Sociopoétique d’une catastrophe à venir : John Ray et la Dissolution du Monde

In his Three Physico-Theological Discourses (1693), John Ray (1627-1705) gives accounts of various occurrences of historical disasters, and questions their causes and consequences in order to anticipate the final catastrophe: the Dissolution of the world. As disasters are seen as divine punishments and man is considered as an intermediary between God and nature, Ray insists on mankind’s power over the world’s order. Through vice, mankind is capable of influencing the Earth’s history, demanding that God acts directly through natural disasters. As he tries to anticipate the biblically announced Dissolution, Ray aims at determining the path mankind should follow; using various examples from the Bible, natural history or accounts of more or less distant disasters, he highlights elements capable of reaching his community, to urge them to act. Sharing “sociopoetic” representations of disasters of various intensities then turns into a “socio-political” move.