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Experiencing Nature: a Comparison Between Early Medieval and Modern Encounters With Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Ilse N. Bulhof
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We witness today a widespread concern about the relation between man and nature: we have, it seems, reached a limit in the exploitation of the resources of the earth; if we continue to treat nature merely as our inexhaustible source of supplies, the balance between man and nature might be destroyed forever.

What are the historical roots of the ecological crisis? There seems much to say for the thesis that ultimately the Western, more specifically the Christian assumption that man is the appointed ruler of the world, is responsible for our ruthless attitude toward nature. Is not man admonished in the biblical account of creation to rule the earth? The story of Genesis suggests that, from the moment Western Civilization was born, an awareness of the antagonism between man and nature has existed; it underlines the prevalent opinion that nature, whether it be the outside nature of wild seas, rugged mountains, marshes, jungles, or whether it be the instinctual nature inside of us, has to be conquered by man. It is, after all, the function of civilization to protect man against the violence of outside nature and against the untamed nature inside of ourselves and our fellowmen. Civilization emerges, we feel, only where hostile nature has been defeated and made serviceable to our goals. It might be interesting in this context to recall some earlier Western attitudes toward nature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 21 , Issue 81 , March 1973 , pp. 26 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © 1973 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

1 Lynn White, Jr., "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis." In: Science, 10 March 1967, Vol. 155, No. 3767.

2 S. Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur), transl. J. Strachey, New York, 1962, p. 33.

3 Romans 8, vs. 19-23.

4 Colossians 1, vs. 11.

5 I Corinthians 10, vs. 11.

6 Monumenta Germaniae Historica Epp. IV, Letter 23.

7 Ibid., Letter 280, p. 437.

8 Ibid., Letter 1, p. 577.

9 Freising, Otto Bischof von, "Chronik oder die Geschichte der Zwei Staaten." Ausgewählte Quellen zur Deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters, Band XVI, pp. 12-13.

10 G. P. Congar, Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy, New York, 1967 (original ed. 1922). Congar writes that traces of Greek macrocosmos theories are found in patristic and scholastic literature, but that it is mostly a matter of unimaginative repetition (p. 31). Nowhere does he mention the new dimension of history that is imparted to the macrocosmos theory during the early Middle Ages. He does not seem to be aware either of the fact that the passages mentioned from the Bible were frequently referred to by medieval writers to explain the constitution and the life of the cosmos.

11 Colossians 1, vs. 13-21.

12 Erigena, Johannes Scotus, Über die Eintheilung der Natur. Transl. L. Noack, Berlin 1870, Book II, Chapters 3 and 7.

13 Hildegard von Bingen, Welt und Mensch. Das Buch De Operatione Dei, aus dem Genter Codex übersetzt und erlautert, H. Schipperges, Salzburg 1965, p. 92. Congar, op. cit., seems not to be acquainted with this extremely interesting work.

14 Ibid., p. 92.

15 Ibid., p. 137.

16 Romans 1, vs. 19-20.

17 Hildegard von Bingen, op. cit., pp. 287, 288.

18 Ibid., p. 287.

19 Ibid., p. 288.

20 Ibid., p. 201.

21 A. M. Hogart, Kingship, London, 1927.

22 Hogart thinks it curious that the medieval kings in the Western world had lost the miraculous power over nature (Hogart, op. cit., p. 37). But it did, in fact, exist in the Middle Ages, although it was not an officially recognized attribute of the kings. See H. Fichtenau, Das Karolingische Imperium. Soziale and Geistliche Problematik eines Grossreiches. Zurich, 1949, p. 63.

23 Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Savage Mind (La Pensée Sauvage), English translation, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1970, p. 22.

24 A particularly good example of the early medieval awareness of a cosmic solidarity is provided by the theology of St. Bonaventura. See J. Ratzinger, Die Geschichts-theologie des hl. Bonaventura, Munich-Zurich, 1959, pp. 141 ff.

25 Ronald W. Hepburn, "Godfrey Goodman: Nature Vilified," in Cambridge Journal, April 1954, p. 425. About this time, though, a reaction, stating the virility of nature, was to be heard: see Ronald W. Hepburn, "George Hakewill, Apology of the Power and Providence of God in the Government of the World, 1627." In: Journal of the History of Ideas, April 1955, No. 2.

26 Hepburn, Godfrey Goodman, p. 430.

27 F. Manuel, Shapes of Philosophical History, Stanford Univ. Press, 1965, pp. 46 ff.

28 See for Newton's interest in chronology F. Manuel, Isaac Newton Historian, Cambridge, Mass., 1963.

29 H. Jackson Forstman, Word and Spirit: Calvin's Doctrine of Biblical Authority, Stanford, 1962, p. 14.

30 Francis Bacon, Part III of the Instauratic, The Natural and Experimental History for the Making Up of Philosophy; Works, ed. B. Montagu, 3 vols., Philadelphia, 1855, Vol. 3, p. 436.

31 Ibid., p. 435.

32 Francis Bacon, Novum Organum, Summary of the second part, Works, Vol. 3, p. 371.

33 Galileo Galilei, Letter to the Grand Duchess, quoted by A. C. Crombie, Medieval and Early Modern Science, New York, 1959, Vol. 2, p. 201.

34 Idem., Letter to Elia Diodati, quoted by Crombie, op. cit., p. 201. The expression to accommodate is used also by Calvin in this context; see Forstman, op. cit., pp. 13 f.

35 Idem., The Assayer, quoted in J. Brophy and H. Paolucci, The Achievement of Galileo, New York, 1962, p. 31.

36 Forstman, op. cit., p. 12.

37 G. W. F. Hegel, The Philosophy of History, Introduction, Transl. C. J. Friedrich, New York, 1956, p. 79.

38 Thomas Huxley, "Evolution and Ethics," in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays, New York, 1896, p. 13.

39 Ibid., p. 83.

40 Idem., "A Liberal Education and Where to Find It," in Science and Education, New York, 1920, p. 76.

41 Idem., Evolution and Ethics, p. 59.

42 Ibid., p. 75.

43 Ibid., p. 85.

44 Freud, op. cit., p. 33.

45 Ibid., pp. 37 f.

46 Ibid., p. 44.

47 Ibid., p. 69.

48 Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, Abridgement D. C. Somerwell, 2 vols., New York, 1965, Vol. I, p. 104.

49 Ibid., pp. 105 f.

50 Ibid., p. 107.