Christianity’s Content: (Neo)Platonism in the Middle Ages, Its Theoretical and Theological Appeal

Numen ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 245-270
Author(s):  
Willemien Otten
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Meister Eckhart ◽  
Marguerite Porete ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
Book Of Genesis ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius

The development of medieval Christian thought reveals from its inception in foundational authors like Augustine and Boethius an inherent engagement with Neoplatonism. To their influence that of Pseudo-Dionysius was soon added, as the first speculative medieval author, the Carolingian thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena (810–877ce), used all three seminal authors in his magisterial demonstration of the workings of procession and return. Rather than a stable ongoing trajectory, however, the development of medieval Christian (Neo)Platonism saw moments of flourishing alternate with moments of philosophical stagnation. The revival of theTimaeusand Platonic cosmogony in the twelfth century marks the achievement of the so-called Chartrian authors, even as theTimaeusnever acquired the authority of the biblical book of Genesis. Despite the dominance of scholastic and Aristotelian discourse in the thirteenth century, (Neo)Platonism continued to play an enduring role. The Franciscan Bonaventure follows the Victorine tradition in combining Augustinian and Dionysian themes, but Platonic influence underlies the pattern of procession and return — reflective of the Christian arc of creation and salvation — that frames the thought of Thomas Aquinas. Echoing the interrelation of macro- and microcosmos, the major themes of medieval Christian Platonic thought are, on the one hand, cosmos and creation and, on the other, soul and self. The Dominican friar Meister Eckhart and the beguine Marguerite Porete, finally, both Platonically inspired late-medieval Christian authors keen on accomplishing the return, whether the aim is to bring out its deep, abyss-like “ground” (Eckhart) or to give up reason altogether and surrender to the free state of “living without a why” (Marguerite), reveal the intellectual audacity involved in upending traditional theological modes of discourse.

Pastoral Power and Algorithmic Governmentality

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Pastoral Power ◽  
Christian Thought ◽  
The One

This paper contributes to inquiries into the genealogy of governmentality and the nature of secularization by arguing that pastoralism continues to operate in the algorithmic register. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of signature, I elucidate a pair of historically distant yet archaeologically proximate affinities: the first between the pastorate and algorithmic control, and the second between the absconded God of late medieval nominalism and the authority of algorithms in the cybernetic age. I support my hypothesis by attending to the signaturial kinships between, on the one hand, temporality and authority in our contemporary conjuncture, and, on the other, obedience and submission in Christian thought from late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. I thereby illustrate the hidden genealogical continuities between theological-pastoral technologies of power and technocratic-algorithmic modalities of governance. I conclude by suggesting that medieval counter-conducts may be redeployed in our present circumstances for emancipatory ends.

Claire Taylor Jones, Ruling the Spirit: Women, Liturgy, and Dominican Reform in Late Medieval Germany. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018, pp. viii, 224.

Mediaevistik ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 432-432
Author(s):  
Albrecht Classen
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
University Of Pennsylvania ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Germany ◽  
The One ◽  
Late Medieval Germany ◽  
Careful Assessment

The interaction between mystically inspired beguines and nuns on the one hand and the friars as their confessors, on the other, that is, the male authorities in the late Middle Ages, certainly requires careful assessment because many different factors come into play here. In her monograph, Claire Taylor Jones pursues a host of different aspects pertaining to this complex issue in order to gain a grasp of those female writers particularly in the female Dominican monasteries in the Southwest of Germany and their male colleagues, or spiritual confessors, especially Heinrich Seuse and Johannes Tauler. She draws heavily from the Nuremberg Dominican convent of St. Katherine’s library (15th century), but this actually depends on the various chapters included here. It becomes very clear, however, that the notion of women’s lack of Latin needs to be reviewed carefully considering that that library contained ca. 726 manuscripts, of which 161 were in Latin.

scholarly journals Warunki doświadczenia mistycznego według Pseudo-Dionizego Areopagity. Ujęcie filozoficzne

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
MACIEJ MANIKOWSKI
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Principle ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Union With God ◽  
The One ◽  
Pseudo Dionysius ◽  
The Middle Ages

