Author: Zahnd, Ueli
Title: Cicero und die Reformation am Oberrhein
Review/Collection: In : Scheidegger Laemmle, Cédric (ed.), Cicero in Basel, Locating Classical Reception in a Humanist City, De Gruyter, 2024, 374 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 237-256
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy, Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy
Description: Ueli Zahnd’s contribution focuses on the influence of Ciceronian philosophy as he assesses its presence in, and impact on, central theological debates in the intellectual circles of Reformation theologians in and around Basel, as well as their relation to the Reformation in Geneva. As Zahnd shows, Cicero’s place in their writings is a point of contestation. Suspicious of rhetorical artifice, Christian thinkers had always viewed Cicero’s legacy with scepticism – a view enshrined in Jerome’s famous dream (Ep. 22.30, see above, p. 8). Among the Reformation theologians of the Upper Rhine, however, such reservations against Cicero were absorbed by wider debates on the role of Human knowledge and learning, and they became enmeshed in the tensions between, and attempts at reconciliation of, the intellectual tenets of Humanism and Reformation – a relation debated with particular urgency in Basel. Zahnd illustrates Cicero’s contested position with the influence of his De natura deorum on debates on the possibility of natural knowledge of God. As Zahnd shows, however, such influence often remained unacknowledged as Cicero was seen with skepticism. Indeed, Reformation theologians made liberal use of the old accusation of being a Ciceronian, rather than a Christian, to discredit their adversaries [Scheidegger Laemmle 2024,15].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111454641-013/pdf
Author initials: Zahnd 2024
Title: Cicero und die Reformation am Oberrhein
Review/Collection: In : Scheidegger Laemmle, Cédric (ed.), Cicero in Basel, Locating Classical Reception in a Humanist City, De Gruyter, 2024, 374 p.
Place edition: Berlin, Boston
Editor: De Gruyter
Year edition: 2024
Pages: 237-256
Keywords: Héritage - Fortuna - Legacy, Philosophie - Filosofia - Philosophy
Description: Ueli Zahnd’s contribution focuses on the influence of Ciceronian philosophy as he assesses its presence in, and impact on, central theological debates in the intellectual circles of Reformation theologians in and around Basel, as well as their relation to the Reformation in Geneva. As Zahnd shows, Cicero’s place in their writings is a point of contestation. Suspicious of rhetorical artifice, Christian thinkers had always viewed Cicero’s legacy with scepticism – a view enshrined in Jerome’s famous dream (Ep. 22.30, see above, p. 8). Among the Reformation theologians of the Upper Rhine, however, such reservations against Cicero were absorbed by wider debates on the role of Human knowledge and learning, and they became enmeshed in the tensions between, and attempts at reconciliation of, the intellectual tenets of Humanism and Reformation – a relation debated with particular urgency in Basel. Zahnd illustrates Cicero’s contested position with the influence of his De natura deorum on debates on the possibility of natural knowledge of God. As Zahnd shows, however, such influence often remained unacknowledged as Cicero was seen with skepticism. Indeed, Reformation theologians made liberal use of the old accusation of being a Ciceronian, rather than a Christian, to discredit their adversaries [Scheidegger Laemmle 2024,15].
Works:
Link: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111454641-013/pdf
Author initials: Zahnd 2024
