Cardinal Bellarmine's Letter To Foscarini

815 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Proper interpretation of the bible

In Cardinal Bellarmine’s letter to Foscarini (1615) Bellarmine explains to Reverend Father Paolo Antonio Foscarini about how to approach Copernicasism and why it should not be accepted as concept of reality. Instead he suggests that Copernicasism should only be acknowledged as a working hypothesis. In this letter Bellarmine’s explains why Copernicasism can be valued however there a sense of demonstration is needed in order to accept Copernicasism. He also expresses that it is dangerous to accept Copernicasism outright. The concept of Copernicanism to Bellarmine does have some value to him and expresses that mathematicians would able to use Copernican astronomy, as it “is sufficient for the mathematicians” (Bellarmine, 1615, pg 67). This …show more content…

As he believes that this would threaten jurisdiction of the church and would also undermine the interpretation of the Holy Scripture “harm the Holy Faith by rendering Holy Scripture false” (Bellarmine, 1615, pg 68). Therefore using Copernicanism as a working hypothesis is a better option for the church than expecting it as reality. He also recognises that by accepting Copernicanism outright would demonstrate that the church had interpreted the Holy Scripture wrong thus causing the Church to lose its authority in the community more quickly and essentially causing the believers of the Church to lose faith in it. He uses this example in order to get his point across “ likely not only to irritate all scholastic philosopher and theologians, but also to harm the Holy Faith by rendering Holy Scripture false…many ways of interpreting Holy Scripture, but has not applied them to particular cases; without a doubt you would have encountered very great difficulties if you have wanted to interpret all those passages you yourself cited” (Bellarmine, 1615, pg 67). Further explaining that not only would people who believe in the Church would start having doubts but also philosophers and theologians. This further drives this message that it is better to accept Copernicanism as a …show more content…

Even though aspects of Copernicasism is acknowledged and accepted but it requires proof and accepting Copernicasism outright is dangerous for the Church. Therefore Bellarmine concludes that because of theses reason Copernicasism can only be accepted as a working hypothesis and not as

Show More
Related

  • St. Ignatius Letter To The Romans Essay

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Early Christians had numerous different practices. Some of them sacrificed animals, others held mass, and some even died in order to go with God. This helped with the spread of Christianity because it allowed people to attend mass and be forgiven of their sins. It also showed how cruel the Romans were and that religious freedom was being taken away from them.

    Read More

  • Galileo’s Legacy

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    In papal Rome in the early 16th century the “Good Book” was the reference book for all scientists. If a theory was supported in its holy pages, or at the very least not contradicted, then the idea had a chance of find acceptance outside the laboratory. Likewise, no theory no matter how well documented could be viewed with anything but disdain if it contradicted with the written word of, or the Church’s official interpretation of scripture. For these reasons the Church suppressed helio-centric thinking to the point of making it a hiss and a byword. However, this did not keep brave men from exploring scientific reason outside the canonical doctrine of the papal throne, sometimes at the risk of losing their own lives. While the Vatican was able to control the universities and even most of the professors, it could not control the mind of one man known to the modern world as Galileo Galilei. Despite a wide array of enemies, Galileo embarked on a quest, it seems almost from the beginning of his academic career, to defend the Copernican idea of a helio-centric universe by challenging the authority of the church in matters of science. Galileo‘s willingness to stand up for what he held to be right in the face of opposition from Bible-driven science advocates set him apart as one of the key players in the movement to separate Church authority from scientific discovery, and consequently paved the way for future scientific achievement.

    Read More

  • Religion In Afro-Eurasia

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    Galileo received harsh criticism for this theory since it went against the church’s beliefs and teachings. In his letter to Madame Cristina de Lorena, Galileo explains he thought the clergymen were “displaying greater affection for their own opinions than for true ones” meaning that they too intolerant to accept the truth found in science. Instead of embracing theories developed through experimentation, Galileo claimed the priests hid behind the Scripture without providing proof of its claims. Religious figureheads believed that since the bible said that the Earth revolves around the Sun, Galileo was going against the bible and God. However, Galileo maintained that the bible should be read symbolically since its claims are clearly not scientifically true. Galileo insisted that the bible was written in such a way so that everyone would be able to understand it through figurative lessons and explanations and thus should not be interpreted

