Aristotle's Religion

Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars grappled for centuries with how to make use of the works of a pagan philosopher, while acknowledging that aspects of Aristotle’s doctrines directly contradicted crucial elements of their own religious traditions. By the early modern period, a time of religious conflicts, a common way to address this issue was to claim Aristotle for one’s own faith. The objects in this section include a Latin poetic biography celebrating Aristotle’s piety and salvation, and a Latin apocalyptic text that described Plato as dangerous and Aristotle as a pious Trinitarian. Another text by the Jesuit Melchior Cornaeus staged dialogues in which Aristotle proclaimed himself to be a devout follower of the Pope to convert Protestants. Meanwhile, the Portuguese exile and Jewish physician Isaac Cardoso recounted a Jewish legend about Aristotle’s conversion to Judaism. The title page from 1702 depicts Aristotle receiving divine inspiration for his texts, which occupied a central role in the Jesuit curriculum.

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XO23 Comparationes phylosophorum Aristotelis et Platonis a Georgio Trapezuntio viro clarissimo.

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