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagita is one of the most interesting theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages. He was, probably, a Christian neoplatonist, a Syrian monk, who lived and worked in a circle of the latest neoplatonist school, e.g. Proclus and/or Damascius. He was called the Father of Christian apophatic mystics. His concept of mystical experience shows two fundamental aspects. Pseudo-Dionysius points (and this is traditional to mystical experience), that this kind of experience starts from the purifi cation, and through the illumination, culminates in union with the First Principle. The mystical experience, in Pseudo-Dionysius also compatible with contemplation, is – on the one hand – triple movement of the soul (the straight, the circle, and the spiral) and – on the other hand – is the deifi cation of man, the union with God in His Energies, but not in His Essence. The deifi cation is the transformation of the human nature – he is still a human, a creation, but is transformed like – in patristic tradition – God became the man, so the man can become God, but only in deifi cation.

Bastard Feudalism and the Framing of Thirteenth-Century England

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Coss
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Great Work ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

In the introduction to his great work of 2005, Framing the Early Middle Ages, Chris Wickham urged not only the necessity of carefully framing our studies at the outset but also the importance of closely defining the words and concepts that we employ, the avoidance ‘cultural sollipsism’ wherever possible and the need to pay particular attention to continuities and discontinuities. Chris has, of course, followed these precepts on a vast scale. My aim in this chapter is a modest one. I aim to review the framing of thirteenth-century England in terms of two only of Chris’s themes: the aristocracy and the state—and even then primarily in terms of the relationship between the two. By the thirteenth century I mean a long thirteenth century stretching from the period of the Angevin reforms of the later twelfth century on the one hand to the early to mid-fourteenth on the other; the reasons for taking this span will, I hope, become clearer during the course of the chapter, but few would doubt that it has a validity.

Aristotle's Unmoved Movers

Traditio ◽  
1946 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Merlan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
World Picture ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Concentric Spheres ◽  
The One ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Middle Ages

According to Aristotle all heavenly movement is ultimately due to the activity of forty-seven (or fifty-five) ‘unmoved movers'. This doctrine is highly remarkable in itself and has exercised an enormous historical influence. It forms part of a world-picture the outlines of which are as follows. The universe consists of concentric spheres, revolving in circles. The outermost of these bears the fixed stars. The other either bear planets or, insofar as they do not, contribute indirectly to the movements of the latter. Each sphere is moved by the one immediately surrounding it, but also possesses a movement of its own, due to its mover, an unmoved, incorporeal being. (It was these beings which the schoolmen designated as theintelligentiae separatae.) The seemingly irregular movements of the planets are thus viewed as resulting from the combination of regular circular revolutions. The earth does not move and occupies the centre of the universe. Such was Aristotle's astronomic system, essential parts of which were almost universally adopted by the Arabic, Jewish, and Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages.

scholarly journals On the Possibilities of Researching the Marriage Policies of the Rurikids: The Case of Mstislav Fyodor Vladimirovich Monomakhovich

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 91-110
Author(s):  
Dariusz Dąbrowski
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Source Material ◽  
The Other ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Basic Question ◽  
The Political ◽  
Know How ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The main goal of the article is to present the possibilities and methods of research on the Rurikid’s matrimonial policy in the Middle Ages on the example of a selected group of princes. As the subject of studies were chosen Mstislav Vladimirovich and his children. In total, 12 matrimonial relationships were included. The analysis of the source material revealed very unfavorable phenomena from the perspective of the topic under study. The Rus’ primary sources gave information on the conclusion of just four marriages out of twelve. The next four matrimonial arrangement inform foreign sources (Scandinavian and Norman). It should be emphasized particularly strongly that – save for two exceptions of Scandinavian provenance – the sources convey no information whatsoever as regards the political aims behind this or that marriage agreement. It appears, then, that the chroniclers of the period and cultural sphere in question did not regard details concerning marriages (such as their circumstances or the reasons behind them) as “information notable enough to be worth preserving”. Truth be told, even the very fact of the marriage did not always belong to this category. Due to the state of preservation of primary sources the basic question arises as to whether it is possible to study the Rurikids’ matrimonial policy? In spite of the mercilessly sparse source material, it is by all means possible to conduct feasible research on the Rurikids’ marriage policy. One must know how to do it right, however. Thus, such studies must on the one hand be rooted in a deep knowledge of the relevant sources (not only of Rus’ provenance) as well as the ability to subject them to astute analysis; on the other hand, they must adhere to the specially developed methodology, presented in the first part of the article.

