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Christological analogy

Catholic human being

homini Catholico triuni; Homo Catholicus; Catholicismo Naturæ; Particularismus, est solæcismus

The catholic human being is defined in the opening margin as the person who uses Nature's catholicism in attaining the Philosophers' Stone.

From the book

Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Heinrich Khunrath · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordThe catholic human being is defined in the opening margin as the person who uses Nature's catholicism in attaining the Philosophers' Stone.
  • In KhunrathAt p. 6 the universal triune gift is given to the triune catholic person, derived from the triune hermaphroditic Son of the great World, under a triune regimen and for a triune end.
  • In this editionThe definition is Khunrath's primary marginal prose.
  • A reading distinctionThe human recipient should be distinguished from the non-human macrocosmic microcosm expressly defined at p. 50.

Meaning

The catholic human being is defined in the opening margin as the person who uses Nature's catholicism in attaining the Philosophers' Stone. The phrase names an orientation toward the universal natural work, not simply every human being or membership in a confessional body.

Use in the book

At p. 6 the universal triune gift is given to the triune catholic person, derived from the triune hermaphroditic Son of the great World, under a triune regimen and for a triune end. Human recipient, material source and work are arranged through corresponding qualifications.

The marginal definition makes the personal qualification less obscure. The catholic person makes use of the universality of Nature; a second gloss explicitly calls this person Nature-conforming. The joke that particularism is a solecism then treats a mistaken orientation as an error of philosophical grammar. It is not a prohibition on every legitimate particular operation described later in the book: the later specified Stones still depend upon the universal ground.

The opening immediately directs the gift toward lovers of wisdom and physicians, with God's honour and human welfare at issue. Catholicity therefore qualifies how the recipient understands and uses the gift. It is not an automatically conferred title guaranteeing either recognition or successful preparation.

Places to read

  1. 1599 p. 6The triune catholic person receives the corresponding universal gift.
  2. 1599 p. 6 · marginHomo Catholicus is expressly defined through the use of Nature’s catholicism.
  3. 1599 p. 7The gift is commended to philosophers and physicians for knowledge and welfare.

Translation in this edition

The definition is Khunrath's primary marginal prose. The supplied note expands the solecism joke; its secure point is the deliberate pairing Particularismus and solæcismus.

Source note

The human recipient should be distinguished from the non-human macrocosmic microcosm expressly defined at p. 50.