Self-Knowledge During The Renaissance

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Humans have the rather unfortunate fate of having to spend their entire lives with a stranger: themselves. The concept of the self has often been described in terms of the other, as if it were some vague, distant, and incomprehensible thing. Humans must go and find it, as though it could have wandered off at some point, or they must come to understand it, despite the fact that it is their very essence. The question of self-knowledge influenced many of the works created during the Renaissance, particularly in relation to the writings of Saint Augustine and John Calvin. Working out of the mindset, in Book I of The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser explores the interplay between self-knowledge and the knowledge of God in the Christian life, and how …show more content…

In “The Knowledge of God the Creator,” the opening chapter of Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin posits that “nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves” (35). It is impossible to pursue one without the other: just as knowledge of God is necessary for understanding the self, “without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God” (Calvin 35). Similarly, a gain or loss to one of these forms of knowledge will inevitably lead to an equal change in the other. If one has an inaccurate view of the self, then that person’s view of God will likely be comparably inaccurate, and vice versa. It is from this understanding that Spenser created The Faerie …show more content…

Calvin argues that Christians cannot be truly pious--that is, they cannot possess the virtue of holiness--until they have a proper understanding of God (42). Piety, like holiness, is dependent upon the object of its devotion. If Christians do not have an appropriate knowledge of God, their efforts are no longer showing devotion to him, but rather to a god of their own making. As Calvin says, “the pious mind does not dream up for itself any god it pleases, but contemplates the one and only true God” (42). For the Redcrosse Knight to grow in the virtue of holiness, he must therefore grow in his knowledge of

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