From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Tue Jun 24 2003 - 07:02:06 EDT
See a further reference below the one Steve has given.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Bishop" <stevebishop_uk@hotmail.com>
To: <Cmekve@aol.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 4:42 AM
Subject: Re: Concordist sequence--why be a concordist?
> >Perhaps this has been answered before on the list, but when was the "two
> >books" analogy first used? As Ted points out, it's obviously in Bacon
and
> >Galileo
> >but did it originate in late medieval or early modern Scholasticism?
What
> >were the historical/theological circumstances that prompted its
> >introduction?
> >Are there patristic sources?
> >
> >Karl
>
> Augustine was perhaps one of the first to formulate an early version of
what
> could be construed as the two books metaphor:
>
> "It is the divine page that you must listen to; it is the book of the
> universe that you must observe. The pages of Scripture can only be read by
> those who know how to read and write, while everyone, even the illiterate,
> can read the book of the universe" .
>
> St. AUGUSTINE, Enarrationes in Psalmos, XLV, 7 (PL 36,518).
>
> Cited in http://www.usc.urbe.it/html/php/tanzella/nature.rtf
>
> Cheers,
>
> Steve
>
In his development of the "two books" argument in the "Letter to the Grand
Duchess Christina" on science and the Bible, Galileo cites an even earlier
source than Augustine, Tertullian's "Against Marcion" ii, 18, when he
writes:
"For the Bible is not chained in every expression to conditions as
strict as those which govern all physical effects; nor is God any less
excellently revealed in Nature's actions than in the sacred statements of
the Bible. Perhaps this is what Tertullian meant by these words:
'We conclude that God is known first through Nature,
and then again, more particularly, by doctrine; by
Nature in His works, and by doctrine in His revealed
word.'
(ed. Drake, p. 183).
Bob Schneider
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