Reflections of Lucretius in Late Antique and Early Modern Biblical and Scientific Poetry
Providence and the Sublime
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23204303 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Philip Hardie (0000-0003-1950-5095, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2016 |
| Pages | 187-202 |
| Publication date | 2016-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Lucretius and Modernity (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan US (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-1-137-56657-7_12 |
| OpenAlex | W2493731844 |
| ISBN | 9781137566577 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 5 |
My topic is a part of a history that goes back to Virgil, that of the reaction of writers and thinkers who adhere to providentialist and transcendental models of reality to the materialist and anti-providentialist poem of Lucretius.1 As such it might seem to have no place in a book on Lucretius and modernity, if by modernity is understood rationalism, free-thinking, libertinism, and a scientific and anti-deist understanding of the world. There was, of course, a time when modernity was Christianity, and the church fathers' attacks on Epicurean atheism were intended to confirm their readers' belief in the new dispensation. But I shall be dealing with texts that, on the surface at least, are confident that they are speaking from a position of established truth. Questions nevertheless remain. Why do accounts of a biblical creation and world order look to Lucretius's poem on the nature of the universe? Is it the case that these texts safely contain the Lucretian message, or is there a surplus that threatens Christian orthodoxy? What degree of anxiety, or indeed illicit sense of liberation, is involved in imitating Lucretius's gospel of rationalist materialism?KeywordsMother EarthParadise LostChurch FatherPoetical WorkHuman WordThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Aesthetics · Art · Atheism · Epicureanism · Epistemology · Literature · Materialism · Modernity · Orthodoxy · Poetry · Sublime · Theology · Transcendental number · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Philosophy, Science, and History
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |