Atlantis Online
March 19, 2024, 12:45:45 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Scientists Confirm Historic Massive Flood in Climate Change
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20060228/
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

(VI.) HISTORY - The Coming of Christianity

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: (VI.) HISTORY - The Coming of Christianity  (Read 655 times)
0 Members and 35 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« on: August 17, 2007, 06:55:27 pm »





The fact that some Christian astrologers were not deterred is illustrated by the work of Julius Firmicus Maternus, a contemporary who is likely to have read Augustine. His Matheseos of c 354 accepted the doctrine of free will, but found it odd that man should think the stars and planets mere decoration of the heavens.

Firmicus, whose mind seems to have been a great deal keener than Augustine's (if we are to judge from the organization of his book and the deployment of his arguments), produced one by one the chief anti-astrological arguments and demolished them with ease, demonstrating clearly that the critics had not for the most part bothered to understand the subject. He admits that some astrologers are rogues and others fools, he admits the difficulty of the subject - but claims that the human spirit is capable of coping with it, as it is capable of coping with the mapping of the heavens and the prediction of the planets' courses.

In a brilliantly presented and enormously complex argument, Firmicus in the second half of Matheseos scathingly demolishes superstition and its practitioners, the 'magicians' who 'stay in temples in an unkempt state and always walk abroad thus in order to frighten people. While he accepts that 'magic' is a powerful force, he is violently opposed to secrecy in regard to it, and demands that astrologers, rather than shrinking from public view as though ashamed, should place themselves under the protection of God, praying that He should grant them grace to attempt the explanation of the courses of the stars

Matheseos was an important book, a major work that accurately and persuasively quoted earlier sources, and was itself to be quoted for centuries by Christian astrologers and theologians who wished to assuage the fears of laymen at times when the Church seemed to be condemning the practice.


http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Astrology/coming_of_christianity.htm
« Last Edit: January 05, 2008, 07:49:57 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.


Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy