On the Christian Religion / Marsilio Ficino.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ficino, Marsilio, Author.

Contributor:

Attrell, Dan, Contributor.

Bartlett, Brett, Contributor.

Porreca, David, Contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Apologetics--Early works to 1800.

Apologetics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 p.)

Place of Publication:

Toronto : University of Toronto Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This is the first translation into English of Marsilio Ficino’s De Christiana religione, a text first written in Latin in 1474, the year after its author’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church. On the Christian Religion is this Florentine humanist’s attempt to lay out the history of the religion of Christ, the Logos ("Word" or "Reason"), in accordance with the doctrines of ancient philosophy. The work –focuses on how Christ in his pre-incarnate form was revealed as much to certain ancient pagan sages and prophets as to those of the Old Testament, and how both groups played an equal role in foreshadowing the ultimate fulfilment of all the world’s religions in Christianity. The first part elucidates the history of the prisca theologia – the ancient theology – a single natural religion shared by the likes of Zoroaster, Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Aglaophemus, Pythagoras, and Plato, and how it was fulfilled by Christ’s Incarnation and the spread of his Church through his apostles. The second part of the work, however, constitutes a series of attacks against the ways in which the books of the Old Testament were variously interpreted by Islamic and, more importantly, Jewish sages who threatened Ficino’s own Christological interpretations of Scripture. This new English translation includes an introduction that situates the text within the broader scope of Ficino’s intellectual activity and historical context. The book allows us to encounter a more nuanced image of Ficino, that of him as a theologian, historian, and anti-Jewish, anti-Islamic, anti-pagan polemicist.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

Internal Table of Contents

PREAMBLE

CHAPTER 1 – RELIGION, ABOVE ALL, IS PARTICULAR TO MAN AND TRUTHFUL

CHAPTER 2 – ON THE DIVINITY OF THE SOUL THROUGH RELIGION

CHAPTER 3 – YOUTHS SHOULD BEWARE LEST THEY OFFER AN OPINION ON RELIGION LIGHTLY

CHAPTER 4 – EVERY RELIGION HAS SOME GOOD, SO LONG AS IT IS DIRECTED TOWARDS GOD HIMSELF, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS; CHRISTIANITY IS FAULTLESS

CHAPTER 5 – CHRIST’S DISCIPLES NEVER DECEIVED ANYONE

CHAPTER 6 – IN WHAT STATE OF MIND CHRIST’S DISCIPLES WOULD TOIL

CHAPTER 7 – NO ONE DECEIVED CHRIST’S DISCIPLES

CHAPTER 8 – THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IS FOUNDED ON THE POWER OF GOD ALONE

CHAPTER 9 – CHRIST’S AUTHORITY IS NOT FROM THE STARS BUT FROM GOD

CHAPTER 10 – CHRIST’S AUTHORITY WAS NOT AT ALL WITHOUT MIRACLES

CHAPTER 11 – CHRIST’S AUTHORITY AMONG THE PAGANS

CHAPTER 12 – CHRIST’S AUTHORITY AMONG THE MOHAMMADANS

CHAPTER 13 – ON THE GENERATION OF GOD’S SON IN ETERNITY

CHAPTER 14 – THE ORDER OF THE HEAVENS, ANGELS, AND SOULS AROUND THE TRINITY IS LIKE THE ORDER OF THE SPHERES AROUND THE CENTRE

CHAPTER 15 – THE GENERATION OF THE SON IN ETERNITY AND HIS MANIFESTATION IN TIME

CHAPTER 16 – IT IS FITTING FOR GOD TO HAVE JOINED HIMSELF TO MAN

CHAPTER 17 – OF WHAT KIND IS THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN

CHAPTER 18 – HOW BECOMING IS THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN

CHAPTER 19 – CHRIST’S COMING GIVES BLESSEDNESS WITH FAITH, HOPE, LOVE

CHAPTER 20 – CHRIST’S COMING SERVED TO LIFT THE BURDEN OF SIN

CHAPTER 21 – CHRIST FULFILLED THE PERFECT KIND OF INSTRUCTION

CHAPTER 22 – CHRIST EXPELLED ERROR, REVEALED THE TRUTH

CHAPTER 23 – CHRIST IS THE IDEA AND EXEMPLAR OF VIRTUES

CHAPTER 24 – THE AUTHORITY OF THE SIBYLS

CHAPTER 25 – THE SIBYLS’ TESTIMONIES ABOUT CHRIST

CHAPTER 26 – ON THE PROPHETS’ AUTHORITY, THE OLD TESTAMENT’S NOBILITY, AND THE NEW TESTAMENT’S SUPERIORITY

CHAPTER 27 – THE PROPHETS’ TESTIMONIES ABOUT CHRIST

CHAPTER 28 – RESOLVING DOUBTS AROUND THE PROPHECIES

CHAPTER 29 – AGAINST THE JEWS: THAT THEY ARE WRETCHED IN CHRIST’S VENGEANCE

CHAPTER 30 – CONFIRMATION OF OUR MATERIAL FROM JEWISH SOURCES AGAINST THE JEWS REGARDING THE HOLY BOOKS

CHAPTER 31 – CONFIRMATION OF GOD’S TRINITY AND OF CHRIST’S DIVINITY FROM THE JEWS

CHAPTER 32 – CONFIRMATION OF THE MESSIAH’S SUFFERING AGAINST THE JEWS FROM JEWISH SOURCES

CHAPTER 33 – CONFIRMATION AGAINST THE JEWS OF ORIGINAL SIN, AND THEREBY OF THE MESSIAH’S SUFFERING, FROM JEWISH SOURCES

CHAPTER 34 – PROOF AGAINST THE JEWS, FROM JEWISH SOURCES, THAT THE CEREMONIES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT HAVE BEEN COMPLETED AND FULFILLED BY THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

CHAPTER 35 – ON THE AUTHORITY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

CHAPTER 36 – THAT THE HOLY SCRIPTURE OF THE CHRISTIANS IS NOT CORRUPTED

CHAPTER 37 – THE CAUSE OF THE ERROR OF THE JEWS, MOHAMMADANS, AND PAGANS

Appendix: Table of References to On the Christian Religion in Ficino’s Correspondence

Bibliography

Index of Citations

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 04. Okt 2022)

ISBN:

1-4875-4357-3