Editing Religio Medici

{{short description|1643 psychological self-portrait by Sir Thomas Browne}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
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[[File:Houghton EC65 B8185R 1642 - Religio Medici.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Frontispiece of the 1642 unauthorised edition of ''Religio Medici''.]]
'''''Religio Medici''''' ('''''The Religion of a Doctor''''') by [[Sir Thomas Browne]] is a spiritual testament and early psychological self-portrait. Browne mulls over the relation between his medical profession and his Christian faith. Published in 1643 after an unauthorised version was distributed the previous year, it became a European best-seller which brought its author fame at home and abroad. It likely contains the first known English language reference to Zoroastrianism. It was translated into Latin, French, German, Dutch and Italian and was reprinted about eight times during the author's life-time. It speaks on the themes of the religion of a doctor arguing that doctors are not atheists and that religion is not incompatible with science.<ref>{{Citation |last=Browne |first=Sir Thomas |title=Religio Medici |date=1642-01-01 |work=Sir Thomas Browne: Religio Medici and Other Works |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00032626 |access-date=2025-01-30 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

== Themes ==

=== Religion ===
Structured upon the [[Seven virtues|Christian virtues]] of Faith and Hope (part 1) and Charity (part 2), Browne expresses his beliefs in the doctrine of ''[[sola fide]]'', the [[Hell|existence of hell]], the ''[[Last Judgment]]'', the [[resurrection]] and other tenets of Christianity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Religio Medici |url=https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/july2002.html |access-date=2024-12-05 |website=www.gla.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Religio medici of Sir Thomas Browne {{!}} RCP Museum |url=https://history.rcp.ac.uk/blog/religio-medici-sir-thomas-browne |access-date=2024-12-05 |website=history.rcp.ac.uk}}</ref>

=== Science and religion ===
Throughout ''Religio Medici'' Browne uses scientific imagery to illustrate religious truths as part of his discussion on the relationship of science to religion.{{sfn|Grell|Cunningham|1996}}<ref>{{cite book|last1=Thomson|first1=Ann|title=Bodies of Thought: Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment|date=2008|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=9780199236190|page=66}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Preston|first1=Claire|title=Thomas Browne and the Writing of Early Modern Science|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521837941|url=https://archive.org/details/thomasbrownewrit0000pres|url-access=registration}}</ref>

==Reception and influence==
A rare surviving contemporary review by [[Guy Patin]], a distinguished member of the Parisian medical faculty, indicates the considerable impact ''Religio Medici'' had upon the intelligentsia abroad: {{blockquote|A new little volume has arrived from Holland entitled ''Religio Medici'' written by an Englishman and translated into Latin by some Dutchman. It is a strange and pleasant book, but very delicate and wholly mystical; the author is not lacking in wit and you will see in him quaint and delightful thoughts. There are hardly any books of this sort. If scholars were permitted to write freely we would learn many novel things, never has there been a newspaper to this; in this way the subtlety of the human spirit could be revealed.{{sfn|Patin|Spon|1718}}}}

Throughout the seventeenth century ''Religio Medici'' spawned numerous imitative titles, including John Dryden's great poem, [[Religio Laici]], but none matched the frank, intimate tone of the original in which Browne shares his thoughts, as well as the idiosyncrasies of his personality with his reader.

[[Samuel Pepys]] in his Diary transcribed [[William Petty]]'s opinion that the ''Religio'' was "cried up to the whole world for its wit and learning" but "the wit lie in confirming some pretty sayings, which are generally like paradoxes, by some argument smartly and pleasantly argued"''.'' <ref>{{Cite book |last=Pepys |first=Samuel |title=The Diary of Samuel Pepys |publisher=University of California Press |year=1664 |isbn=978-0-00-499025-5 |editor-last=Latham |editor-first=Robert |edition=Reissued |location=Berkeley |publication-date=2000 |pages=27}}</ref>

A translation into German of the ''Religio'' was made in 1746 and an early admirer of Browne's spiritual testament was Goethe's one-time associate [[Lavater]].

In the early nineteenth century ''Religio Medici'' was "re-discovered" by the English Romantics. [[Charles Lamb (writer)|Charles Lamb]] introduced it to [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]], who after reading it, exclaimed,-

''O to write a character of this man!''

[[Thomas de Quincey]] in his ''[[Confessions of an English Opium-Eater]]'' also praised it, stating:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Quincey|first1=Thomas De|title=Confessions of an English Opium-eater|date=1823|publisher=Taylor and Hessey|page=[https://archive.org/details/confessionsofen00dequ/page/106 106]|edition=3rd|url=https://archive.org/details/confessionsofen00dequ|quote=  do not recollect more than one thing said adequately.}}</ref> {{blockquote|I do not recollect more than one thing said adequately on the subject of music in all literature. It is a passage in ''Religio Medici'' of Sir T. Browne, and though chiefly remarkable for its sublimity, has also a philosophical value, inasmuch as it points to the true theory of musical effects.}}

The book strongly influenced the prominent physician [[William Osler]] in his early years. Osler, who is considered the "father of modern medicine", is said to have learned it by heart.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bliss|first1=Michael|title=William Osler: A Life in Medicine|date=2002|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=9780802085412|pages=45–46|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVowR-OvoHAC&pg=PA45}}</ref>

In [[Virginia Woolf]]'s opinion ''Religio Medici'' paved the way for all future confessionals, private memoirs and personal writings.

In the twentieth century, the Swiss psychologist [[Carl Jung]] used the term ''Religio Medici'' several times in his writings.<ref>Collected Works Volume 10 : 727   Collected Works Volume 13:161, Collected Works 18:1465</ref>

==Literary allusions==
[[Dorothy L. Sayers]] in her novel ''[[Gaudy Night]]'' has Harriet Vane discover that Peter Wimsey is reading ''Religio Medici''. It helps her better understand his character and motivations.

[[Patricia Highsmith]]'s novel ''[[Strangers on a Train (novel)|Strangers on a Train]]'' references a [[Morocco leather|Morocco]]-bound copy of the work, and Guy reflects on his favorite passages.

In ''[[Excellent Women]]'' by [[Barbara Pym]], the sad, spinsterish church-lady Mildred Lathbury has a copy on her bedside table.

[[Carl Sagan]] in his novel ''[[Contact_(novel)]]'': there is an epigraph taken from ''Religio'' I, 8 at the start of Chapter 7: "The Ethanol in W-3."  "That heresies should arise..." seems to allude to the creation of millenarian sects that arise after hearing a message from space.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |last1=Grell |first1=Ole Peter |last2=Cunningham |first2=Andrew |title=Religio Medici: Medicine and Religion in Seventeenth-century England |date=1996 |publisher=Scolar Press |isbn=9781859283394}}
* {{cite book |last1=Patin |first1=Gui |last2=Spon |first2=Charles |title=Nouvelles lettres de feu Mr. Gui Patin, tirées du cabinet de Mr. Charles Spon, contenant l'histoire du tems, et des particularitez sur la vie et sur les ecrits des savans de son siécle |date=1718 |publisher=chez Steenhouwer et Uytwerf |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NiHoX-g_f_EC |language=fr}}

==External links==
*[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/ ''Text of Religio Medici''] (1643 edition, 1645 edition)
*[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692370/ A ''Religio Medici'' bibliography (1905)]
* {{librivox book | title=Religio Medici| author=Browne}}

[[Category:1643 books]]
[[Category:Ethics books]]
[[Category:British non-fiction literature]]
[[Category:Works by Thomas Browne]]
[[Category:Books about Christianity]]
[[Category:Religious philosophical literature]]