Cosmological Theology of the Middle Ages: Superstitious self-designed schemes utilizing biblical prooftexts

 

by koot van wyk Seoul South Korea 

 

 

Introduction

A very significant study was done by Barbara Maurmann, Die Himmelsrichtungen im Weltbild des Mittelalters (München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1976) in which she studied what one can describe as a underlying "Cosmological Theology" in the Roman Catholic Church.

What was done by the church fathers, is to use Zodiac signs, cosmological concepts or phrases in the Bible, known maps of their own times, Greek suggestions for the macro-cosmos and Greek-Arabic suggestions for the micro-cosmos and mixed them all up to come out with what we have simplified in a diagram below.

 

 

 

North

Jewish Sanctuary Orientation

Devil

Antichrist

Mountain

EARTH

LAW ZONE

West C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\Hnc\BinData\EMB0000152c74ab.WMF East Hell GRACE ZONE Paradise

First Adam Second Adam

Death Life

Sin Forgiveness

WATER Advent in East

FIRE

 

 

 

 

 

Catholic Cultic Orientation

 

South

Holy Spirit

warm

Bird

WIND

 

FOUR ELEMENTS

The scheme of Empedocles between 490-430 BCE of the four composite parts: Wind, Earth, Fire and Water was utilized by the patristics to come up with a theology of the Holy Spirit and the dove of the Holy Spirit flying in the wind in the south.

Pagans worshipped the sun and Egyptians considered the sungod to rise each morning or to be resurrected each morning and to die bleeding red in the evening in the west. That is why God in Exodus 38:13 (Maurmann 1976: 132 at footnote 19) had the entrance at the East but the orientation to the West. It was to oppose the pagan directions.

 

DIRECTION OF CATHOLIC CHURCHES

A scholar O. Mothes, Die Basilikenform bei den Christen der ersten Jahrhunderte (Leipzig: 1865) studied 250 to 500 churches and of the 55 Basilisks, 15 are to the East, 12 to the West and 3 to the South West, one to South East, one to North East and one to South or North (Maurmann 1976: 131). By the 5th century CE it was common for churches to have their apsis built in the direction of the East and their entrances to the West (Maurmann 1976: 132).

 

THE CROSS CULT

A Cross-cult originated around 350 CE and it was made necessary that the people should see the cross as replacement of the Jewish altar of the Old Testament since Christ was the lamb of God sacrifized for our since on the cross. The Crosses were affixed in the East of the Churches (A study was made by A. Schmid in 1871, see Maurmann 1976: 132).

 

CHRIST THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Christ was viewed as the Sun of Righteousness and it was suggested that resurrection, Advent, Paradise will come from that direction. They developed the idea that to regain paradise one should orientate to the East. There is absolute no grounds for any of these directional superstitions in the scriptures.

 

PARADISE TO THE EAST

The superstition regarding the Paradise to be in the East even existed in 1713 through the words of Samuel Sewall saying: "America was best suited for the 'Gouvernement of Christ' precisely because it was 'the beginning of the East, and the end of the West'" (Loren Baritz, "The Idea of the West" American Historical Review 66 [1960]: 618-670, especially page 636).

The church fathers Origen, Athanasios, Severus of Antioch, Hilarius, Eusebius of Caesarea all had the idea that in the West Christ had a part in the World, his suffering, death but in the East He returned to His Father (Maurmann 1976: 157).

 

GRACE SUPERSEDES LAW IN THE ORIENTATION

Another aspect of Catholic superstitious self creation of their dogma in the Middle Ages is that their orientation had the Law of God (of the Jewish system) at their backs, since they face to the Cross or Grace to the East. The Law of Moses could not save them in the West so they turned to God at the Cross in the East for salvation (Maurmann 1976: 176).

 

ALLOCATING GOSPELS, CHURCH FATHERS, ZODIAC ANIMALS TO WIND DIRECTIONS

The Gospels, Church Fathers, Animals of the Zodiac were all allocated to geographical big rivers and the four elements of the cosmos:

Mark is linked with the Lion and the Father, Water and Tigris in the North.

Luke is linked with the Bull and the Son, Fire and the Euprhates in the East.

John is linked with the Eagle and the Holy Spirit, Wind and Fison river of Paradise in the South.

Matthew is linked with the Human Maria, Water, and the Geon river at the West (Maurmann 1976: 192).

Augustin was allocated to the Eagle in the East.

Gregory was allocated to the West

Jerome was allocated to the North

Ambrose was allocated to the South.

 

NUMBER 4 AND SUPERSTITION

Many superstitious ideas developed around the number 4:

Johannes of Ford (PL 217, 605 B-D) had many ideas about the 4 living creatures of Ezechiel 1:15; the 4 corners of the ark; the 4 corners of Solomon's Temple; the 4 corners of the Heavenly Jerusalem; the 4 ends of the cross. We are using the word superstition in our descriptive language but this word is absent in the treatment of the subject by Maurmann.

Maurmann ended her whole research with the words: "holy East" (Maurmann 1976: 203).

Since the East is important for all Catholic Churches orientated in that direction, and since the Resurrection of Christ was to that direction and since the sun comes up in the East, the dies solis was considered to be more important as a day of worship than the Jewish Sabbath based on the Law of Moses behind them.

 

ATONEMENT WAS SOLELY AT THE CROSS OR ALTAR AND THE REST IS ABANDONED AS NOT IMPORTANT

It is very clear that in this switch in orientation of worship the concept of Atonement in the Holy and Most Holy by Christ after the ascension in 31 CE was considered nil and void and of no consequence to the worshipper by this scheme of the Catholic Church. Many protestant churches has retained this orientation theology and its implications were superimposed by them also over their theology to prevent them to make a switch to the true Seventh Day Sabbath and to the Atonement phases of Christ in the Holies but also the Most Holy since 1844.

 

We cannot miss the fact that the Catholic orientation is 100% in the opposite direction as was the institution of God to the Hebrews in the Old Testament.

 

End item