Is Astrology a Type of Divination? Thomas Aquinas, the Index of Prohibited Books, and the Construction of a Legitimate Astrology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Bibliographic Data

ID22353622
AuthorsH Darrel Rutkin (Ca' Foscari University of Venice, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume1
Issue1
Pages36-74
Publication date2019-11-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Divination and Prognostication (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2589-9198 • E-ISSN: 2589-9201
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/25899201-12340003
OpenAlexW2989628059
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

What is the relationship between astrology and divination? In particular, is astrology a type of divination, as is often asserted or assumed? In both astrology and divination, knowledge and prediction of the future are primary goals, but does this warrant calling astrology a form of divination? I approach these questions by exploring the response of Thomas Aquinas, which was to be extremely influential for many centuries. First I analyze in some detail Thomas’s answer in his Summa theologiae 2-2.92–95; then I discuss two significant sixteenth-century examples of its influence: the 1557, 1559, 1564, and later indexes of prohibited books; and Pope Sixtus V ’s anti-divinatory bull, Coeli et Terrae Creator (1586). In this way, we can explore some of the complex historical dynamics at play in the construction of a legitimate astrology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Art · Art history · Astrology · Divination · Literature · Middle Ages · The Renaissance · Theology · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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