Challenging Nature
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Pre-Copernican
interpretation of science and religion in
the New World
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Click on photo to see the heavenly bodies in more detail
I found this
fresco depicting one Christian version of the heavenly realms on the wall of a monstary
in Quito, Ecuador. It was painted in about 1620. In this interpretation of the conjunction
of astronomy and religion -- painted in the New World --
the earth is obviously a globe (barely visible at the bottom), but the scientific
discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo have not been absorbed, and all the "heavenly bodies" still
revolve around us. The lowest heavenly realm contains the moon, the second and third
contain Mercury and Venus, respectively, and the sun marks its presence
in the fourth layer of heaven. The fifth, sixth, and seventh heavenly realms
contain
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (which decrease sequentially in brightness
and have sequentially longer orbital times). Above all the planetary realms is
an eighth realm of stars, and then, in a higher realm, Jesus and God sit facing
each other -- holding the earthly globes in their hands -- with the Holy Spirit
(represented as a dove) between them. (The bearded man on the left is the high
priest of Quito, who claimed the ability to see and communicate with Jesus
and God.)
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