Pico Syncretism

Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth, our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man. So long as the gods grant him power,

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our like-ness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”(Gen . 1.26)

Thus, it was unsurprising to find that Pope Sixtus IV built a library that still remains as one of the richest repositories holding ancient, medieval documents. This movement of humanism was largely praise because the viewed humanity through a Christian lens as Renaissance humanists strongly believed that men and woman were made in the image and likeness of God. For example, Pico Mirandola represented man as one in possession of great dignity in his essay, ‘On the Dignity of Man’. Further, Renaissance humanism caused individuals to become increasingly self-conscious about their current lifestyles and their realization of human potential. Humanism heavily influenced much of the Renaissance culture, causing people to depend upon intellect its role in humanity breakthroughs.

The question of whether humans are responsible for their actions or if they are under the influence of divine or supernatural power is one that has been debated over for centuries. There are three views that exist: the first is that there is only free will, the second view is that there is only fate, and the third view is that there is room and justification for both possibilities. The themes of fate and free will are very prominent in the book of Genesis and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. In both, the fate of the characters is decided by a higher being, but the way in which they arrive at their destinies is determined by free will and the choices they make, which leads to the demise of the characters.

Much of my understanding of the Renaissance throughout the readings thus far is that the movement has challenged the power of religion to a certain degree. Here with Pico's ideas, he essentially believes that God himself has granted every human being free-will, disregarding their societal class standing (which sounds like a radical idea in the eyes of Medieval nobility and religious

Upside-down prestige isn’t calculated by the height of our rung on the social ladder. In God’s inverted kingdom, greatness is signified by our willingness to serve. Service to others becomes the yardstick of stature in the new kingdom” (pg 229).

     Man's knowledge of good and evil gives us the power to rule the world any way we please. A God or Gods no longer have control. Once Adam, who represents the life of the human race, took a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge man's fate was sealed. This knowledge insured, "Man was born to rule the world" (165).

The new evaluation of the individual’s worth and the new conception of the individual’s relation to nature, which were to become the central motifs of the Renaissance, can be seen graphically in the paintings of artists like Piero della Francesca, Donatello, and Michelangelo. The individuals in their portraits and sculptures were the center of attention and were portrayed realistically, thereby glorifying man. More specifically, Michelangelo’s statue of David portrays man’s power and beauty (David, Spielvogel, 324). Linguists and philosophers also expressed this idolization of man. Pico della Mirandola, author of the “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” wrote that God addressed man saying, “‘Though shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine’” (Mirandola, 411). Therefore, man’s understanding of his potential as an individual led to an increased emphasis on humanism in all aspects of Renaissance society.

A change in man’s view of man during the Renaissance could be seen through art. For example, in Renaissance art, “One begins to […] feel stronger

The lord is the pure ego, as he asserts his independence from the realm of things and objects, which he places under his command. For the ‘lords’ of the world, their

In Genesis 1:28 God says, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” By giving humans dominion, God wanted them to tend to the earth and take care of it—instead of dominating it—in the same way that he tends to humans and takes care of them. This shows that God gave humans authority over other beings for the purpose of nurturing them just as God has authority over humans which he uses for the purpose of nurturing. In this way humans’ authority shows that they are made in the image of

The work of gods shall be imposed (on him), and so they shall be at leisure.

God had put man through a test in naming all of creation, which in addition to revealing to man his freedom, allowed him to become aware of his difference from the rest of creation. He was also not God. Man is conscious that he belongs to the visible world as a body among different bodies, but he was self-consciously in search of his identity and felt alone (another sign of self-knowledge), because he was different from the rest of creation and from God. This indicates man’s original subjectivity.

There was a great deal of emphasis on human creative power during the renaissance period. Humanists of the time like Pico, sought to show how man is great and can reach excellence through his own effort, which was a radical change

Genesis 1:26, God said “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the bird of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animal of the earth, and over every creeps upon the earth.” I think this is the image of human dignity. We can simplify this by saying that we are smarter than other creatures in this earth. In my opinion from a person who doesn’t have any religion, I don’t believe in this. Because I always believe that human has been developing in a long way of evolution, and now I just learnt a new conception which is god created human. It is really interesting but