scholarly journals An Essay in Praise of Scholastic Theology

Lumen et Vita ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Medieval Theology ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Peter Abelard ◽  
The Core ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Union With God ◽  
Core Features

This essay attempts to give the Scholastic Theology of the High Middle Ages due praise by inhabiting its beautiful intellectual architecture. Among the core features observed are Scholasticism’s methodological vitality explained as an exegetical-humility with patristic roots, the animating principle of desire for union with God, and a conception of Christian doctrine as fundamental to the divine work of human salvation. Rather than engage directly with Scholasticism’s fashionable modern enemies, the essay proceeds in successive steps as a lectio magistrorum (“reading of the masters”). Anslem of Canterbury, Hugh of St. Victor, Peter Abelard, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas represent the primary sources of interest. The goal is simply to generate reconsideration of medieval theology through an introduction to atypically studied aspects of a few figures.

Ages of Gold

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Philip Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Climate Conditions ◽  
European Context ◽  
High Middle Ages

One way to appreciate the potential role of climate in human affairs is to observe what happens when—at least from a human-centric perspective—matters are going very well and the heavens appear to be smiling. Despite the occasional emphasis on eras of climate-driven disaster and deprivation, some historical epochs were wonderfully benevolent, times when the Sun’s warmth evidently manifested God’s bounty. One such era was the High Middle Ages, which coincided with a period of warming over large parts of the globe. Trade and commerce flourished, abundant harvests produced generous food supplies, and prosperity was conspicuously manifested in religious experiment and innovation. Such eras are often recalled through legendary and even exalted figures, such as St. Francis or Thomas Aquinas in the medieval European context. Whatever we term them, cultural golden ages have existed, and they have their foundations in climate conditions.

Signorie personali nel Mezzogiorno (secoli XIV-XVI)

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-200
Author(s):  
Francesco Senatore
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
High Middle Ages

The paper presents some examples of rural lordship in Southern Italy, mainly in Campania, using primary sources of different kind: public and private records, books of the Lord’s chancery, dossiers for the feudal relief, administrative correspondences. It seems that some characteristics of rural lordship of the high middle ages were present also in late middle and early modern Southern Italy: the seigneurial estates were heterogeneous, had no territorial continuity and passed frequently from a Lord to another; there were men who depended on a Lord although they were free and who had to give corvées (but receiving a payment) and symbolic honours to the Lord and to the King; there was still a connection between manorial dependence, fiscal exemption, and immigration.

On the Christian Idea of Man

1949 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Pieper
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Fundamental Conception ◽  
Conception Of Man ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
God's Image

The second partof the Summa Theologica of the “Universal Doctor,” Thomas Aquinas, begins with the following sentence: Because man has been created in God's image, now after having spoken of God, the archetype, we must still deal with His image which is man. (Summa Theologica I, II, Prologus.) There is something peculiar about this sentence; its meaning must not be misunderstood. It is stated as a matter of fact but its meaning is not to be taken for granted. This first sentence of Moral Theology expresses a fact which has almost entirely disappeared from the knowledge of Christians of today; namely, die fact that moral doctrine is primarily and above all a doctrine about man; that moral doctrine must plainly reveal the conception of man, and that, therefore, the doctrine of Christian morals must concern the Christian model of man. This fact was a matter of course in' the Christianity of the high Middle Ages. This fundamental conception—which, to be sure, was not definitely taken for granted as the polemical wording shows—compelled Eckhart to say two generations after St. Thomas: people should not think about what they ought to do, they should rather think about what they ought to be.

scholarly journals Abelard and Heloise: personal relationship in the socio-cultural context of the 12th century

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Oleg Shevchenko ◽  
Irene Klipenstein
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
World View ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Personal Relationship ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Peter Abelard ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Relationship

The 12th century was a controversial period of deepening ecclesiastical influence on all strata of the population, strengthening church prohibitions, expansion of convents; the century of establishing a new stratum of intellectuals, the first rise of women role in society and the formation of the courtly culture’s foundations. Philosopher Peter Abelard and his student Heloise were chosen for examination by us as the bright personalities of the 12th century, a product of medieval society and the voices of their time. An exceptional historical case of well-documented reliable information on the personal relationship allows us to correlate the world-view of lovers and their lives with the socio-cultural realities of High Middle Ages. The aim of the article is a historical analysis of the relationship between the philosopher-teacher Abelard and the student Eloise in the socio-cultural context of the 12th century. In previous studies scholars have only indirectly touched certain aspects of the teacher-student relationship in the context of intimate gender relations of the High Middle Ages. We analysed the autobiography of Peter Abelard, the letters of Abelard’s contemporaries, his correspondence with Eloise. We arranged scientific achievements of historians and examined personal life of the couple against the background: tactics of seduction, intimacy, determining and understanding the relationship status, men’s standing in society after castration. Emphasis is placed on the progress of 12th century’s social consciousness in the light of the personalities’ world-view analysis. A division between individual views and the Catholic medieval outlook is analysed. Through the study of the transformation of the relationship between teacher and student, and future lovers, we have shown that the views of Eloise and Abelard illustrate a feasible range of medieval perceptions of the relationship, in tune with the new era challenges, yet integral to its time.

Jewish Philosophical Polemics Against Christianity in the Middle Ages: With a New Introduction

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Lasker
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Major Work ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Virgin Birth ◽  
The Core ◽  
Jewish Intellectual ◽  
History Of

This book is based on a comprehensive reading of philosophical arguments drawn from all the major Jewish sources, published and unpublished, from the Geonic period in the ninth century until the dawn of the Haskalah in the late eighteenth century. The core of the book is a detailed discussion of the four doctrines of Christianity whose rationality Jews thought they could definitively refute: trinity, incarnation, transubstantiation, and virgin birth. In each case, the book presents a succinct history of the Christian doctrine and then proceeds to a careful examination of the Jewish efforts to demonstrate its impossibility. The main text is written in a non-technical manner, with the Christian doctrines and the Jewish responses both carefully explained; the notes include long quotations, in Hebrew and Arabic as well as in English, from sources that are not readily available in English. At the time of its original publication in 1977, this book was regarded as a major contribution to a relatively neglected area of medieval Jewish intellectual history; the new, wide-ranging introduction surveys and summarizes subsequent scholarship, and re-establishes its position as a major work.

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