C. Linnaeus' ideas concerning retribution and fate

Authors

• K. Wikman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67017

Keywords:

Linné, Carl von, 1707-1778, Fate and fatalism -- Religious aspects -- Christianity, Fate and fatalism in literature, Punishment

Abstract

Linnæus' Nemesis divina has been interpreted in different ways. Crucial is its central problem: the ideas of fate and retribution, but these are, in turn, dependent on Linnæus' conception of God and nature and not least on his opinions concerning the unity and coherence of the natural and ethical order of the world. From whatever sources Linnæus may have derived his religious ideas and whatever changes they may have undergone, his religious attitude in face of the works of nature remained unshaken. But Linnæus' religion, as we find it fragmentarily in these literary sources, was entirely undogmatic, untheological and, from a Christian point of view, even heterodox. Partly, this was in accord with his belief in the necessary immanent coherence in the processes of nature and the concomitant idea of the righteous divine order of the world.