The Calvinist International
The tenth chapter of Ficino’s De Christiana Religione is one of the lengthiest. I have skipped over chapter nine, which is entitled, “The authority of Christ is not from the stars but from God.” In that chapter Ficino argues against certain extreme forms of astrology which are not very relevant to the modern reader. In […]
Marsilio Ficino’s argument in chapter 8 of his De Christiana Religione is quite similar to St. Paul’s argument in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians regarding the origin of his Gospel message. There Paul argues that his preaching is not κατὰ ἄνθρωπον (from man) but δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (from a revelation of Jesus Christ). […]
Marsilio Ficino, in chapter 4 of his De Christiana Religione, argues that God does not reject all forms of human worship, even those performed by other religions. Rather, God approves of man’s worship of him and he does not punish every form of false worship equally. Though all forms of religious worship derive, in some […]
In the third chapter of De Christiana Religione Ficino discusses the topic of educating adolescents in religion. Most, if not all, theological manuals of this period are devoid of any treatment of childhood education. Why, then, does Ficino devote a whole chapter to it? At least three possible solutions stand out. Firstly, the fact that […]
In the second chapter of his De Christiana Religione Ficino continues his argument from the first chapter that religion cannot be vain or useless. In this chapter he argues, among other points, that the soul’s yearning for God must come from God since (a) the divine light cannot be known apart from the divine light […]
In the first chapter of his De Christiana Religione, Ficino uses various arguments to prove that the worship of God is what sets man apart from the other animals. Worth noting here, again, is the fact that Ficino does not appeal to any Medieval authorities to make his claims. Also interesting is Ficino’s appeal to […]
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499): Christian Humanist Marsilio Ficino is perhaps the paragon of Renaissance philosophical humanism – Renaissance “humanism,” as Kristeller thoroughly demonstrated, properly refers to the promotion of the “humanities” or liberal arts. He was the first in the West to translate the entire works of Plato and it was these translations, which included Ficino’s […]