The Two Books Historical Notes On Some,olaf Pederson, Inglês

THE TWO BOOKS

Historical Notes on Some Interactions

Between Natural Science and Theology

OLAF PEDERSON

Ed. 2007  424 pgs. - New

The metaphor of the Book of Nature goes back to the age of the Fathers. St. Paul asserted that the works of God disclose His divinity, invisible being and eternal power [Rom 1, 18-20]. St. Augustine preferred to speak of the vestigial Dei in creation. Nevertheless, at least in one place he invited the Manichaeans ?to consider the whole of creation, regarding God as its author, by reading so to speak in the great book of nature (magnus liber naturae rerum)? [Cfr. Contra Faustum, 32, 20]. Here the metaphor emerges into full daylight and the crated world is good because God is the author.

Hugh of St. Victor gave the Book of Nature a much more prominent place in his Didascalicon in which he surveyed the whole range of human knowledge. He said directly that ?the whole of this sensible world is like a book, written by the finger of Good, being created by his power. And the individual creatures are like symbols or letters that are not invented in an arbitrary way by man, but ordained by the will of Good in order to demonstrate his wisdom? [Didasc., VII, 3; PL 176, 873].

As the 13^th century went on the Book of Nature increased its status so much that the great scholastics began to be worried that it while St. Bonaventure asked if the Bible would remain the Book of Books if also the Book of Nature could lead to God.

In his Theologia Naturalis of 1436 Raymund Sebundus explained that humanity has two books at its disposal. They both come from God, but the Book of Creatures came first, being written by the finger of God at the creation of the world; the Book of Holy Scripture came later when men had become too blind to read the first book and had to be assisted. Yet there are no contradictions between the two books since they have the same author.

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