The Gutenberg Galaxy

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The Gutenberg Galaxy
...The Age of Faith
Dr. Donna Weimer January 22, 2002
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The Age of Faith (5th-15th Century) Pre-Modern
In God nothing is empty of sense.
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RESIDUAL MESSAGE
The dominant communication technology of a
culture shapes the thinking and organization of
significant symbolic systems like the
institutions of knowledge and faith.
The shift from an oral/scribal culture to a
print culture gave shape to the reformation of
the Catholic Church and the Scientific
Revolution.
The Age of Faith gave way to the Age of Reason,
which created the Modern Identity.
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So How Big is Western Civilization?
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Until the advent of printing, scientific inquiry
about how the heavens go went hand in hand with
religious concerns about how to go to heaven.
Eisenstein
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Mans existence and understanding resided in the
heavenly embrace. 12th century
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Scribal Culturea Monopoly of Knowledge by the
Catholic Church
Illuminating Gods word was an Act of
Worship. Great Age of Forgerybooks were copied
for the greater glory of God not for accuracy and
precision.
Knowing the world meant knowing the world through
the lens of Gods grace.
1357
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1421
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1439
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Each copy is a work of art Standardization was
neither expected or desirable.
1448
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If the medieval mind wants to know the nature or
reason of a thing it neither looks into it to
analyze its structure nor behind it, to inquire
into its origins but looks up to heaven where it
shines as an idea. Symbolism was like a second
mirror held up to the phenomenal world itself.
Huizinga, page 214
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The Divine Mystery Three Persons in One GodThe
Holy Trinity
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St. Joseph Father of Jesus Carpenter
Sacred Heard of Jesus
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Sacred Heart of Mary
Our Lady of Sorrows
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Mary, Our Queen Mother
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IHC1st 3 letters of IHCUC Jesus in Greek or
IHSUSJesus or In Hoc Signo In this sign you
will conquer Constantine Fish Symbol of Jesus
Christ, son of God Greek word icthus
code Sunsymbol of Christ Anchor symbol of hope
Not one reading but infinite readings in words
and numbers
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St. Francis Assisi Preaching to the
Birds 1181-1226 ACE
St Francis of Assisiwith the stigmata
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St. CeciliaVirgin Martyr 2/3 ACEAt her
wedding sang to the Lord to keep her
immaculate Patron saint of musicians suffocation/
beheading
St AgnesVirgin Martyr 4th ACE 12years
old Patron saint of young girls Lamb symbol of
meekness and purity fire/sword
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The Tree of Learning
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A law class at the University of Bologna.
Students copy notes which they then readstudy.
late 1150s
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1449
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Myth and Reason Collide...
Bodin informed his readers that the Copernican
revolution was absurd No one in his senses or
imbued with the slightest knowledge of physics
will ever think that the earth, heavy and
unwieldy from its own weight and mass staggers up
and down around its own centre and that of the
sun for at the slightest jar of the earth, we
would see cities and fortresses towns and
mountains thrown down...For if the earth were to
be moved, neither an arrow shot straight up, nor
a stone dropped from the tower would fall
perpendicularly, but either ahead or
behind...Lastly all things on finding places
suitable to their natures, remain there, as
Aristotle writes. Since therefore the earth has
been allotted a place fitting its nature, it
cannot therefore be whirled around by other
motion that its own. Demons Yes, But the motion
of the earth absurd!
Jean Bodin On the Demonic Madness of Witches,
1580
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If witches fly on brooms it is not because of
some supernatural power but because they have an
understanding of the wind. Paracelsus (early
16th Century)
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Magic, Faith and Reason Collide Astronomy As
An Example
In the 1500s educated people in Western Europe
believed themselves living at the centre of a
finite cosmos, at the mercy of (supernatural)
forces beyond their control, and certainly
menaced by Satan and his allies. By 1700
educated people in western Europe for the most
part believed themselves living in an infinite
universe on a tiny planet in (elliptical) orbit
about the sun, no longer menaced by Satan, and
confident that power over the natural world lay
within their grasp.
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Until the advent of printing, scientific
inquiry about how the heavens go went hand in
hand with religious concerns about how to go to
heaven. Astronomers were needed to commemorate
gospel truths. After printing, however, the
study of celestial mechanics was propelled in a
new direction and soon reached levels of
sophistication that left calendrical problems
behind. Eisenstein
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God fixed the Earth upon its foundation, not to
be moved for ever. Psalms
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Consequences of Literacy
1. Literacy is privileged over Mythic thinking
which doesnt go away. Rationality and Science
become hallmarks of the modern spirit. 2.
Democratization of Knowledge--Church and class no
longer have a monopoly over knowledge. 3.
Individualization of personal experience is in
tension with dominant cultural identity. 4.
Growth of Democracy and Individual Rights are
universalized. 5. Avoidance of dominant cultural
traditions eventually results in anxiety and
alienation.
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TWO GALAXIES COLLIDING Faith and Reason