st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

Cifilo," Lib.
ii., c . iv. Aristotle there m.kM \>
ON NATURAL SCIENCE. j
?I
again the author puts in the first place the opinion of
3 "" " * e ne hdd
Ch besides
! ""I
*rs
Chrysostom. The by
argumentSi jf such
which made St. Chrysostom contend for the hemi
sphenca. form of heaven, were nothing but ana.ogTes
drawn from certain passages of Scripture. Thus in
Hebrews vu, ,, Christ, who is set on the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, is a
minister of the true talernade, which the Lord
pitch*, and not man.
Hence, as the heaven is
inform f th etabe ^ of old, it must
n resemble
form; thatf
is , t must be rather of the
a figure of
tent or dome than of a sphere. Others on the
same side would quote Isaiah xl. 22
,
where it is said
of God that he stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain
dsPr<adeth them out as a tent to dwell Jft
can hardly be denied that John of Damascus, in his
treatment of this
subject, shows to
advantage
beside h,s namesake Chrysostom. In the centre of
.h, hollow sphere, the centre of the universe, is the
ft. For earth, as
being the heaviest of the
lements, must needs subside to the lowest and lowest region
,n this case, means central, since
^
"Zfr, T the Cntre f a Sphere would ^ an
to the circumference, and in that respect
"De
because the circle was the only