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403, 410–11. , 407–08. , 427. 95 When Marolles discussed book V of De rerum natura, Lucretius’s theoretical and substantive assault upon the idea of providence, he responded with a mixture of avowed confusion about certain meanings, of explications of what he thought clear in Lucretius, and of recourse to Christian faith as that which answered the most troubling Epicurean questions. ”97 He almost made it seem as if it were only revelation and grace that established this foundation of Christian theism.

Rather than act from fear in inquiries into the reasons of the gods, we could gain natural explanations of climate, volcanoes, and diseases. 77 However heterodox such a text might appear to Christian readers – and recall that it was above all the self-confidence and learned curiosity of those readers which created the publication of and audience for Lucretius in early-modern France – all of its ideas, formulations, and arguments were a widely disseminated part of their intellectual inheritance and a common point of reference within their classical knowledge.

Reading Epicurus 35 inquiries,” but the Christian had a faith beyond philosophical assault. In the context of their times, of pagan polytheism, Epicurus and Lucretius could be thoroughly excused for having contested the power of and governance of world by such false gods. ” The Christian did not expect the world to make philosophical sense, knowing that since the Fall, we were in “a perpetual uncertainty” unless, as Saint Augustine observed, we make “divine authority” and “holy tradition” our rule.