Solemn Dissertation on the Philosophy of Silence

by covering their heads with their arms, with bodies exposed, they stand amidst the greatest discomforts of cold and heat, and maintain a profound silence. Such an unorganized state is of no use among men, nor can it be pleasing to GOD, who did not bring man into the world for the sake of idling, or for depriving the members given to the body of their proper functions, but for the sake of mutual assistance and action. Furthermore, such great affliction of the body, even if it is accompanied by sacred silence, disturbs the mind because of the perpetual interaction between them, which is revealed day by day whether from the actions or the passions of the body. Finally, it is sustained beyond human measure; it is not fitting for one to rage against one’s own body, and when given the opportunity to speak, to be more mute than a fish. Compare §. I.

With this silence rejected in the Gymnosophists, I do not immediately approve with my own vote the silence accepted among the Arabs, who receive the Alcoranum Koran without dispute; and opposed to them is the sect of speakers, who subject the Alcoranum Koran of Mohammedis Mohammed and his traditions to their own debates, and do not blush to argue for contradiction. This is so hateful that it is pronounced against it: Whoever devotes effort to this science, namely of extracting contradictions from the Alcoranum Koran, shall be fixed to a stake and carried around through the tribes of the Arabs, while a herald proclaims before him: This is the reward of him who, having abandoned the Alcoranum Koran and tradition, has applied himself to this science of contradicting, as the most expert writer on Arab affairs, Eduardus Pockockius Edward Pococke in History of the Arabs p. 197, is witness. But it is for theologians to examine these things more fully; it concerns me only to weigh those things which approach more closely to a Philosophia Philosophy which is a Theologia silentii Theology of silence. With this intention, I also pass over the fact that Gregorius Nazianzenus Gregory of Nazianzus in Oration III against Julian the Emperor, dared to defend the Christian faith from the Pythagorean philosophy of silence.