Katherin A. Rogers
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231676
- eISBN:
- 9780191716089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231676.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, General
Classical theism holds that God is the Creator omnium — the absolute source of all that has ontological status. Boethius, following Augustine, holds that God is the cause of everything apparently ...
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Classical theism holds that God is the Creator omnium — the absolute source of all that has ontological status. Boethius, following Augustine, holds that God is the cause of everything apparently including the choice to sin. Johannes Scotus Eriugena proposes, in an undeveloped and provocative way, that God does not know or cause evil at all. Anselm agrees, but offers an analysis of how God causes every thing and every positive property, leaving only the nothing of evil to originate with created agents.Less
Classical theism holds that God is the Creator omnium — the absolute source of all that has ontological status. Boethius, following Augustine, holds that God is the cause of everything apparently including the choice to sin. Johannes Scotus Eriugena proposes, in an undeveloped and provocative way, that God does not know or cause evil at all. Anselm agrees, but offers an analysis of how God causes every thing and every positive property, leaving only the nothing of evil to originate with created agents.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This book deals with Johannes Scottus Eriugena, an Irish scholar at the Court of Charles the Bald in France in the second half of the 9th century — to be clearly distinguished from John Duns Scotus ...
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This book deals with Johannes Scottus Eriugena, an Irish scholar at the Court of Charles the Bald in France in the second half of the 9th century — to be clearly distinguished from John Duns Scotus (1264–1308), after whom ‘Scotist’ philosophy is named. Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon (de divisione naturae), is a remarkable attempt at a real intellectual synthesis between the Bible and Neoplatonist philosophy. It was not looked upon with great favour in the West except by the mystics and, more recently, by German Idealist philosophers of the last century. Now, however, because of the growth of interest in Medieval Studies, there is an increasing curiosity about Eriugena and his work — but there has been no comprehensive book about him since that of M. Cappuyns in 1933. Bringing together the results of the most recent research on Eriugena, this book discusses his background in Ireland and life in France, and of his career as teacher, controversialist, translator, and poet. It gives an extended and careful summary of the Periphyseon, and the first translation into English of the brief Homily on the Prologue to St. John’s Gospel.Less
This book deals with Johannes Scottus Eriugena, an Irish scholar at the Court of Charles the Bald in France in the second half of the 9th century — to be clearly distinguished from John Duns Scotus (1264–1308), after whom ‘Scotist’ philosophy is named. Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon (de divisione naturae), is a remarkable attempt at a real intellectual synthesis between the Bible and Neoplatonist philosophy. It was not looked upon with great favour in the West except by the mystics and, more recently, by German Idealist philosophers of the last century. Now, however, because of the growth of interest in Medieval Studies, there is an increasing curiosity about Eriugena and his work — but there has been no comprehensive book about him since that of M. Cappuyns in 1933. Bringing together the results of the most recent research on Eriugena, this book discusses his background in Ireland and life in France, and of his career as teacher, controversialist, translator, and poet. It gives an extended and careful summary of the Periphyseon, and the first translation into English of the brief Homily on the Prologue to St. John’s Gospel.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines the poetry of Eriugena, which focuses on Charles the Bald himself. Almost every poem of Eriugena praises and prays for him. The influence of Irishmen in promoting theological ...
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This chapter examines the poetry of Eriugena, which focuses on Charles the Bald himself. Almost every poem of Eriugena praises and prays for him. The influence of Irishmen in promoting theological debate is to be seen in the ‘hermeneutic pedantry’ of Eriugena. Poets in Charles’s time had an interest in parody and used their verses to extract favours. It is in these contexts that the poetry of Eriugena must be judged.Less
This chapter examines the poetry of Eriugena, which focuses on Charles the Bald himself. Almost every poem of Eriugena praises and prays for him. The influence of Irishmen in promoting theological debate is to be seen in the ‘hermeneutic pedantry’ of Eriugena. Poets in Charles’s time had an interest in parody and used their verses to extract favours. It is in these contexts that the poetry of Eriugena must be judged.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
In the Gesta episcoporum Autissiodorensium we are told that Wicbald (or Guibaud), a native of Canbrai who succeeded to the see of Auxerre in 879, was a disciple of Eriugena who, it is asserted, then ...