scholarly journals Onnipotenza divina e ordine naturale nel Medioevo

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Possamai
Keyword(s):  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
The Past ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Pliny The Elder ◽  
The One

The present essay aims, on the one hand, to recall the reasons of anti-naturalism, intended in a metaphysical perspective, of a large part of medieval philosophical and theological reflection and, on the other hand, to show how the same type of problems, specifically those concerning the possible mutability or immutability of the past, can be employed in favour of various conflicting positions on the matter. To demonstrate this, reference was made to some thinkers who could represent emblematic positions on the theme, in particular: Pliny the Elder for the ancient world, Augustine of Hippo, Peter Damian, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas for the medieval era.

Hell Disarmed? The Function of Hell in Reformation Spirituality

Numen ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 56 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 366-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tarald Rasmussen
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Ars Moriendi ◽  
Religious Importance ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Medieval Christianity

In Late Medieval Christianity, the concept of hell was closely connected to the sacrament of penance. Hell could be avoided through the right use of penance. And the cleansing sufferings in purgatory could to a certain extent replace the eternal sufferings in hell. The Protestant Reformation rejected purgatory, and returned to a traditional dualistic view of the relationship between heaven and hell. At the same time, hell seems to lose some of its religious importance in early Protestant spirituality. This change is illustrated through a comparison of two central texts belonging more or less to the same genre: on the one hand the famous Late Medieval illustrated Ars moriendi and on the other Luther's Sermon von der Bereitung zum Sterben from 1519.

Hugh of St Victor, Dominicus Gundissalinus and the Place of the Mechanical Arts in Medieval Architectures of Knowledge

2021 ◽  
Vol 153 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-318
Author(s):  
Alexander Fidora ◽  
Nicola Polloni
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The One ◽  
Mechanical Arts

This contribution engages with the problematic position of the mechanical arts within medieval systems of knowledge. Superseding the secondary position assigned to the mechanical arts in the Early Middle Ages, the solutions proposed by Hugh of St Victor and Gundissalinus were highly influential during the thirteenth century. While Hugh’s integration of the mechanical arts into his system of knowledge betrays their still ancillary position as regards consideration of the liberal arts, Gundissalinus’s theory proposes two main novelties. On the one hand, he sets the mechanical arts alongside alchemy and the arts of prognostication and magic. On the other, however, using the theory put forward by Avicenna, he subordinates these “natural sciences” to natural philosophy itself, thereby establishing a broader architecture of knowledge hierarchically ordered. Our contribution examines the implications of such developments and their reception afforded at Paris during the thirteenth century, emphasising the relevance that the solutions offered by Gundissalinus enjoyed in terms of the ensuing discussions concerning the structure of human knowledge.

Genres and Motives

2015 ◽  
pp. 13-63
Author(s):  
Ram Ben-Shalom
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Other ◽  
Unified Approach ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Southern France ◽  
Jewish Historiography ◽  
Religious Polemic ◽  
The Many ◽  
The One ◽  
Christian Discourse

This chapter examines the genres and motives behind Jewish chronology during the Middle Ages. Jewish historiography focused on correlating Jewish chronology, general chronology, and Christian chronology. This was a similar approach to Christian writers. The chapter shows that this correlation of Jewish chronology with Christian and general chronology was one of the many components of medieval Jewish–Christian discourse. On the one hand, this suggests that Jews had a unified approach to history, in which they saw themselves as full participants. On the other, the timing and meaning of historical events were part of the religious polemic with Christianity. Religious polemic and apocalypticism were important reasons why Jewish scholars in Spain and southern France engaged in historiography. Other motives included the moral lessons that could be found in history and intellectual curiosity.

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