ebooks Simon Episcopius’ Doctrine of Original Sin (American University Studies) by Mark A. Ellis in History

Description

The Natural and Moral History of the Indies; the classic work of New World history originally published by José de Acosta in 1590; is now available in the first new English translation to appear in several hundred years. A Spanish Jesuit; Acosta produced this account by drawing on his own observations as a missionary in Peru and Mexico; as well as from the writings of other missionaries; naturalists; and soldiers who explored the region during the sixteenth century. One of the first comprehensive investigations of the New World; Acosta’s study is strikingly broad in scope. He describes the region’s natural resources; flora and fauna; and terrain. He also writes in detail about the Amerindians and their religious and political practices.A significant contribution to Renaissance Europe's thinking about the New World; Acosta's Natural and Moral History of the Indies reveals an effort to incorporate new information into a Christian; Renaissance worldview. He attempted to confirm for his European readers that a "new" continent did indeed exist and that human beings could and did live in equatorial climates. A keen observer and prescient thinker; Acosta hypothesized that Latin America's indigenous peoples migrated to the region from Asia; an idea put forth more than a century before Europeans learned of the Bering Strait. Acosta's work established a hierarchical classification of Amerindian peoples and thus contributed to what today is understood as the colonial difference in Renaissance European thinking.