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In the Gesta episcoporum Autissiodorensium we are told that Wicbald (or Guibaud), a native of Canbrai who succeeded to the see of Auxerre in 879, was a disciple of Eriugena who, it is asserted, then ‘diffused the rays of wisdom throughout Gaulish lands’: ‘qui ea tempestate per Gallias sapientiae diffundebat radios’. This is testimony that Eriugena had influence during his lifetime throughout Francia and beyond. This chapter discusses this immediate influence. It considers questions such as: Who among Eriugena’s contemporaries were influenced by him? What parts of his doctrine are known to have been considered or used by them? Was this use minimal or extensive?Less
In the Gesta episcoporum Autissiodorensium we are told that Wicbald (or Guibaud), a native of Canbrai who succeeded to the see of Auxerre in 879, was a disciple of Eriugena who, it is asserted, then ‘diffused the rays of wisdom throughout Gaulish lands’: ‘qui ea tempestate per Gallias sapientiae diffundebat radios’. This is testimony that Eriugena had influence during his lifetime throughout Francia and beyond. This chapter discusses this immediate influence. It considers questions such as: Who among Eriugena’s contemporaries were influenced by him? What parts of his doctrine are known to have been considered or used by them? Was this use minimal or extensive?
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters. It reviews the various proposals regarding Eriugena’s actual date of death, the legends on Eriugena, his influence upon his own ...
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This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters. It reviews the various proposals regarding Eriugena’s actual date of death, the legends on Eriugena, his influence upon his own contemporaries, his translations, and influence in the field of poetry.Less
This chapter summarizes the discussions in the preceding chapters. It reviews the various proposals regarding Eriugena’s actual date of death, the legends on Eriugena, his influence upon his own contemporaries, his translations, and influence in the field of poetry.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter focuses on the early life of Eriugena. It first cites the uncertainty regarding his place and date of birth in Ireland, and the fact that the land left few demonstrable marks upon his ...
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This chapter focuses on the early life of Eriugena. It first cites the uncertainty regarding his place and date of birth in Ireland, and the fact that the land left few demonstrable marks upon his copious writings. It then presents a brief background on Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, who was born in 823 and ruled from 840 till his death in 877. When Eriugena finally emerges clearly into history in 851 or so he is already at the ‘palace’ school of Charles the Bald in the Laon region, probably as a teacher. There he was to remain, it would appear, for most of the rest of his life. It can be assumed that Eriugena’s business in the palace school was to teach. It was from being a teacher of the liberal arts that he became a controversialist, a translator, a philosopher, and an exegete.Less
This chapter focuses on the early life of Eriugena. It first cites the uncertainty regarding his place and date of birth in Ireland, and the fact that the land left few demonstrable marks upon his copious writings. It then presents a brief background on Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne, who was born in 823 and ruled from 840 till his death in 877. When Eriugena finally emerges clearly into history in 851 or so he is already at the ‘palace’ school of Charles the Bald in the Laon region, probably as a teacher. There he was to remain, it would appear, for most of the rest of his life. It can be assumed that Eriugena’s business in the palace school was to teach. It was from being a teacher of the liberal arts that he became a controversialist, a translator, a philosopher, and an exegete.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
While next to nothing is known about the teaching in the palace school of Charles the Bald, quite a lot is known about the cathedral school at Laon. There the great master was Martin the Irishman. ...
