Western Civilization I / Unit 17 WC1 1622 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Ptolemy's Spheres: Why Geocentrism Fit Christian Theology
Captions available
The idea
Ptolemy and Aristotle set the earth at the center inside crystal spheres, the anchor's nearly eighty in Ptolemy's version. The earth was imperfect and changing, the heavens perfect, so God sat beyond the last sphere and hell below: geocentrism fit theology.
In practice
Planets' irregular paths forced ever more elaborate fixes.
Where people slip
Heaven up and hell down come from this model, the anchor says.
Your place on the trail
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