All are welcome to attend this talk in the BGU Associate Award series. Programme Leader for Theology Dr Jack Cunningham will be talking about Robert Grosseteste and the ‘Soul of the World’.

Dr Jack Cunningham

Wednesday 23^rd October, 2019, 1.00-2.00pm

Hardy Teaching Room 1

Robert Grosseteste and the Anima Mundi

In a tract called De sphaera Grosseteste make a succinct, but nonetheless daring, assertion concerning the source of cosmic motion when he states, ‘Upon these two poles (of the World), as we have said, the heavens revolve with all the stars and planets, which are in this same continuously equal and uniform motion once per day and night, and the efficient cause of which movement is the world soul.’ The Anima Mundi or Soul of the World was an idea found in the writings of Plato. It enjoyed a revival in the Middle-Ages were it was associated with the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. This talk will explore the life, death and resurrection of the idea of a world soul in the writings of Grosseteste and other medieval philosophers.