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While next to nothing is known about the teaching in the palace school of Charles the Bald, quite a lot is known about the cathedral school at Laon. There the great master was Martin the Irishman. This chapter considers the teaching career of Martin, which can provide an idea of the kind of teaching Eriugena was probably engaged in: for the palace school was a real school where various arts were practised and was so closely related to the cathedral school at Laon.Less
While next to nothing is known about the teaching in the palace school of Charles the Bald, quite a lot is known about the cathedral school at Laon. There the great master was Martin the Irishman. This chapter considers the teaching career of Martin, which can provide an idea of the kind of teaching Eriugena was probably engaged in: for the palace school was a real school where various arts were practised and was so closely related to the cathedral school at Laon.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Hincmar archbishop of Reims, in his De praedestinatione, written in 859–60, gives a list of doctrinal points that gave rise to controversy in the Frankish realms in his day — that predestination was ...
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Hincmar archbishop of Reims, in his De praedestinatione, written in 859–60, gives a list of doctrinal points that gave rise to controversy in the Frankish realms in his day — that predestination was not only to heaven, but also to hell; that one could speak of the triple Deity; that the eucharist was not the true body and blood of the Saviour, but only a memorial; that the angelic nature was corporeal; that the hunlan soul was not in the body; that hell was no more than the torturing memory of sins committed; that the saved could see the divine essence with the eyes of the body. Hincmar omits from his list the question of the virgin birth. Because Hincmar gives his list immediately after citing the views of Eriugena, some authors jumped to the conclusion that Eriugena was involved in all of them. However, Eriugena was not the only one mentioned (so was Prudentius of Troyes), but it is clear that Hincmar was thinking mainly of Ratramnus and Gottschalk. M. Cappuyns was of the opinion that Eriugena was involved in the controversy on predestination only, which includes the question of hell. This chapter focuses on the controversy and affords sufficient example of Eriugena’s performance as a controversialist.Less
Hincmar archbishop of Reims, in his De praedestinatione, written in 859–60, gives a list of doctrinal points that gave rise to controversy in the Frankish realms in his day — that predestination was not only to heaven, but also to hell; that one could speak of the triple Deity; that the eucharist was not the true body and blood of the Saviour, but only a memorial; that the angelic nature was corporeal; that the hunlan soul was not in the body; that hell was no more than the torturing memory of sins committed; that the saved could see the divine essence with the eyes of the body. Hincmar omits from his list the question of the virgin birth. Because Hincmar gives his list immediately after citing the views of Eriugena, some authors jumped to the conclusion that Eriugena was involved in all of them. However, Eriugena was not the only one mentioned (so was Prudentius of Troyes), but it is clear that Hincmar was thinking mainly of Ratramnus and Gottschalk. M. Cappuyns was of the opinion that Eriugena was involved in the controversy on predestination only, which includes the question of hell. This chapter focuses on the controversy and affords sufficient example of Eriugena’s performance as a controversialist.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Édouard Jeauneau in a stimulating article, ‘Jean Scot Érigène et le grec’, addresses himself to the three following questions: what motives and impulsions influenced Eriugena to translate the works ...
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Édouard Jeauneau in a stimulating article, ‘Jean Scot Érigène et le grec’, addresses himself to the three following questions: what motives and impulsions influenced Eriugena to translate the works that he did translate? What were the ‘tools’ that he employed in this work? What was original about this enterprise? This chapter briefly discusses these matters before looking at the authors whom Eriugena did choose to translate: Pseudo–Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, and Epiphanius.Less
Édouard Jeauneau in a stimulating article, ‘Jean Scot Érigène et le grec’, addresses himself to the three following questions: what motives and impulsions influenced Eriugena to translate the works that he did translate? What were the ‘tools’ that he employed in this work? What was original about this enterprise? This chapter briefly discusses these matters before looking at the authors whom Eriugena did choose to translate: Pseudo–Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, and Epiphanius.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter presents a summary of Books I and II of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. Book I deals with the fourfold division of universal nature. The subject of Book II is the procession of the ...
