Astrology and Religion in the Long Reformation: "Doctor Faustus in Swadling Clouts". Issue 2 (3rd July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jensen, Phebe
• Is Part Of: Reformation. Volume 24:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 92
• Page End: 106
• Publication Date: 2019-07-03
• Subjects: Astrology -- Christopher Marlowe -- predestination -- Philip Melanchthon -- John Calvin -- William Fulke; Reformation -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Reformation -- Periodicals; Church history -- 16th century -- Periodicals; Europe -- Civilization -- 16th century -- Periodicals; Europe -- History -- 1492-1648 -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 940.23
• DOI: 10.1080/13574175.2019.1665269
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1357-4175

Abstract

ABSTRACT: John Calvin and other religious moralists wrote against astrology in the sixteenth century, yet the astrological arts flourished over the course of the long Reformation in England. This essay confronts that paradox through an analysis of the representation of astrology, free will, and predestination in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and in contemporary sermons, Protestant religious tracks, and polemical works for and against astrology. The essay demonstrates how astrological and theological controversial works disputed a similar Gordian knot concerning fate and free will, as they denied that the Stoic concept of fatal necessity described the apparent determinism of astrological fortune (on the one hand) and Calvinist predestination (on the other). It argues that one reason astrology and religion became strange bedfellows in the long Reformation is that they both worried similar questions concerning fate, free will, fortune, and man's moral culpability for sin.