Veteran journalist Wade Rowland follows up the success of Ockham’s Razor with another examination of the conflict between science and faith. In Galileo’s Mistake, Rowland ventures to the very roots of that schism and challenges one of the key philosophical beliefs of the intervening centuries – the assumption that science can provide a definitive (or “true”) perspective on the nature of reality.

The book examines the 1633 heresy trial that ended with Galileo’s recantation of his telescopic discoveries, including his evidence for Copernicus’s controversial theory that Earth and the other planets revolve around the sun. Prior to the trial, the Church was at the centre of scientific inquiry – in fact, Galileo borrowed some of his data from Jesuit astronomers. The recantation was a pyrrhic victory for the Church, and marked the separation of “enlightened” science and “anti-intellectual” religion in the public perception. That perception continues to this day.

Galileo’s Mistake is a lofty and ambitious philosophical exploration, and Rowland’s considerable gifts as a writer make the book pleasurable and captivating. Rowland skilfully weaves history, biography, science writing, and philosophical overviews into the comfortable familiarity of a travel narrative. The pacing of Galileo’s Mistake has the lazy ease of a multi-course Italian dinner, at once relaxing and enriching. Potentially difficult philosophical ideas are explored through both Socratic dialogue and Rowland’s responses to historical documents and contemporary analyses. It’s an effective and surprisingly uncontrived approach, resulting in a return of specialized scientific and theoretical concepts to a mainstream audience, an achievement for which Rowland deserves considerable recognition.