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This chapter presents a summary of Books I and II of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. Book I deals with the fourfold division of universal nature. The subject of Book II is the procession of the creatures from the one First Cause of all things through the primordial essences (which were created before all things by itself in itself through itself) into the various genera of nature and the various forms and individuals extending to infinity.Less
This chapter presents a summary of Books I and II of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. Book I deals with the fourfold division of universal nature. The subject of Book II is the procession of the creatures from the one First Cause of all things through the primordial essences (which were created before all things by itself in itself through itself) into the various genera of nature and the various forms and individuals extending to infinity.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter presents a summary of Book III of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book deals with the third aspect of universal nature, that is, concerning that part of creation which is created ...
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This chapter presents a summary of Book III of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book deals with the third aspect of universal nature, that is, concerning that part of creation which is created and does not create.Less
This chapter presents a summary of Book III of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book deals with the third aspect of universal nature, that is, concerning that part of creation which is created and does not create.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter presents a summary of Book IV of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book considers the Sixth Prophetic Meditation (the Sixth ‘Day’) of the creation of the universe.
This chapter presents a summary of Book IV of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book considers the Sixth Prophetic Meditation (the Sixth ‘Day’) of the creation of the universe.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter presents a summary of Book V of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book discusses the return of all things to the nature that neither creates nor is created — God as End.
This chapter presents a summary of Book V of Eriugena’s main work, Periphyseon. The book discusses the return of all things to the nature that neither creates nor is created — God as End.
John J. O’Meara
- Published in print:
- 1988
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198266747
- eISBN:
- 9780191683084
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266747.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines Eriugena’s performance as an exegete in his Homily on the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. While it is true that the commentary and homily can be said to belong to two different ...
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This chapter examines Eriugena’s performance as an exegete in his Homily on the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. While it is true that the commentary and homily can be said to belong to two different literary genres, these two genres are very closely related in having exegesis of one kind or another in common, so that one may speak of exegesis in relation to the Homily also. Because of its brevity, the Homily allows the presentation of the first translation into English of the whole work, from which the reader can come to some personal estimate not only of its character, but to some extent of the philosophical-theological work of Eriugena as a whole.Less
This chapter examines Eriugena’s performance as an exegete in his Homily on the Prologue to St John’s Gospel. While it is true that the commentary and homily can be said to belong to two different literary genres, these two genres are very closely related in having exegesis of one kind or another in common, so that one may speak of exegesis in relation to the Homily also. Because of its brevity, the Homily allows the presentation of the first translation into English of the whole work, from which the reader can come to some personal estimate not only of its character, but to some extent of the philosophical-theological work of Eriugena as a whole.
Charles M. Atkinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195148886
- eISBN:
- 9780199852185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148886.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter considers the ways ancient texts treating tone-system, mode, and notation were received and taught in the Carolingian era. The terms and concepts from the works of Boethius, Martianus ...
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This chapter considers the ways ancient texts treating tone-system, mode, and notation were received and taught in the Carolingian era. The terms and concepts from the works of Boethius, Martianus Capella, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, and Donatus discussed under the rubric of “the heritage of antiquity” were important as objects of study during the Carolingian era. Starting with manuscripts from the first part of the 9th century, it is shown that Carolingian schoolmasters, such as John Scottus Eriugena and Remigius of Auxerre made concentrated attempts to understand and explain such concepts as tonus, tropus, accentus, and seminarium musices. They grappled with them, moreover, on their own terms, that is, as they had been understood in Antiquity. At the same time, their commentaries could not help but reflect—and in turn influence—the milieu in which they were written and the directions in which musical thought was heading.Less
This chapter considers the ways ancient texts treating tone-system, mode, and notation were received and taught in the Carolingian era. The terms and concepts from the works of Boethius, Martianus Capella, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Seville, and Donatus discussed under the rubric of “the heritage of antiquity” were important as objects of study during the Carolingian era. Starting with manuscripts from the first part of the 9th century, it is shown that Carolingian schoolmasters, such as John Scottus Eriugena and Remigius of Auxerre made concentrated attempts to understand and explain such concepts as tonus, tropus, accentus, and seminarium musices. They grappled with them, moreover, on their own terms, that is, as they had been understood in Antiquity. At the same time, their commentaries could not help but reflect—and in turn influence—the milieu in which they were written and the directions in which musical thought was heading.
