Hermes Christianus
Subtitle: the intermingling of Hermetic piety and Christian thought
By: by Claudio Moreschini ; translated by Patrick Baker
Contributors: Baker, Patrick, 1976- translator
Series: Cursor mundi -- v. 8; Cursor mundi (Turnhout, Belgium) -- v. 8.
Publisher: Brepols
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Turnhout
Language: eng
Number of pages: 306
ISBN-13: 9782503529608
Subjects: Occultism; Christianity; Hermetism; History
Description: "Hermetic theosophy, originally an offspring of Egyptian religion, spread throughout the ancient world from the Hellenistic age onwards and was welcomed by Christianity in Late Antiquity. Cultivated people in a Christian milieu were convinced that Hermetic piety and religion were the preparation, expressed by heathen imagery, of their own faith: Hermes, a wise and pious philosopher in Egypt in the time of Moses, received (so it was thought) the same revelation which would be manifested 1,000 years later by Christ. At the end of the third century AD, this belief did not perish with the end of the Roman Empire; rather, it was taken up and explored during the French Renaissance of the twelfth century. In the fifteenth century, Italian humanism, supported by the rediscovery of Greek language and literature, promoted a fresh new evaluation of the ancient Hermetic texts which continued to be considered and studied as pre-Christian documents. In the sixteenth century, new interpretations of Christian Hermetism were explored until this connection between pagan and Christian was increasingly criticized by scholars who argued that Hermetism was neither as ancient as was thought nor as close to Christianity. The theory was abandoned in scientific milieux from the seventeenth century onwards, whereas Hermetic theosophy, on the contrary, survived in esoteric circles"--P. [4] of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-299) and indexes.

Translated from the Italian.
Table of contents: title: Philosophical Hermetic literature; title: Late antique Christian Hermetism; title: Between Latin west and Byzantine east; title: The rebirth of Greek Hermetism in Italy : Marsilio Ficino and Ludovico Lazzarelli; title: Prolegomena to Franc̦ois Foix-Candale's commentary on the Pimander; title: Sixteenth-century representatives of Italian Hermetism; title: Discovering the Hermetic writings' true identity : the contribution of Isaac Casaubon.