Robert Iliffe, Newton: A Very Short Introduction
Oxford University Press | ISBN 9780199298037 | 2007 | PDF | 1.5 MB | 161 pages

Newton adopted varied approaches to problems in different areas of his work, although that is not to deny that there were connections and continuities between different strands of his intellectual research. Although it was necessarily a personal enterprise, he himself viewed his theological research as the defining aspect of his life, and the language and meaning of Scripture – along with what it said about his role in history – governed his conduct more than anything else. Respect should be paid to his intense if rather bookoriented faith, yet the astonishing courage, imagination, and originality that colour his achievements in optics, physics, and mathematics are more worthy of our admiration. As Conduitt struggled to finish his ‘Life’ of Newton, he came perilously close to asserting that Newton’s qualities made him more than human. While he was not a divinity, there was justification in Halley’s view that no human could ever get closer to the gods.