Mark A. McIntosh
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- March 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780199580811
- eISBN:
- 9780191860218
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199580811.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
By the time of early modernity, a widely deployed tenet of Christian thought had begun to vanish. The divine ideas tradition, the teaching that all beings have an eternal existence as aspects of ...
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By the time of early modernity, a widely deployed tenet of Christian thought had begun to vanish. The divine ideas tradition, the teaching that all beings have an eternal existence as aspects of God’s mind, had functioned across a wide range of central Christian doctrines, providing Christian thinkers and mystical teachers with a powerful theological capacity: to illuminate the Trinitarian ground of all creatures, and to renew the divine truth of all creatures through human contemplation. Already by the time of the Middle Platonists, Plato’s forms had been reinterpreted as ideas in the mind of God. Yet that was only the beginning of the transformation of the divine ideas, for Christian belief in God as Trinity and in the incarnation of the Word imbued the divine ideas tradition with a remarkable conceptual agility. The divine ideas teaching allowed mystical theologians to conceive the hidden presence of God in all creatures, and the power of every creature’s truth in God to consummate the full dynamic of every creature’s calling. This book takes the form of a theological essay that brings to life the striking role of the divine ideas tradition in the teaching of its central exponents, and also suggests how the divine ideas might constructively inform Christian theology and spirituality today. Especially in an age of global crises, when the truth of the natural environment, of racial injustice, and of public health is denied and disputed for political ends, the divine ideas tradition affords contemporary thinkers a creative and contemplative vision that reveres the deep truth of all beings and seeks their mending and fulfillment.Less
By the time of early modernity, a widely deployed tenet of Christian thought had begun to vanish. The divine ideas tradition, the teaching that all beings have an eternal existence as aspects of God’s mind, had functioned across a wide range of central Christian doctrines, providing Christian thinkers and mystical teachers with a powerful theological capacity: to illuminate the Trinitarian ground of all creatures, and to renew the divine truth of all creatures through human contemplation. Already by the time of the Middle Platonists, Plato’s forms had been reinterpreted as ideas in the mind of God. Yet that was only the beginning of the transformation of the divine ideas, for Christian belief in God as Trinity and in the incarnation of the Word imbued the divine ideas tradition with a remarkable conceptual agility. The divine ideas teaching allowed mystical theologians to conceive the hidden presence of God in all creatures, and the power of every creature’s truth in God to consummate the full dynamic of every creature’s calling. This book takes the form of a theological essay that brings to life the striking role of the divine ideas tradition in the teaching of its central exponents, and also suggests how the divine ideas might constructively inform Christian theology and spirituality today. Especially in an age of global crises, when the truth of the natural environment, of racial injustice, and of public health is denied and disputed for political ends, the divine ideas tradition affords contemporary thinkers a creative and contemplative vision that reveres the deep truth of all beings and seeks their mending and fulfillment.
Mark Byron
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781942954408
- eISBN:
- 9781786944337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781942954408.003.0023
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
Canto 36 functions as a kind of still point amidst the political and historical material imbuing Eleven New Cantos: the Continental Congress of 1774-89 and Siena under the rule of Leopold, Grand Duke ...
