Johannes Kepler's Contribution To Science

Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630) was a renowned astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer. His most famous contribution to the realm of science were his laws -- aptly named Kepler’s Laws -- which explained planetary motion in space. Kepler’s contributions to science may seem to be a defiance to Christian beliefs, but Kepler’s intentions were like other scientists of his day: they explained how nature worked, and framed it as explaining how God worked in the universe through these laws. Through his scientific works, Kepler attempted to support the belief of God for Christianity by pointing out God’s influence in space, and to bring a sense of unity to the Christian community. Kepler made many groundbreaking contributions to the field of astronomy.

Copernicus’ model was not rejected, nor was it accepted, and Kepler aimed to convince everyone of the truthfulness of this model of the solar system. Kepler also claimed that the planets did not follow a circular orbit, but an elliptical one as well. In the Astronomia Nova, Kepler wrestled with the mystery of Mars, which did seem to follow a clear path through the sky as observed from Earth. Using his new idea of elliptical orbits, Kepler managed to solve the mystery of Mars -- he reasoned that the cause of such a weird pattern was because Mars moved in a wider elliptical orbit around the sun than the Earth’s elliptical orbit. Other famous contributions by Kepler include his three laws of planetary motion -- the Laws of Orbit, Areas, and Periods -- as well as his claim that gravity was influenced by two objects, not just one (such as with the Earth and the moon being close enough that it explained how high tide occurred when the moon was closest in its orbit to the Earth). As Kepler’s ideas were novel and quite unfathomable, they were not immediately considered truth. Its implications opposed current beliefs of a geocentric, circular-orbit model of the universe, and was shocking to many who heard of Kepler’s

As Davenport (2017) points out, Kepler thought that, “pure harmony -- which comes from mathematical categories, the circle and the arcs -- not only is imprinted innately on the human soul as God’s image but is sustained by God continuously...” (p. 338) as stated by Kepler. Davenport (2017) also cites another of Kepler’s claims that, “The stars do not cause a man’s death…the material of the body which either suppresses the flame of life by overflowing, or deserts it by failing.” (p. 332) Kepler claims that humans have lost their immortality due to sin, and the harmony that he finds in the solar system is the same, perfect harmony of God that man should strive to become a part of once again. However, the harmony Kepler found is already in the soul; it is just a matter of reconnection. Davenport (2017) states that, “Kepler hoped to restore harmony among Christians by interpreting communion itself to be God’s living gift of Harmony.” (p. 344) By citing the harmony found in space, Kepler also hoped to bring together the Christian community by claiming the need to reconnect with God’s harmony, which could be done through the musical piece he attempted to create. Clark (2013) explains how Kepler convinced a musician to recreate pitches found in the ratios of the harmony from the planets in that they could experience that, “very sweet sense of delight elicited