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No, the challenge to the
traditional sacred geography came not from Columbus, but from the northernmost
diocese of Poland, where a visionary canon conceived of an entirely different
blueprint for the cosmos. Yet, the
discoveries of Columbus helped set the stage for the coming Copernican
revolution, for, at the end of the 15th century, the ancient Alexandrian,
Claudius Ptolemy, was probably better known as a geographer than as an
astronomer. The discovery of America
not only shook traditional theology because the New World was populated with
beings who had never heard of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the
Resurrection, but it also filled the map with lands never dreamt of by
Ptolemy. If Ptolemy as
geographer-cosmographer could be challenged, what about Ptolemy as
astronomer-cosmologer?
It’s necessary to be quite
clear that the Copernican revolution was of an entirely different type from the
Columbian discoveries. It was not a
matter of Copernicus using his eyes and with fresh observations showing the
universe was arranged in a way other than his predecessors had believed, for in
his day there was no observation that could distinguish between a geocentric
and a heliocentric universe. And, as
Galileo later said, he could not admire enough those who accepted the
heliocentric doctrine despite the
observations of their senses. Why, in
fact, did Copernicus choose to defend such an unorthodox arrangement?
Contributed by: Dr. Owen Gingerich
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