(November 12, 2019 at 6:01 am)Belacqua Wrote:(November 12, 2019 at 5:53 am)TimOneill Wrote: Interesting that the quote you found on a Wiki page was carefully cherry picked, ignoring the scholars who think that it's Ferrari who was, to use your phrase, "completely wrong". For example, C.P.E. Nothaft, "Augustine and the Shape of the Earth: A Critique of Leo Ferrari", Augustinian Studies, 42 (1): 35. Or David C. Lindberg, "Science and the Early Church".i n Lindberg, David C.; Numbers, Ronald L. (eds.). God & Nature: Historical Essays on the Encounter between Christianity and Science, 1986. Given that Lindbeg was pretty much the pre-eminent expert on early science in this period, I'm a bit more inclined toward his assessment.
But since, on the basis of a quick Google of a Wiki page, you're a sudden expert on Augustinian natural philosophy, maybe you can explain to us how De genesi ad litteram, I.10.21 and XXX.33 can be reconciled with the claim that Augustine thought the earth was flat. Good luck.
Thank you for joining the discussion here. I've been amazed by the reactions people have had to your web site -- which I find very useful.
I ceased being amazed a long time ago - people don't like having their myths debunked. Unfortunately that goes for many so-called rationalists as it does for Christians. This is why I tend to annoy dogmatic ideologues on both sides. So here was have someone who thinks that by uncritically accepting a quote he found on Wiki, he's shown that I'm "completely wrong". Unfortunately the "Augustine scholar" in question was a philosophy professor. Which means he was pretty good at assessing, say, Augustine's use of Platonism but not so good at working out where he fitted in with Greco-Roman science. For that we need to turn to specialists in that field. Like Lindberg. Augustine was not a flat earther, as informed reading of his work shows.