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Canto 36 functions as a kind of still point amidst the political and historical material imbuing Eleven New Cantos: the Continental Congress of 1774-89 and Siena under the rule of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Holy Roman Emperor. The greater part of the poem comprises Pound’s final authoritative translation of Guido Cavalcanti’s canzone ‘Donna mi prega,’ followed by two verse paragraphs dealing with the intellectual and poetic provenance of Guido’s ideas. The nature of these ideas is broadly well known: for Pound, Guido’s philosophical vocabulary transmits certain aspects of Neoplatonism as well as the psychology implied in Aristotle’s De anima. As Pound explains in his essay ‘Cavalcanti’ in Make It New (1934), Guido received these ideas directly or otherwise from a variety of sources, notably John Scottus Eriugena and Robert Grosseteste on one hand, and the great medieval Islamic tradition of Avicenna and Averroes on the other. This essay explores this terrain in more detail, providing greater context for Pound’s claims of intellectual provenance in a close reading of the poem. The Islamic inheritance in particular is far more complex than has been acknowledged, and certainly well beyond Pound’s explicit understanding of the matter. However he was right to place great emphasis on Cavalcanti’s vocabulary: attention to the ways in which Avicenna and Averroes understood the concepts of the diafan, the agent and possible intellects, and the mechanism by which the individual soul makes contact with divine intelligence, all clarify the argument as set out in Cavalcanti’s poem and represented in Pound’s translation. This clarification also makes more explicit the links with the lines following Pound’s translation concerning Eriugena and the Italian Troubadour Sordello da Goito.Less
Canto 36 functions as a kind of still point amidst the political and historical material imbuing Eleven New Cantos: the Continental Congress of 1774-89 and Siena under the rule of Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Holy Roman Emperor. The greater part of the poem comprises Pound’s final authoritative translation of Guido Cavalcanti’s canzone ‘Donna mi prega,’ followed by two verse paragraphs dealing with the intellectual and poetic provenance of Guido’s ideas. The nature of these ideas is broadly well known: for Pound, Guido’s philosophical vocabulary transmits certain aspects of Neoplatonism as well as the psychology implied in Aristotle’s De anima. As Pound explains in his essay ‘Cavalcanti’ in Make It New (1934), Guido received these ideas directly or otherwise from a variety of sources, notably John Scottus Eriugena and Robert Grosseteste on one hand, and the great medieval Islamic tradition of Avicenna and Averroes on the other. This essay explores this terrain in more detail, providing greater context for Pound’s claims of intellectual provenance in a close reading of the poem. The Islamic inheritance in particular is far more complex than has been acknowledged, and certainly well beyond Pound’s explicit understanding of the matter. However he was right to place great emphasis on Cavalcanti’s vocabulary: attention to the ways in which Avicenna and Averroes understood the concepts of the diafan, the agent and possible intellects, and the mechanism by which the individual soul makes contact with divine intelligence, all clarify the argument as set out in Cavalcanti’s poem and represented in Pound’s translation. This clarification also makes more explicit the links with the lines following Pound’s translation concerning Eriugena and the Italian Troubadour Sordello da Goito.
Nathan Lyons
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190941260
- eISBN:
- 9780190941291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190941260.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter uses Aquinas’ doctrine of intentions in the medium to develop a new theory of physiosemiosis (signification in inanimate nature). For Aquinas, intentionality is present not only in ...
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This chapter uses Aquinas’ doctrine of intentions in the medium to develop a new theory of physiosemiosis (signification in inanimate nature). For Aquinas, intentionality is present not only in mental states but also in bodily senses and inanimate media such as air and water. By this means, for Aquinas, inanimate things participate to some degree in the cognitive processes that are proper to cognitive beings. Intentions in the medium can be understood in modern terms as patterns of matter and energy, which signify the physical things that caused those patterns. There is, then, a rudimentary action of semiosis in the exchange of matter and energy among inanimate things, and the semiotic patterns here give a very diminished but—extraordinary as it sounds—nonetheless true expression of the movement of signification that constitutes culture. This points to a semiotic ontology: being is sign.Less
This chapter uses Aquinas’ doctrine of intentions in the medium to develop a new theory of physiosemiosis (signification in inanimate nature). For Aquinas, intentionality is present not only in mental states but also in bodily senses and inanimate media such as air and water. By this means, for Aquinas, inanimate things participate to some degree in the cognitive processes that are proper to cognitive beings. Intentions in the medium can be understood in modern terms as patterns of matter and energy, which signify the physical things that caused those patterns. There is, then, a rudimentary action of semiosis in the exchange of matter and energy among inanimate things, and the semiotic patterns here give a very diminished but—extraordinary as it sounds—nonetheless true expression of the movement of signification that constitutes culture. This points to a semiotic ontology: being is sign.