    Read More

  • Galileo's Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina, 1695

    1199 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his Letter to The Grand Duchess Christina, Galileo challenged the widely accepted religious beliefs of the time, claiming that the conflict lies in their interpretation, not the context. In Galileo’s eyes science was an extremely useful tool that could and should have been used in interpreting the Scriptures. He argued that “the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven not how heaven goes” (Grand Duchess). The purpose of science was not to counter what the bible teaches; rather its purpose was to help explain the teachings of the scriptures. Furthermore, it was “prudent to affirm that the holy Bible can never speak untruth-whenever its true meaning is understood” (Grand Duchess). However, because of the terminology in which the bible was presented the perception of what the Scripture defined as truth was skewed. The Bible was written so that the common man could understand it and follow its commandments. The people also showed a greater inte...

    Read More

  • Analysis of Galileo's Letter

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    The main argument which Galileo’s opponents used against his theory was that in many places in the Bible it is mentioned that the Earth stands still and that the Sun revolves around it. Galileo himself was a devout Christian and did not mean to question God’s power or the Holy Writ with his work. As a result, to support his claim, he developed three logical arguments in his letter, which he backed with the opinions of leading Christian authorities, in order to prove that science can reinforce religion rather than discredit it.

    Read More

  • Galileo and the History of the Catholic Church

    1932 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1543 Nicholas Copernicus, a Polish Canon, published “On the Revolution of the Celestial Orbs”. The popular view is that Copernicus discovered that the earth revolves around the sun. The notion is as old as the ancient Greeks however. This work was entrusted by Copernicus to Osiander, a staunch Protestant who though the book would most likely be condemned and, as a result, the book would be condemned. Osiander therefore wrote a preface to the book, in which heliocentrism was presented only as a theory which would account for the movements of the planets more simply than geocentrism did, one that was not meant to be a definitive description of the heavens--something Copernicus did not intend. The preface was unsigned, and everyone took it to be the author’s. That Copernicus believed the helioocentric theory to be a true description of reality went largely unnoticed. In addition to the preface, this was partly because he still made reassuring use of Ptolemy's cycles and epicycles; he also borrowed from Aristotle the notion that the planets must move in circles because that is the only perfect form of motion.

    Read More

  • The Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The team of Tycho Brahe and John Keppler were the next to study Copernicus’ theory. Brahe tried to disprove Copernicus’ theory and tried to prove the idea of the earth-centered universe. Although Keppler was Brahe’s assistant, he argued for Copernicus and analyzed Brahe’s data to conclude that the sun was the center of the universe. Keppler also used Brahe’s data to discover the movement of the planet Mars. This was the key to explaining all planetary motion. ii He also discovered the planets move in elliptical orbits, which also went against the beliefs of the church. Kepp...

    Read More

  • Aristotle's View Of Astronomy

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    The stars also do not rotate around the Earth, but because the Earth is spinning it makes it appear that way. He described retrograde motion by the Earth catching up to the planet and passing them once a year. A very simple explanation compared to the previous model. This was a more elegant model in his Copernicus’s eyes because of the simplicity and geometry he used. This model was very slow for the general public to gain acceptance of it. While he was alive, he would get ridiculed for such ridiculous ideas. It wasn’t for half a century before this would be seen as heresy in the church’s view when other astronomers began to adopt this

    Read More

  • The Scientific Revolution and The Enlightenment

    1738 Words  | 4 Pages

    Copernicus was a scientist and philosopher whose theory proposed that the sun was stationary, and the heavens orbit around the sun. Galileo tried to convince the Church not to abolish the Copernican theory but was told that he was not to entertain such thoughts with others.... ... middle of paper ... ...(n.d.).

    Read More

  • Metaphor In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Galileo went to present his findings to the Church they forced him to recant his findings and was then forced to live his life under house arrest. This example shows how Moye, Dugger, and Stark-Weather’s idea hold true, when a group of people are told something that is potentially earth-shattering people will shy away and not believe it, but when they are shown and experience something they will believe it. Therefore, in this case, Plato’s theory does not hold true because he would have said that people would have believed Galileo because they where shown his discoveries, this suggests that people became less excepting of information sometime before seventeenth

