The authors contend, in structured harmony (and not taking themselves too seriously), with a shared respect for the underlying unity of all knowledge. Such contention is actually a time-honored way of Jewish debate. And, in another way, such debate is at the heart of science.
This idea fits with theories of others who note that Jewish traditions are highly literate, verbal, musical and multilingual.
This is in contrast to Catholics who were often forbidden to pursue higher learning. From 1560 to 1966 the Vatican maintained
Index Librorum Prohibitorum -- a list of books which Catholics were forbidden to read. They were also forbidden to read that list. Until
the Quiet Revolution of 1960, everyone in Quebec was forbidden to pursue higher learning because Quebec was run by the Catholic church and only the Bible translated into Old French was used as text (which is why Quebecois French is different from modern French).
Famously Galileo was punished for embracing heliocentrism. There was a parallel in Judaism but note the difference that debate was allowed:
An actual controversy on the Copernican model within Judaism arises only in the early 18th century. Most authors in this period had accepted Copernican heliocentrism, with opposition from David Nieto and Tobias Cohn, who argued against heliocentrism on the grounds it contradicted scripture. Nieto merely rejected the new system on those grounds without much passion, whereas Cohn went so far as to call Copernicus "a first-born of Satan", though he also acknowledged that he would have found it difficult to proffer one particular objection based on a passage from the Talmud.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism#Reception_in_Judaism
An understanding of the solar system was fundamental to global navigation, as was trigonometry. Jewish interaction with Arabic scholars is often cited as how southern europe, eg Spain, was able to advance in navigation. Most recently we now have genetic confirmation that Colombus was of Jewish descent. It has long been known that he wrote in Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish language used by Sephardic Jews. I accept the theories that he was a converso or crypto Jew. His first voyage to the Bahamas and Haiti was financed and diplomatically supported by Luis de Santángel, the comptroller-general for the Aragonese crown under King Ferdinand. Santángel was the grandson of a converted Jew and, as a converted Jew serving the court, he and his family were exempt from the scrutiny of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. It is no accident that the voyages of Colombus come near the end of the inquisition or that his navigations lead to the establishment of communities in Brazil by Jews forcibly exiled from Spain.
There is a long history of Jewish scientists who were valued by monarchs despite more generally oppressive policies toward people of Jewish descent.
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