Human paradoxes and their resolution in “De Transitu Hellenismi ad Christianismum” by Guillaume Budé

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to place Guillaume Budé’s De Transitu Hellenismi ad Christianismum in relation to a paradox, a typical phenomenon in Renaissance culture. There are two different types of paradox: a rhetorical one, which is just an amusing intellectual play, and an existential one, which points at the contradictions of human condition. Budé is interested in the latter. In his work he deals with a paradoxical situation of the Christianity in 16th century France: a divergence between the knowledge of the Christian doctrine and its presence in the everyday life. This state is due to the influence exercised on the human soul by “the world” which weakens the faith. Budé points out that everyone can understand this by oneself on condition that one reflects on this problem in one’s mind. The mental activity lets a man resolve his nature’s paradoxes.