A book on the uses of the biblical story of Josiah would make a fascinating cultural history.
The Reformers found inspiration for iconoclasm in Josiah.
Bacon described his program as “instauration,” borrowing the Vulgate’s term for the renovation of the temple.
Or, more broadly, the role of Solomon’s Temple in the Western imagination.
Whitney remarks of Bacon’s “instauration”: “Augustine and Calvin as well as Bacon refer to it, and many Renaissance writers, including Bude, Rabelais, and such English divines as Walter Travers (whom Bacon heard preach) use instauratio or its French cognate ( instauration ) with awareness of its figural sense to mean something like ‘restoration to a completeness of meaning or nature.’” To what extent Josiah or Solomon are behind these references is unclear.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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