This essay explores the early conflict surrounding Galileo's hermeneutics from four Tridentine or Post-Tridentine perspectives, viz. hermeneutical, exegetical, dogmatic and pietistic. (1) In the first place, Galileo's historicizing theory of accommodation (a well-known concept in Post-Tridentine theology that designates God adjusting his revelation so as to be comprehensible within the restrictions of the human mind) is shown to be itself but a gradual development of Post-Tridentine hermeneutics. (2) Secondly, consideration is given to the exegetical work of the Jesuit Nicolai Serarius. In his commentary on Joshua 10, which illustrates how the Copernican worldview was perceived as threatening to undermine the authoritative Latin text of the Vulgate, Serarius is concerned with defending the literal sense of the text against what was seen as a direct challenge to not only the authoritative text but to the very understanding of Latin semantics. (3) Thirdly, as becomes clear from a reading of Bellarmin's Disputationes, the dispute regarding Galileo is to be understood primarily in polemic terms relating to the unity of Scripture and the papal church's monopoly on its infallible interpretation. (4) Finally, it is illustrated from the mystical work of Bellarmin, De Ascensione, that there existed a sharp conflict between scientific and pious mentality pertaining to matters of exegesis and the understanding of man's relation to the cosmos on the one hand and the divine on the other. These four perspectives help to contextualise the controversy surrounding Galileo and aid a clearer understanding of the reactions to his hermeneutics within the framework of the early 17th century.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche; 2019/1 (2019)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche

Personen: Bahl, Patrick

Schlagwörter: Theologie Naturwissenschaft Biblische Hermeneutik Galilei, Galileo Bellarmin, Robert Tridentinum (1545-1563 : Trient) Akkomodation Kopernikus, Nikolaus Serarius, Nikolaus