Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer by Michael White

This book was a disappointment. Discussing in minute detail with an exhaustive review of the literature, the author deals with one of the greatest men of the millennium, and paints him small, petty, and mean.

The first charge is that of alchemy. Newton spent years doing meticulous work in his lab, investigating reactions and metallurgy. The author himself states that the borders between science and mysticism were blurry and that many of the greatest scientists of the day dabbled in alchemy. In fact, the author credits Newton himself for being the first to present a thoroughly scientific-mathematical theoretical method, merging hypothesis and experiment with mathematical rigor. Then Newton, who is credited with bringing science out of the swamp of conjecture, is criticized for having feet wet with alchemy.

The author even credits his alchemy with allowing Newton to make the intellectual leap from the idea of ether mediating gravity to action at a distance because of the spiritual aspects of alchemy. Reading the book I would instead credit another of Newton's "weaknesses" with this influence, his Christianity.

In this book we don't find the Christian Newton as "the most pious of men" nor as described by his early biographers called by the authors "hagiographers." Instead we see a narrow puritanical (as opposed to Puritan) believer, brilliant in science but strangely backward in his preoccupation with the Bible and prophecy. He cannot even get his Christianity right but has to hide his shameful Arianism.

In summary, rather than needing the author to break through the aging crust of the beatification of Newton, I fear the man - a devout Christian seeking truth in all of life with a painful awareness of his sins and impatience with lesser men - must be found shining through the lines of this revisionist biased history. Newton: The Magician of Physics grounded in Faith.