Bruno’s Anthropology
Even though humanity and divinity are identical there still remains an overall epistemological lack on the part of humanity. Bruno saw this as due, at least in part, to the negative teachings of the medieval scholastics who put an insurmountable chasm between God (infinity) and humanity (finitude). There was a sort of Dark Age when the wisdom of the Egyptians, the Neo-Platonists, and the Hermetics was lost in time; yet it was with the ushering in of the Age of Science and the radical advances in astronomy that the golden age would be brought back, and Bruno was its spokesman. To Bruno, humans were to become super-humans through their ability to scientifically extract the meaning from the book of nature. Bruno was very fond of Copernicus, even to the point of attributing to his messianic descriptions; for instance, Bruno refers to Copernicus as having a "divinely ordained appearance" which was to "precede the full sunrise of the ancient and true philosophy after its age long burial in the dark caverns of blind and envious ignorance." Bruno thought of Copernicus as a John the Baptist character that would usher in the great day of awakening, when humanity became God by utilizing their full scientific and magical power. Blossom Feinstein compares Bruno’s anthropology to "Alberti, Goethe, Wordsworth, Nietzsche, G.M. Hopkins, [and] D.H. Lawrence" because it emphasizes "the connectedness of God and man." This ‘connectedness’ is where Bruno and other Renaissance magicians parted ways with orthodox Christianity by identifying God with the cosmos and the cosmos with humanity, and thus humanity with God.
Bruno’s Overarching Goal
Giordano Bruno thought of himself as the new embodiment of the ancient Egyptian sages who followed the line of Hermes. Bruno felt that he was the prototype of the new triumphant man, who, with Copernican astronomy in one hand, and hermetic knowledge in the other, dove into the hidden knowledge of the universe. Bruno, who by our standards might be considered egotistical, spoke of himself as the one who has "given eyes to blind moles, and illuminated those who could not see their own image…he has loosened the mute tongues…he has strengthened the crippled limbs." Bruno felt that he had arrived at the knowledge of the universe which elevates humanity into divinity; Frances Yates, one of the foremost scholars on Bruno, describes his self discovery:
[blockquote]Thus it is as man the great miracle, knowing himself to be of divine origin, that Bruno soars into the infinite to grasp and draw into himself the newly revealed reflection of infinite divinity in a vastly expanding universe. [/blockquote]
Thus the overarching goal of Bruno was that humankind would, by understanding the nature and workings of the universe, realize their own divinity and rise above the restricting medieval rankings of God first, humanity second, and the cosmos third. This agenda clearly harkens back to Hermes proclaiming that the greatest knowledge is to “be made god.” How Bruno attempts to achieve this goal of illuminating humanity is by reminding them of God and their relationship to him.
Bruno’s View of Knowledge
It is clear upon analyzing the thought of Bruno that he derives some of his theology and anthropology from the Hermetica. His views on knowledge could be said to do the same thing. For Bruno, knowledge is not some distant objective data to which we must mentally assent to, rather, it is that which, when understood correctly, yields incredible amounts of power and progress. Humanity was not to simply be an epistemic on-looker, but to engage with the cosmos by diving into its rich and buried treasures, looking for profit. Bruno thus finds himself as the ideal Renaissance man, who views the world as alive and open to discovery, humanity as the agent which must lay hold of cosmological knowledge, and God as that connecting force which binds us to nature and to himself. Here is where Bruno engages with the Hermetic telos; humanity was to "contemplate heaven…the works of god and the working of nature…to know divine power" and if any maxim could be put forth which best describes Bruno’s program it would be this.
