Comments on: The grotto of the Cumaean sybil http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2059 Thoughts on Antiquity, Patristics, putting things online, and more Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:17:23 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Roger Pearse http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2059&cpage=1#comment-9218 Roger Pearse Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:05:46 +0000 http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2059#comment-9218 <p align=justify>All these are good points, and quite right. Maybe it doesn't make your flesh creep as it does mine! But yes, it is most certainly a genuine element in paganism. Probably there is some loose connection to ancient Egyptian religion, although I doubt we could show it now. All these are good points, and quite right. Maybe it doesn’t make your flesh creep as it does mine! But yes, it is most certainly a genuine element in paganism. Probably there is some loose connection to ancient Egyptian religion, although I doubt we could show it now.

]]> By: John Uebersax http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2059&cpage=1#comment-9184 John Uebersax Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:13:17 +0000 http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/?p=2059#comment-9184 I have an open mind towards the Hermetic literature. Potentially it represents (along with other influences) a late-antiquity extension of religious ideas generally traceable to ancient Egypt. (Who really knows? But it's a possibility). If we accept that ancient pagan religion was a "preparation for the Gospel", then it must include some elements of truth. It seems to me that there is nothing in this principle that causes it to stop once Christianity began. Note that Christianity continued to borrow or adapt developments in Neoplatonism for several centuries, Pseudo-Dionysius perhaps being a good example. It's probably worth noting that, for a while, Hermeticism received a fair amount of attention among "orthodox" Christians in the Renaissance. This led, admittedly, to certain excesses in some cases, but early on, people like Marsilio Ficino seemed able to integrate Hermetic literature (which Ficino translated) within a more or less orthodox Christian framework. I have an open mind towards the Hermetic literature. Potentially it represents (along with other influences) a late-antiquity extension of religious ideas generally traceable to ancient Egypt. (Who really knows? But it’s a possibility).

If we accept that ancient pagan religion was a “preparation for the Gospel”, then it must include some elements of truth. It seems to me that there is nothing in this principle that causes it to stop once Christianity began. Note that Christianity continued to borrow or adapt developments in Neoplatonism for several centuries, Pseudo-Dionysius perhaps being a good example.

It’s probably worth noting that, for a while, Hermeticism received a fair amount of attention among “orthodox” Christians in the Renaissance. This led, admittedly, to certain excesses in some cases, but early on, people like Marsilio Ficino seemed able to integrate Hermetic literature (which Ficino translated) within a more or less orthodox Christian framework.

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