    Read More

  • Galileo's Beliefs

    742 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Roman Church took the passage literally when it said the sun moves around the earth and the earth stands still, and since Galileo was saying the sun was still in the center while the earth moved, Galileo was looked upon as a sinner. In addition, for over thousands of years, people had accepted the idea that the Earth was the center and all revolved around it, and once Galileo came up with the theory that Earth and all other planets revolved around the Sun, it threatened the traditional concept of the universe. Along with other newly discovered theories, most were so controversial and threaten because they went against religious teachings and also went against concepts that had already been accepted by society for many

    Read More

  • Galileo's Influence On Religion

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    He started by improving the telescope, which allowed him to gather evidence to support his theory of heliocentrism. Galileo’s modification to the telescope allowed him to look at the “heavens” (space) at with thirty times magnification from the human eye (Alonso). He observed that Jupiter had four planets orbiting around it. This made him wonder if the planets, including Earth, revolved around the sun. Galileo’s innovations to the telescope and observations of the universe created a passion and a drive for him to prove that he was right. In his first literary work, “The Starry Messenger”, Galileo published his findings, some of which were very controversial. In this booklet, he concluded that the surface of the moon was rough and mountainous, which disproves the previously accepted theory that the moon is perfectly smooth. He also hinted at a heliocentric universe based upon his observations of Jupiter and its four moons (Maran, 3). “The Starry Messenger” was the first of many works by Galileo with the intent of disproving the conventional geocentric belief. He was intent on spreading and supporting his heliocentric views. In 1612, Galileo wrote his second work about his discoveries, “Discourse on Bodies of Water”, which, yet again was highly controversial. In his second publication, Galileo talked about his discoveries about the phases of Venus. He relates this to the bigger picture, using this as evidence to prove the validity of the Copernican (heliocentric) universe (Paolucci). He was so driven to defend the heliocentric view because he wanted to create a new type of physics and make a model of the Copernican universe (Paolucci). Galileo knew that the only thing standing in his way were the conventional geocentric beliefs that were held by the church and stated in the Bible (Paolucci). Consequently, Galileo’s next literary works were directly aimed at the church. To deal with

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On The Scientific Revolution

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...wever, in the best interest of advancing education and an enlightened society, science must be pursued outside of the realm of faith and religion. There are obvious faith-based and untestable aspects of religion, but to interfere and cross over into everyday affairs of knowledge should not occur in the informational age. This overbearing aspect of the Church’s influence was put in check with the scientific era, and the Scientific Revolution in a sense established the facet of logic in society, which allows us to not only live more efficiently, but intelligently as well. It should not take away from the faith aspect of religion, but serve to enhance it.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Galileo Cardinal Bellarmine

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cardinal Bellarmine’s first point is if the earth is the third planet out from the sun, and the sun is the center of the universe, it will irritate philosophers, and pose a great danger to the holy scripture. Bellarmine says “But to want to affirm that the sun really is fixed in the center of the heavens and only revolves around itself (i.e. turns on an axis) without traveling from east to west, and that the earth is situated in the third sphere and revolves with great speed around the sun, is a very dangerous thing, not only by irritating all the philosophers and scholastic theologians, but also by injuring our holy faith and rendering the Holy Scriptures false,”(Cardinal Bellarmine, as quoted in Spielvogel 485). The second point that Bellarmine makes is that in the bible it says the the sun goes around the earth, and that the council of trent affirms that, and you cannot doubt them. He says that “If your reverence would read not only the fathers but also the commentaries of modern writers on Genesis, psalms, ecclesiastes and josue, you would find that all agree in explaining literally that the sun is in the heavens and moves swiftly around the earth,” (Cardinal Bellarmine, as quoted in Spielvogel 485). He is also saying that Galileo is ignoring important knowledge that is well known and circulated by the church. The third point Bellarmine makes is because he hasn’t had it demonstrated to him how the

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Scientific Revolution Upon the Enlightenment

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    Much to the dismay of the Church, two astronomers Galileo and Kepler had the audacity to challenge the authorities by suggesting that the sun-not the earth-was at the center of the universe. The church had a stronghold on the way the spiritual and physical world worked, so these discoveries only added to the Church’s resistance to their aims. Their discoveries came only after Kepler and Galileo began to question ancient theories about how the world functioned. These ancient truths were widely held but were inconsistent with the new observations that they had made. Kepler had discovered the laws of planetary motion which suggested that the planet would move in elliptical orbits, while Galileo followed with his discovery of the principle of inertia. Galileo concluded his finding b...

    Read More

More about Cardinal Bellarmine's Letter To Foscarini

Open Document