2. Man’s Place in the Universe This presentation is based on ideas developed by Arthur O. Lovejoy in his The Great Chain of Being Errors are my own. and by Erich Auerbach in his Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature

3. I. The Two Primary Roots of Western Culture: The Jews and the Greeks

4. The Jews  Monotheism  Focus on the spiritual  An eclipse of the sun

5. The Greeks  Polytheism  Focus on the material (geometry)  An eclipse of the sun

6. The Greek Universe

7. Aristotle (384-322 B.C)

8. II. Christianity  Christ is born; Christ dies.  “Go and convert all nations.”

9. The Conversion of Rome

10. Christianity’s Adoption of the Ptolemaic Universe  Complex story  I like to imagine.  But it did happen – the Ptolemaic universe became a primary philosophical and theological base of Christian belief.

11. III. Results of Adoption:  The Great Chain of Being  God  Angels  Man  Animals  Rocks  “A place for everything, and everything in its place”

12. “A place for everything, and everything in its place”   Astronomy   Biology   Metals   Music   Astrology

13. Kings, Popes, and Common Folks  This is Shakespeare’s universe.

14. IV. The Beginning of the End of the Ptolemaic Universe  Astronomical observations  Lenses (glasses) developed in the 13 th century  Trepidations of the Spheres

15. Nicolas Copernicus  On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbits (1543)  Died unknown The sun is the center of the solar system.

16. Martin Luther  In 1517 he posted 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg Cathedral  The beginning of the Protestant Reformation

17. Galileo Galilei  1564-1642  1609 – his telescope  Confirms Copernican view of the universe  Loud-mouthed Italian  Excommunicated

18. Efforts to Save the Ptolemaic System Epicycles and Eccentrics

19. Persistence of the System  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)  The Well-Tempered Clavier (c. 1717)  “Diabolus in Musica”

20. V. Results of the Breakup  Man is no longer at the physical center of God’s universe. (He’s on the third rock from the sun.)  Western Christianity has broken into denominations.  Man’s sense of identity is now an open question.  Absolute truth is called into question.  Catholic Church has moved back toward its Jewish root. It no longer takes absolute positions on science (evolution).