Writing with Earth’s Elements: Part II – The Fire of Treatise

Da Vinci's Inconceivable

The heat of fire is energy, the spark of fire is ignition and the flame of fire is transformation. Words are capable of all of these things; of energizing cultural movements, of igniting revolutions and of transforming societal structures. And treatise is often the vehicle for these kinds of words.

The Renaissance was a cultural movement responsible for massive changes in the arts, sciences and philosophies of the 15th and 16th centuries. Concepts such as diplomacy and inductive reasoning had their birth during the Renaissance. Practical tools – accounting, the printing press and others came into being in that time period. And geniuses such as Galileo, called the “father of modern science,” and Da Vinci who conceived of the inconceivable, such as plate tectonics theory and many other inventive concepts, brought astounding new thought into the arena of public discourse.

The energy that gave sustenance to this movement came, in large part, through a treatise known by some as the “Manifesto of the Italian Renaissance,” the “Oration on the Dignity of Man,” written by Pico Della Mirandola. Mirandola’s treatise focused on human potential and the quest for knowledge. As these concepts were steeped in the culture they became the fuel for the massive cultural movement of the Renaissance, the currents of which are still with us.

The Declaration of Independence is the treatise that sparked a revolution and that brought our country to birth.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…

…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…

…these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States…

These words of reasoning are animated by passion. They were born in a crucible of suffering. After more than a year of war with Great Britain, and after numerous unsuccessful efforts to secure fundamental rights, a fire had been sparked.

In the 1950’s and 60’s the unrelenting narratives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were like a flame, beginning the transformation of the societal structures in our country and particularly in the Southern States. Those narratives, in large part, are embodied in “The Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” It is summarized in the article of the same name in Wikipedia in this way: “Altogether, King’s letter was a powerful defense of the motivations, tactics, and goals of the Birmingham campaign and the Civil Rights Movement more generally.”

These are the words, this is the treatise, that brought transformation.

A treatise is a place where the strange bedfellows of passion and logic come together to create the things of dreams. England’s Magna Carta, Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, Gandhi’s own life which was a treatise in itself and his words, Nelson Mandela’s “I Am Prepared to Die” speech, all of these words and others like them are reason on fire.

Where do reason and passion come together for you?

Writing Prompt for the Week: Reason on Fire