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A review by aegagrus
Religio Medici by Thomas Browne
4.0
Religio Medici is an accessible yet weighty delight of early modern literature. Its author, Sir Thomas Browne, was a prominent English physician and polymath who lived between 1605 and 1682. In Browne's time, physicians and scientists were commonly seen as impious in their undue fascination with the natural world. Writing a kind of spiritual autobiography, Browne puts this notion to bed by showing himself to be a deeply faithful and sincere Christian, if also a somewhat unorthodox mind.
In many ways, Browne was "ahead of his time". He expresses deep intellectual and spiritual humility, and a genuine respect for the religious customs of others, surpassing mere toleration and at moments anticipating later ideas such as "anonymous Christianity" (at one point, he even entertains the validity of knowledge first acquired through witchcraft, but later passed down between humans without inherent sinfulness). He writes with a real vulnerability; his humaneness and compassion are obvious. He explains how he encounters God in the majesty of the natural world -- in a manner more in keeping with traditional doctrine than Spinozan panentheism. His well-balanced spiritual system places great importance on mystery and necessary unknowns, while also valorizing reason, including the attempted application of reason to unsolvable questions as a necessary phase of spiritual development. This is a man who genuinely values Truth, and whose zeal for general (rather than private) edification lead him to deep study of the material world, without abandoning the mystical and the miraculous. Some of his more expressly theological musings are quite interesting, such as his take on the human being as a Microcosm of all creation (meaning that Annihilation is not an end but merely a contraction into the true essence of things; that death and rebirth form a continuous cycle; and that both parts of our amphibious nature (spirit and substance) are linked to those natures in all other humans).
The great value of Browne's work is twofold: that it answers a common prejudice of his own time, and that it anticipates common perspectives of ours. In both these respects, the modern reader may not get as much out of this book. The attitudes in response to which it was written are mostly historical ones, and the novelty of some of Browne's public stances will be less evident. More damagingly, some of Browne's attention is inevitably drawn up in matters which will not interest most modern readers, such as dalliances with the apologetics of bodily resurrection, or will disquiet modern readers, such as Browne's often uncharitable attitude towards the uneducated masses. Still, Religio Medici is fairly short and, even if nothing else is gained, a stunning display of prose style.
In many ways, Browne was "ahead of his time". He expresses deep intellectual and spiritual humility, and a genuine respect for the religious customs of others, surpassing mere toleration and at moments anticipating later ideas such as "anonymous Christianity" (at one point, he even entertains the validity of knowledge first acquired through witchcraft, but later passed down between humans without inherent sinfulness). He writes with a real vulnerability; his humaneness and compassion are obvious. He explains how he encounters God in the majesty of the natural world -- in a manner more in keeping with traditional doctrine than Spinozan panentheism. His well-balanced spiritual system places great importance on mystery and necessary unknowns, while also valorizing reason, including the attempted application of reason to unsolvable questions as a necessary phase of spiritual development. This is a man who genuinely values Truth, and whose zeal for general (rather than private) edification lead him to deep study of the material world, without abandoning the mystical and the miraculous. Some of his more expressly theological musings are quite interesting, such as his take on the human being as a Microcosm of all creation (meaning that Annihilation is not an end but merely a contraction into the true essence of things; that death and rebirth form a continuous cycle; and that both parts of our amphibious nature (spirit and substance) are linked to those natures in all other humans).
The great value of Browne's work is twofold: that it answers a common prejudice of his own time, and that it anticipates common perspectives of ours. In both these respects, the modern reader may not get as much out of this book. The attitudes in response to which it was written are mostly historical ones, and the novelty of some of Browne's public stances will be less evident. More damagingly, some of Browne's attention is inevitably drawn up in matters which will not interest most modern readers, such as dalliances with the apologetics of bodily resurrection, or will disquiet modern readers, such as Browne's often uncharitable attitude towards the uneducated masses. Still, Religio Medici is fairly short and, even if nothing else is gained, a stunning display of prose style.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death