Willemien Otten
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780823251629
- eISBN:
- 9780823252961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823251629.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
The tradition of natural theology could be read productively through the use of the trope of “the book of nature,” insofar as natural theology regards creation as a direct manifestation of the divine ...
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The tradition of natural theology could be read productively through the use of the trope of “the book of nature,” insofar as natural theology regards creation as a direct manifestation of the divine and its attributes. And yet there is a sense in which nature, once endowed with revelatory power, exhibits an inherent tendency to break out of its creaturely bounds and dismiss its divinely assigned tasks, thus shaping temporality in a very special guise. Such is the case in various medieval allegories of nature in the twelfth century that consider nature not just as book but as a mirror of the human self, and even earlier in John Scottus Eriugena's On the Division of Nature. After a medieval preface the article focuses on the nineteenth-century American author Ralph Waldo Emerson as a modern author sensitive to nature's rich potential as a voice of divine proclamation. From a temporal perspective, the article analyzes Emerson's concept of nature as channeling “epiphanic” incarnation rather than serving as the static locus of creation.Less
The tradition of natural theology could be read productively through the use of the trope of “the book of nature,” insofar as natural theology regards creation as a direct manifestation of the divine and its attributes. And yet there is a sense in which nature, once endowed with revelatory power, exhibits an inherent tendency to break out of its creaturely bounds and dismiss its divinely assigned tasks, thus shaping temporality in a very special guise. Such is the case in various medieval allegories of nature in the twelfth century that consider nature not just as book but as a mirror of the human self, and even earlier in John Scottus Eriugena's On the Division of Nature. After a medieval preface the article focuses on the nineteenth-century American author Ralph Waldo Emerson as a modern author sensitive to nature's rich potential as a voice of divine proclamation. From a temporal perspective, the article analyzes Emerson's concept of nature as channeling “epiphanic” incarnation rather than serving as the static locus of creation.
Ian Wilks
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199782185
- eISBN:
- 9780199395583
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199782185.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
The Platonic understanding of efficient causation restricts this entirely to the operations of the soul. Bodies are not to be counted as substances, and therefore lack what is required for ...
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The Platonic understanding of efficient causation restricts this entirely to the operations of the soul. Bodies are not to be counted as substances, and therefore lack what is required for involvement in genuine relations of efficient causation, a view both affirmed and entrenched within the Christian tradition by Augustine’s discussion of the sense in which the human soul exercises free will. The ninth-century figure Eriugena presents a detailed picture of how nature looks under this assumption. By the late eleventh century, however, a tradition of natural speculation is clearly developing, which is open to the idea of construing relations of efficient causation as holding among bodies. Even in the writings of Anselm we find early intimations of this outlook. But we see it present in developed and unmistakable form in the scientific speculations of such twelfth-century figures as Adelard of Bath and William of Conches.Less
The Platonic understanding of efficient causation restricts this entirely to the operations of the soul. Bodies are not to be counted as substances, and therefore lack what is required for involvement in genuine relations of efficient causation, a view both affirmed and entrenched within the Christian tradition by Augustine’s discussion of the sense in which the human soul exercises free will. The ninth-century figure Eriugena presents a detailed picture of how nature looks under this assumption. By the late eleventh century, however, a tradition of natural speculation is clearly developing, which is open to the idea of construing relations of efficient causation as holding among bodies. Even in the writings of Anselm we find early intimations of this outlook. But we see it present in developed and unmistakable form in the scientific speculations of such twelfth-century figures as Adelard of Bath and William of Conches.
