''Theologia Poetica'' ("poetic theology") was a designation adopted throughout the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

for

political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

independent of Biblical revelation. In Italy, discussions on "poetic theology" were articulated most notably by

Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was some ...

and

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

, both of whom promoted a philosophical life capable of withstanding the inquisitorial scrutiny of theological orthodoxy. The Italian appeal to poetic theology finds its historical consummation in the works of

Giambattista Vico Giambattista Vico (born Giovan Battista Vico ; ; 23 June 1668 – 23 January 1744) was an Italian philosopher, rhetorician, historian, and jurist during the Italian Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of modern rationali ...

, and most notably in his Scienza Nuova (1730 and 1744), where the political philosopher highlights the independence of pre-philosophical poetic theologians ("authors of gentile nations") from Biblical revelation, and thus too, Christianity's sacred history. Vico argues at length that the "authors" (''autori'') of civil society preceded by far its "writers" (''scrittori''), so that a problematic hiatus separates the two, as it does things and the records we have of them in words. Vico's enterprise consists of discovering the inherence of order in things—and of "right in human nature"—lest order and right be conceived as merely imposed upon things by "writers" according to their whims (''a placito''), as is the case with all dogmatic theology, but also—so argues Vico already in his ''De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia''—with modern "science," insofar as it identifies what is true with what is "most certain" (''certissima''). While Vico's references to "poet theologians" (''poeti teologi'') point overtly to pre-philosophical authorities, Vico presents himself, if only tacitly or obliquely, as a poet theologian in his own right. In this respect, as Paolo Cristofolini has shown, Vico recognizes himself as a "new Dante," or a poet theologian who is at once a philosopher. Vico's own ''Scienza Nuova'' presents itself—most notably in the first and last paragraphs of the work—as discovering the providence of a "metaphysical" human mind in the world of human wills (''animi umani''). If our own intellect (''intelligenza'') is at work in us prior to our recognizing it (indeed even when we live as brutes), philosophy too must "covertly" precede sensory experience as the hidden author of our world (hence Vico's dictum, included in his ''De Antiquissima Italorum Sapientia'', Ch. VII.3, to the effect that just as God is the artifex of nature, so is man the God of artifices: ''ut Deus sit naturae artifex, homo artificiorum Deus'').Marco Andreacchio. 2013.
Autobiography as History of Ideas: an Intimate Reading of Vico's ''Vita'' (from «Lord Vico» to «The Names of Law»)
" in ''Historia Philosophica: An International Journal'', Vol. 11.

References

{{Reflist

External resources

www.theologiapoetica.webs.com
Enlightenment philosophy Renaissance philosophy Political philosophy