Antoine Arnauld

Bio: Antoine Arnauld is an academic researcher. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 1 citations.

Solitude and life in the world in the letters of Antoine Arnauld

Abstract: This article features the correspondence of Antoine Arnauld, who lived close to the Port-Royal monastery, as a case study for the perception of solitude in the spiritual literature of the 17th century. For Arnauld the world is corrupt, as a man in it is prone to an excess of temptation. A truly virtuous life means retirement from the world, not monasticism, but a refusal to comply with a world ruled by passions since the original sin. In his letters, Arnauld speaks of seclusion not only from the world but also from human nature with its sinful inclinations. Denouncing the world and its temptations Arnauld sees it as a battlefield for truth and his own mission in the protection of the latter from profanation. Despite seeing the solitary life as the most dignified, he compares the life of a virtuous married woman to a nun’s. Thus, he does not exclude the chance of salvation for those who lead a virtuous secular life. By 1660s his views become more lenient; in one of the letters Arnauld comes up with an apology for the existing social order and its characteristic luxury, seeing it as a manifestation of God’s will. The heterogeneity of Arnauld’s views could be explained by the nature of our source, the letters, as his ideas there are in the process of development of which each letter only registers stages.

Soplos tramontanos o voces inmanentes. El análisis religioso de la secularización en Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Abstract: En la obra de Gómez Dávila, se manifiesta una genuina teología política, un análisis religioso de la política. El artículo se enfoca en algunas fuentes teológicas del pensamiento moderno desde la óptica de Gómez Dávila, con miras a comprender el proceso de secularización como fenómeno político distintivo de la Modernidad. Para ello, en primer lugar, se explica la importancia del siglo xiii como siglo de rupturas en la cosmovisión católica a partir de la influencia del pensamiento de Averroes. En segundo lugar, se muestra cómo las ideas averroístas tienen eco en Pascal y en el Romanticismo, para ubicar a Gómez Dávila en la disputa averroísta. Por último, se presenta la conclusión, cuya idea principal es que, para Gómez Dávila, solo un fideísta y místico medieval es genuinamente reaccionario, pues el diálogo fe-razón tomista subyace tras la concepción moderna de la política.