The Calvinist International
Classically speaking, there are some truths about God that can be known, or known partially, or grasped, or grasped partially, by reasoned reflection on general revelation. These truths are usually grouped under the domain of natural theology: for example, that there is only one God (monotheism), that he is not a composite being (divine simplicity), […]
Continuing an exercise begun the other day… Calvin refers to the Roman poets Vergil and Lucretius exactly once in the Institutes of the Christian Religion, in the same passage of 1.5.5, “The Knowledge of God Conspicuous in the Creation, and Continual Government of the World.” The passage begins with a criticism of Aristotle, to which we […]
In a set of Icones contained in his youthful collection of poems (the Poemata or Iuvenilia, or Poemata Iuvenilia), first published in 1548 before his embracing of the Reformation the following year and reissued in expurgated form several times afterwards, Beza includes the following distich about Vergil, a couplet that remains in later editions of the poems. I post […]
Consider this an exercise in the the analysis of the evolution of the heroic temper. Lewis and Vergil In his chapter on Vergil in A Preface to Paradise Lost, C.S. Lewis speaks of Aeneas’ “reluctant yet unfaltering search for the abiding city (mansuram urbem)” (emph. orig.). The passage in question comes from the “all-important” Book […]
This was supposed to be an update to the post on Luther, Cicero, and Vergil shared yesterday, but for some reason the software will not let me change the post, so I have to do it here. A colleague has pointed out to me, correctly, that Luther’s reference to the “divine Aeneid” is a reference to […]
(Some readers may already be familiar with what follows, but it may be news to others; and it should be of interest to all!) According to Johannes Aurifaber, Martin Luther wrote the following words–the last ones he wrote, in fact–on a scrap of paper and placed them on his bedside table shortly before he died, […]
Fas, Ius, and Lex: Vergilian Prelude fas mihi Graiorum sacrata resolvere iura, fas odisse viros atque omnia ferre sub auras, si qua tegunt; teneor patriae nec legibus ullis. (Aeneid 2.157–59; emphases mine) This is justice, I am justified in dropping all allegiance to the Greeks– as I had cause to hate them; I may bring […]