Michael Beresford Foster (1903–1959)[1] was a tutor in philosophy of Oxford University's Christ Church.
[2] He was one of A. J. Ayer's tutors at Oxford, but their relationship is remembered more as a source of strained feelings than of scholarly fellowship.
[6] Foster's thesis (published 1934–1936) differs greatly from the Merton thesis (published 1938) and other harmony-type historical investigations (e.g., that of Reijer Hooykaas) since rather than relying on historical contingencies to establish a relation, he abstractly asserts using analytical philosophy a logical necessity between an orthodox Christian view of creation and a modern view of science, i.e., Christianity is a necessary and sufficient condition for the development of modern science.
[11] In his book Mystery and Philosophy (SCM Press, 1957), Foster seeks to explore the existence of mystery in various secular and religious disciplines in order to discover whether it serves a legitimate function in theology and philosophy when possibly applied to scientific and political realities.
[13] This idea of irresolvable mystery is similar to ones also found in the works of Eric L. Mascall and Norman Geisler.