The Voices of God
the comets of the 17th century and the parenetics of the New World
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53727/rbhc.v18i1.1133Keywords:
comets, sermons, jesuits and puritans, parenetics of the New WorldAbstract
The observations of the numerous comets of the 17th century were very important in the development of modern astronomy. The use of this phenomenon by preachers in their sermons clearly reveals the religious's confessional choices and the meaning of celestial events for the population. At the end of the century, António Vieira, a Jesuit in Salvador, and Increase Mather, a Puritan in Boston, composed vigorous sermons about the passage of comets through the skies. Both called them “the voice of God” and a direct comparison between the two sermons reveals quite different meanings in their preaching.
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