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Author Topic: St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere  (Read 24096 times)

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St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere
« on: May 18, 2018, 03:31:30 PM »
Even though we often see St. Augustine claimed here as a believer in flat earth (based on a misunderstanding of his comments on antipodes) in fact he thought the earth was a sphere.  He referred to the earth as aquosa et globosa moles.

From his work De Genesi ad Litteram "On the Literal Meaning of Genesis":

cuм enim totam terram adhuc aqua tegeret, nihil impediebat ut aquosa et globosa moles ex una parte faceret diem lucis praesentia, ex alia noctem lucis absentia, quae in eam partem succederet a tempore vespertino, ex qua lux in aliam declinaret.

"Although water still covered all the earth, nothing was preventing the watery and spherical mass from having day on one side by the presence of light, and on the other side, night by the absence of light, that in the evening, darkness would pass to that side from which light would be turning to the other."

If anyone would like to see it in context here is a pdf for the entire work.  In this work the passage (which is a bit different translation from mine  "the mass of this watery globe") occurs near the top of page 179.

http://www.scottmacdonald.net/genesis/Texts_files/Augustine%20Literal%20Meaning%20of%20Genesis%20bks%201-2.pdf
I hope that those who have been insisting on literalistic interpretations of Scripture will read the entire thing and understand how far their ideas on interpretation are from the teaching of St. Augustine.

Re: St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2018, 04:26:10 PM »
Even though we often see St. Augustine claimed here as a believer in flat earth (based on a misunderstanding of his comments on antipodes) in fact he thought the earth was a sphere.  He referred to the earth as aquosa et globosa moles.

From his work De Genesi ad Litteram "On the Literal Meaning of Genesis":

cuм enim totam terram adhuc aqua tegeret, nihil impediebat ut aquosa et globosa moles ex una parte faceret diem lucis praesentia, ex alia noctem lucis absentia, quae in eam partem succederet a tempore vespertino, ex qua lux in aliam declinaret.

"Although water still covered all the earth, nothing was preventing the watery and spherical mass from having day on one side by the presence of light, and on the other side, night by the absence of light, that in the evening, darkness would pass to that side from which light would be turning to the other."

If anyone would like to see it in context here is a pdf for the entire work.  In this work the passage (which is a bit different translation from mine  "the mass of this watery globe") occurs near the top of page 179.

http://www.scottmacdonald.net/genesis/Texts_files/Augustine%20Literal%20Meaning%20of%20Genesis%20bks%201-2.pdf
I hope that those who have been insisting on literalistic interpretations of Scripture will read the entire thing and understand how far their ideas on interpretation are from the teaching of St. Augustine.
Everyone on Cathinfo, including you, knows the earth is not a sphere.


Re: St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2018, 04:31:43 PM »
Everyone on Cathinfo, including you, knows the earth is not a sphere.

Since you did not respond to the point of the post, I'll try one that may be easier for you to understand:



Re: St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2018, 04:42:20 PM »
Since you did not respond to the point of the post, I'll try one that may be easier for you to understand:



You are missing the ice wall in your graphic.

Re: St. Augustine believed the earth is a sphere
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2018, 04:43:09 PM »
Since you did not respond to the point of the post, I'll try one that may be easier for you to understand:



You are missing the dome in your graphic.