The Harmony of the World and the Word: The Role of Biblical Interpretation in Kepler's Harmonic Vision

Astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler famously argued for the harmony of the universe, a harmony which he understood in distinctly Copernican terms.  Yet Kepler’s belief in harmony was not limited to the heavens; he strongly linked the cosmic harmony with the harmony of earthly society, and in particular with the harmony of the church.  In the face of the violent confessional discord of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, he put forth a vision of a reunified Christendom, and highlighted the ways in which such unity might be achieved by a reliance on the teachings of natural philosophy.  In this paper, I will consider Kepler’s unique vision of a harmony that linked the heavens and earth, the Book of Nature and the Book of Scripture.   I will focus in particular on the ways that this vision, and Kepler's far-reaching goals for churchly harmony, affected his approach to the specifics of biblical interpretation.  I argue that Kepler deployed the exegetical principle of accommodation very broadly, relating it not merely to the interpretation of the Bible but also to the realms of astrology and theology.  As with the words of Scripture, so too with the heavenly bodies and the churchly sacraments, Kepler argued, God “speaks to [different people] in their principles, and according to their understanding.”