Preparing for the Miraculous

122 eleven talksOut of the originally quite diverse Christian movementgrew a structured and authoritarian Catholic Churchwhich became, from about 400 CE, the official religion ofthe Roman Empire. This organization, because of its hierarchicalstructure and its faith, survived the collapse of theEmpire and became the dominant institution in the MiddleAges. Its holy book, the Bible, was supposed to be the Wordof God and therefore indubitable truth, together with itsinterpretations by the Church Fathers. What remained ofthe former Greek and Roman culture was used as a sourceof reference, integrated to a certain degree into the beliefsystem of the Church. Any culture has its myths, legendsand explanations which support and give meaning to itslife. The myths and legends of the Old and New Testamentbecame the mental baggage and source of reference ofWestern thought, which is still heavily influenced by themeven today.However, for the Catholic Church too, as for all life andits manifestations on Earth, the time arrived that its hierarchicalstructure and authority began to falter. This periodof questioning, roughly from the 14th to the 17th century,we call the Renaissance, synonymous with the urge of rediscoveryand exploration in matters intellectual and artisticas well as physical. New continents on the globe werediscovered, and so were new realms of the mind. What existedon Earth was so much more, and apparently equallyworthy and humane, than the limited world which untilthen had been thought the only civilized one. A new spiritof astonishment, exaltation and daring led to the nuova scienza,a new science eagerly connecting with the forgottenor forbidden knowledge of the ancients, but also with previouslydiscarded occult practices and wisdom traditions.The stuff of ancient Hebrew tribes and of the allegedreminiscences about Christ and primitive Christianity was