Augustine Eriugena
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Augustine Eriugena, also known as Augustinus Hibernicus, was an Irish writer and philosopher (noted especially for his natural philosophy), fl. 655.
Augustine was born in Ireland sometime in the first half of the seventh century, as envinced by his nickname, Eriugena (Irish-born). Around the year 655 he wrote a treatise called "De Mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae." It has long been regarded as an exceptional work, in that it demonstrates a strictly scientific approach in the matter of making direct observations of nature and subjecting them to a strictly logical interpretation.
His treatise seeks to explain each miracle in the Scriptures as an extreme case of phenomena, yet still within the laws of nature. Augustine also gives a list of the terrestrial mammals of Ireland, and solves the problem of how they reached Eire after the flood of Noah by proposing a solution - hundreds of years ahead of its time - that the island had been cut off from continental Europe by marine erosion.
[edit] Source
- "The Encyclopaedia of Ireland", 2003; ISBN 0-7171-3000-2.
[edit] External link
- Damian Bracken, "Rationalism and the Bible in seventh-century Ireland", Chronicon, 2 (1998), <http://www.ucc.ie/chronicon/bracfra.htm>