Suggestion:
i'm just going to shorthand it..
it wasn't because of Christianity. Barbarian invasions brought civilization back to an all time low. they thought for the most part science was bullocks. inventions dissapeared just as fast as scientific and mathematic texts.
the Church helped to strengthen the economy and had it's own set of laws that focused more on human rights.
Europe was never good for making it's own inventions from scratch anyways. most major inventions come from Asia. Europe and Rome mainly took the ideas and improved them.
science had trouble jump starting because cities grew extremely slowly, disease was far too common and feudal societies hindered the growth of education because it limited social gatherings. it also meant people didn't have the money to attend universities, a good number of which were Church supported.
natural science was very popular and Church supported.
the common person didn't have time to read the Latin texts that were available. nobles also didn't let them because they feared they would lose power. a lot of monks actually tried teaching serfs when they had the chance or would read to them.
the church supported education until corrupt Popes (much like corrupt politicians) realized they had all the power in the world pretty much and didn't want to lose it. they didn't stop supporting education, but put further limits on what people could lose and warned people not to go too far into the "unnatural world" (universe, life beyond). this is pretty much the only thing most people look at today though since it's so dramatic sounding. but it's far from the reality of the time.
Catholicism helped support the Renaissance in a sort of indirect way. Explorers wanted new markets, and also wanted to spread the Christian word. this leads to the Age of Exploration, which leads to the Renaissance.
i could honestly write pages upon pages of how Christianity didn't limit technology to the extent most think it did today. it's kind of funny though, but i think technology is brining along a new Dark Age….
two key scientists relevant today:
guy de chauliac
hildegard of Bingen
http://jameshannam.com/medievalscience.htm
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/inventions-in-the-middle-ages.htm
BAM!
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