New Testament Astral Portents
God’s Self-Disclosure in the Heavens
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.v1i2.189Keywords:
astrology, New Testament, Western culture, ChristianityAbstract
Christianity's relationship with astrology is complex. Astrology has been seen as demonic as well as has been utilized for guidance. This complex relationship continues in the twenty-first century. With two important New Testament texts in mind, the article argues that a first century BCE–CE astrological ‘hermeneutic’ illumines Christianity’s understanding of astrology. The article begins with a discussion of the tenacity of astrology in Western culture and then moves to Christianity's relationship with it by looking at some biblical texts and early Christian writings. After the discussion of two New Testament texts, the article concludes with implications for Christianity and astrology.
References
Augustine 1989 Harmony of the Gospels, in Phillip Schaff (ed.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, VI (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 73-240.
‘City of God’, in Robert Maynard Hutchins (ed.), Great Books of the Western World, XVIII (trans. Marcus Dods; Chicago: Encyclopeadia Britannica): 129-620.
Basil 2004 On the Spirit, in Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, VIII (Grand Rapids: Hendrickson): 2-50.
‘Homily VI: The Creation of Luminous Bodies’, in Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), Post-Nicene Fathers: On the Christian Church, VIII (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans). Online: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-08/Npnf2-08-14.htm#P2287_712472 (accessed 30
March 2004).
Carson, D.A., Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris 1992 An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan).
Clark, Charles 2001 ‘A Christian Defense of Astrology in the Twelfth Century: The Liber Cursuum Planetarum of Raymond of Marseilles’, International Social Science Review 70.3–4: 93-94.
Clement of Alexandria 1999 [1885] Stromata 1.21, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Second Century, II (trans. A. Cleveland Coxe; Grand Rapids: Hendrickson): 299-568.
Cooper, Michael T. 2004a ‘Prolegomena to a Christian Encounter with Contemporary Druidry: An Etic Perspective of a European Traditional Religion and Its Relationship to the Western Religious Landscape’ (PhD dissertation, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School).
b ‘Early Christian Proselytism: Implications for Interreligious Dialogue Between Christians and Pagans’ (paper presented at the Center for Studies on New Religions annual conference, Baylor University).
forthcoming ‘What I Learned About Christianity from the Druids: A Christian Encounter with a Contemporary Pagan Religion’, Missiology: An International Review.
Edersheim, Alfred 1886 The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (McLean, VA.: MacDonald Publishing).
Ehrman, Bart D. 2004 The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings (New York: Oxford University Press).
Ellis, Peter Berresford 1994 A Brief History of the Druids (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans).
Eusebius 1974 Church History, in Phillip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.), Post-Nicene Fathers: On the Christian Church, I (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans). Online: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-01/Npnf2-01-05.htm#P518_306639 (accessed 20 March 2004).
Evans, Dylan 2002 ‘Unforeseen Growth of Academic Astrology’, Nature 420: 359. doi:10.1080/713695239
Feher, Shoshanah 1992 ‘Who Looks to the Stars? Astrology and its Constituency’, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 31.1: 88-93.
Greeley, Andrew 2003 Religion in Europe at the End of the Second Millennium: A Sociological Profile (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction).
‘Magic in the Age of Faith’, America 169.10: 7-15.
Hippolytus 1974 The Refutation of All Heresies, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Father: The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, V (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans). Online at http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-05/anf05-06.htm#P261_30696 (accessed 20 March 2004).
Hutton, Ronald 2003 ‘Astral Magic: The Acceptable Face of Paganism’ (lecture given at the inaugural conference of the Sophia Centre, Bath Spa University College, ‘Astrology and the Academy’, 13 June).
Ignatius of Antioch 1999 Letter to the Ephesians, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, I (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 49-58.
Irenaeus 1999 Against Heresies, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, I (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 315-567.
Josephus 1988 Antiquities of the Jews, in The Works of Josephus (trans. William Whiston; Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 27-540.
Kidger, Mark 1999 The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer’s View (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Marshall, I. Howard 1978 The Gospel of Luke (Exeter: Paternoster Press).
Melton, J. Gordon 1998 ‘The Future of the New Age Movement’, in Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg (eds.), New Religions and New Religiosity (Aarhus-London: Aarhus University Press): 133-49.
Molnar, Michael 1999 The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi (Rutgers University Press).
Montgomery, John Warwick 1963 Cross, Constellation and Crucible: Lutheran Astrology and Alchemy in the Age of the Reformation (Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada).
Moore, David W. 2005 ‘Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal’, Gallup Poll News Service, 16 June.
Morris, Leon 1997 Luke: An Introduction and Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans). Newport, Frank, and Maura Strausberg
‘Americans’ Belief in Psychic and Paranormal Phenomena is up Over Last Decade’, Gallup Poll News Service.
Origen 1998 Letter to Gregory, in Allan Menzies (ed.), Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, IX (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 291-94.
Orr, Emma Restall 1998 Principles of Druidry (London: Thorsons).
Ptolemy, Claudius 1940 Tetrabiblos (trans. F.E. Robbins; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
Spangler, David, and William Irwin Thompson 1991 Reimagination of the World: A Critic of the New Age, Science, and Popular Culture (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Company).
Stramara, Jr., Daniel F. 2002 ‘Surveying the Heavens: Early Christian Writers on Astronomy’, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 46.2: 153.
Tertullian 1999 On Idolatry, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, III (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson): 61-78.
Thomas, Keith 1971 Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons).
Toepel, Alexander 2005 ‘Planetary Demons in Early Jewish Literature’, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 14.3: 231.
Trexler, Richard 1997 The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).
Von Stuckrad, Kocku 2000 ‘Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity—a New Approach’, Numen 47: 2-3.
Willis, Roy, and Patrick Curry 2004 Astrology, Science and Culture: Pulling Down the Moon (Oxford: Berg).
