Center to Circumference and Back: Theology and Science in Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

Being a Hassidic leader who opposed secular studies, criticized scientific theories and held literalist approach, Schneerson could be considered an anti-science fundamentalist. This view fails to appreciate not only his keen interest in science and technology, which were part of his own formal education, but the actual role reserved for scientific research in his theology and leadership. A telling allegory he once used uncovered a theocentric worldview comprised of several concentric circles, in which science is a circumference. By placing science and theology as parts of the same geometric structure, Schneerson argued that they indicate one another. Scientific knowledge can either reveal the central point of Divine absolute truth or be inferred from God’s wisdom. However, the practice of using science to search for God is a way for selected individuals only. The common route is for one’s motivation and practice to spread out from the center rather than use the circumference as a starting point. According to Schneerson’s perspective, no human endeavor is selfjustified, including those in science, and yet in some cases the centripetal motion is permitted and even encouraged.