socinians were opposed by the Reformed theologians John Owen (1616-1683) and Richard Ba ... Read more