beyond the particularity of language and culture, the wisdom of universal
ideas and thus has an inherently global, transcultural dimension.
In typical humanist fashion, Miłosz also acknowledges the importance of
our human ability to mediate past and present. Our reasoning enables us
creatively to appropriate the past, opening its‘congealedfist’, and thereby
allowing well-known things to appear in a new light, permitting the past
meaningfully to shape the present. Along with the Renaissance humanist
poets we discussed in our lecture, Miłosz believes that poetry is the most
important ally of reason in the service of pursuing the good, the true, and the
beautiful. Contrary to our contemporary cultural spirit, Miłosz thus extols the
friendship of reason and the imagination in their common service of the good.
We should heed Miłosz’s admonition and re-envision this Christian humanist
legacy for our day.
Christian Humanism’s Legacy in Renaissance Poetry 193