Theological Origins of Modernity

humanism and the apotheosis of man 85
Th is vision was further spelled out in his Th e Christian Religion (1474), the
fi rst work ever published on the topic, and in his Platonic Th eology or the
Immortality of Souls (1482), which brought together the pagan and Christian
strands of his thought. 55
Ficino’s views of religion were expansive. Indeed, he was convinced
that while Christianity was best, there were many diff erent forms of legitimate
religious belief and practice: “Divine providence does not permit any
part of the world at any time to be completely without religion, although
it does allow rites to diff er. . . . God prefers to be worshipped in any manner,
however unwittingly . . . than not to be worshipped at all through
pride.” 56 While Ficino’s Christianity is thus obviously infl uenced by Neoplatonic,
Gnostic, and Hermetic sources, it is not anti-Christian. Central
to his thought and to the Christian humanist enterprise generally was the
notion that nature is a form of grace. 57 Th is idea is so important because
it provides a foundation for the reconciliation of divine and human will.
If nature is ordered by God so that humans naturally are attracted to the
good, then humans can freely exercise their wills in a manner that is harmonious
with divine will. Th e impediment to such a notion within the
Christian tradition is, of course, original sin. Th e eff ects of original sin,
however, are debatable, and humanists generally argued that it produced
only a darkening of our reason that was not insuperable even before the
redemption and that was even more easily transcended in its aft ermath.
While this was contrary in many respects to offi cial church doctrine, it was
not un-Christian in its intentions.
While Neoplatonism in this way provided a means of harmonizing humanist
individualism with divine omnipotence, it came very near to Pelagianism
in doing so, and in some instances clearly stepped over the line.
Th is was certainly true in the case of Ficino’s student, Giovanni Pico de la
Mirandola (1463–94), who pushed the humanist project to its limits and
carried it in many respects beyond where Christianity could go.
Pico was originally trained in the scholastic tradition. He also studied
with the Jewish Averroist Elea del Medigo, and learned Hebrew and Arabic
in Perugia, aft er developing a deep interest in the Kabbalah. 58 Th rough
Ficino he came in contact with many other non-Christian sources and like
him used them in his eff orts to shape a Christianity that could accommodate
the spirituality he believed was essential to human thriving. Building
on Ficino’s arguments in Th e Christian Religion, Pico asserted in his Oration
on the Dignity of Man (1486), that humans were self-creating beings
who could choose their own nature. Th is power for Pico is not intrinsic
to human beings but is a divine gift . Human will and freedom are not a
consequence of the fact that man is the highest of the creatures but a result