On the edge of eternity : the antiquity of the Earth in Medieval and early modern Europe / Ivano Dal Prete.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dal Prete, Ivano, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Creation--Biblical teaching.

Creation.

Creationism.

Earth sciences--History.

Earth sciences.

Geology--History.

Geology.

Fossils--Research--History.

Fossils.

Science--History.

Science.

Science, Medieval.

Earth (Planet)--Age.

Earth (Planet).

Physical Description:

xii, 352 pages : illustrations, facsimiles ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2022]

Summary:

It is commonly assumed that the creation story of Genesis and its chronology were the only narratives openly available in medieval and early modern Europe and that the discovery of geological time in the eighteenth century came as a momentous breakthrough that shook the faith in the historical accuracy of the Bible. Historians of science, mainstream geologists, and Young Earth creationists alike all share the assumption that the notion of an ancient Earth was highly heterodox in the pre-modern era. The old age of the world is regarded as the offspring of a secularized science. In this book, Ivano Dal Prete radically revises the commonplace history of deep time in Western culture. He argues that the chronology of the Bible always coexisted with alternative approaches that placed the origin of the Earth into a far, undetermined (or even eternal) past. From the late Middle Ages, these notions spread freely not only in universities and among the learned, but even in popular works of meteorology, geology, literature, and art that made them easily accessible to a vernacular and scientifically illiterate public. Religious authorities did not regard these notions are particularly problematic, let alone heretical. Neither the authors nor their numerous readers thought that holding such views was incompatible with their Christian faith. While the appeal of theories centered on the biblical Flood and on a young Earth gained popularity over the course of the seventeenth century, their more secular alternatives remained vital and debated. Enlightenment thinkers, however, created a myth of a Christian tradition that uniformly rejected the antiquity of the world, as opposed to a new secular science ready to welcome it. Largely unchallenged for almost three centuries, that account solidified over time into a still dominant truism. -- Jacket.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Footprints in the Dust: The Eternity of the World in the Middle Ages

2. The Medieval Earth

3. Vernacular Earths, 1250-1500

4. A "Pious" History of the Earth? 1500-1650

5. The Rise of Diluvialism, 1650-1720

6. The Invention of the History of Deep Time, 1700-1770

7. Political Fossils, 1740-1800.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-341) and index.

ISBN:

0190678895

9780190678890

OCLC:

1309868870

Publisher Number:

99991891195