How Did Johannes Kepler Contribute To The Universe

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. Although his contributions to science may seem to be a defiance to Christian beliefs, 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 in 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.

Being a Lutheran Christian, Kepler engaged in scientific research to reveal that God was present in the universe through the mysterious laws at work. In his book Mysterium Cosmographicum (1993), Kepler stated in his introduction that, “it is my intention…to show that the almighty and infinitely merciful God...created our moving world and determined the order of the celestial bodies...” (Preface pages) which determined his purpose for his studies. He, “believed God intended that we should discover the plan of creation by sharing in his thoughts.” (Aiton 1977: p. 184) Kepler essentially asserted that he was doing what God intended for man: to find God’s will in the universe. To do this, Kepler related many of his scientific findings to his Christian beliefs. For example, in attempting to show that Copernicus’ model was indeed correct, Sutter (2017) states that Kepler argued, “since the son of God was at the center of the Christian faith, the sun ought to be at the center of the universe.” In a similar vein of thought, Kepler’s relation of, “harmony between the things at rest, in the order sun, sphere of fixed stare and intervening space, with that between the three Persons of the Trinity.” (Aiton 1977: p. 184) He related the sun to God the Father, the rotating planets as God the Son, and the space in between the sun and the planets as God the Holy Spirit. Through his

He was deeply interested in, “the original harmonies or consonances, by which the eccentricities and periods [of orbit] are casually explained.” (Brackenridge 1982: p. 266) In his research, Kepler found ratios in the periods of the planet’s orbits that were common among all the orbits. Consequently, he believed that everything in the universe was linked and followed a general harmony that ordered the world. In revealing this harmony, Kepler, “attempted to prove how musically harmonic consonances are in some ways equivalent to properties of the Platonic five perfect solids.” (Clark 2013: p. 310). Besides the orbits, Kepler believed that Plato’s solids, which were special polyhedrons, explained why each planet was spaced and ordered in the way they were. Along with the spacing, he related it to the idea of an ‘anima movens’, otherwise known as gravity. He believed the sun exerted some force that kept all the planets in their orbits while Platonic solids kept them spaced apart. (Aiton 1977) After further research, Kepler also began to believe that there was a musical aspect to the harmony as well. He, “was convinced he got [the elliptical orbit] right because of the relationship between the motions of the planets and music.” (Sutter 2017) From this idea of musical harmony, Kepler even attempted to recreate pitches and notes in relation to ratios he found in his research.