Test - 11/4/13 Flashcards
(96 cards)
Aristotle and how his writing got to Europe in the 12th C
Around 1144 ,Italian scholar Gerard of Cremona traveled to libraries of Toledo (a newly conquered Arab city in Spain) in order to get a copy of 2nd-century-Greek-astronomy-text Almagest, and stumbled onto a library full of Arabic translations of Greek Classics (unpossessed by the Latin-West) in Arabic, Aristotle’s works among them, and translated them into Latin till death. This was only a part of the rediscovery of Classical Greek texts translated into Arabic, unknown to the west. (Bauer 46-47)
hylomorphism
Aristotelian theory of substance, composed of form and matter, or form and mattering occurring together.
Aquinas: “soul is the form of the man, the principle that shapes material stuff into a particular kind of thing, a man.” (Hoffecker, 162)
Aristotelian concepts in conflict with Christian orthodoxy
Unmoved Mover God's is static and unitarian. God is impersonal and separated from man Universe is self-enclosed deterministic entity that is eternal. Soul and Body are not separable Soul has three levels: Nutritive soul: Plants, Slugs, etc Sensitive soul: emotions Rational soul: Think and reasoning Aristotle did not use Scripture
Averroes
Wrote commentaries on Aristotle; he became known as “the Commentator.” (Gonzalez 355). Held to Double Truth Theory and was in Dante’s Limbo.
Double truth theory
Something can be true in philosophy but allegorical in theology, and they are saying the same thing. It is “the notion that truths of philosophy are different from truths of faith, though equally valid” (Hoffecker, 156). [Class notes]
the same truth expressed clearly in philosophy is only expressed allegorically in religion
religion and philosophy, as separate sources of knowledge, might arrive at contradictory truths without detriment to either
Avicenna
a dhimmi [a non-muslim whose lands were overtaken by the Muslims]; an important Aristotelian commentator in the Muslim world and also blended Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism
Moses Maimonides: [Mosheh ben Maimon]
A Talmudic Scholar who flees (with father and family) to North Africa after persecution in Spain (dominated by Almohads who decreed the forced conversion of Jews and Xtians). He tries to reconcile Judaism and Aristotle (believing there to be one truth behind empirical science and faith) and wrote The Guide for the Perplexed; he is later called a heretic by the Jewish leaders/rabbinic council. Wrote a summary of the Torah for persecuted Jews.
Peter Abelard
Wrote Theologia, arguing that Plato’s writing on the “world soul” was about the Holy Spirit, and that the Scriptures were “involucrum, inherently difficult and obscure, ‘fruitfully obscure’ in a way that forced readers to use reason and dialectic as they wrestled with the meaning” [Bauer, 50]. He was accused of heterodoxy and then sentenced to silence [Bauer, 51-52]. He also couldn’t control his passions, got Heloise pregnant, and was castrated by her father.
“He determined to bring faith and logic together. . . [using] the categories of Aristotle . . . [which was thought to] throw into doubt the entire authority structure of the Christian church.”
Dialectic method
“rules of systematic thinking and inquiry laid out by Aristotle.” (Bauer, 5)
Sic et Non
Literally “Yes and No,” a book written by Peter Abelard with quotations taken from the [Church Fathers, Bauer 51], placing seemingly contradictory statements on topics of theology next to each other to “show that various authorities . . . did not agree on their answers. . . . to show that theology must not be content with citing authorities . . . [and] to find ways to reconcile such apparently contradictory authorities.” (Gonzalez, 371-372) Highly controversial work.
Onto-theology
A style of theology subordinated to and constrained by philosophical commitments from outside theology
Scholasticism
A method of investigation and inquiry (raising questions and solving objections). Two developments were significant for its early history: the growth of universities and the reintroduction of Aristotle’s teachings into Western Europe. (Gonzalez, 372).
characterized by competition and desire for innovation, based in cities, movement towards systematic organization of Christian truth. (Hoffecker, 147)
Monastic schools
monasteries (like Cluny), which usually existed apart from centers of population and the deteriorating church (think papacy), that served as centers of learning and worship. [Gonzalez, 330]
- rural, secluded
- emphasis on obedience, no questions asked
- memorization and rhetoric
- well established
Cathedral schools
12th century schools in cathedrals (order by Innocent II in the Fourth Lateran Council 1215), centers of theological activity and learning, connected with churches that had bishops, usually in cities. These were supplanted by universities in the thirteenth century, as a consequence of growing cities.
Bernard of Clairvaux
first and foremost a monk…champion of ecclesiastical reform, the preacher of the second crusade, and the enemy of all theological innovation…. Bernard’s frame gave the Cistercian movement great impetus
Peter Lombard
cleric who was Bernard of Clairvaux’s protege, penning the first systematic theology, the Sentences, read in every notable cathedral school. Bernard silenced Abelard and his use of Aristotelian categories; the very tools he silenced, his protege employed in methodology. (Bauer, 53). He also defended the doctrine of wine for the priests alone (Bauer, 647) and determined that there were seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. (Gonzales, 372)
Four Books of Sentences
Peter Lombard’s popular systematic theology (the first of its kind), introducing the (Aristotelian) methodology of discussion, debate, and systemization.
Peter Lombard’s attempt to organize and link Christian doctrine into a coherent, logical whole. He used Scripture and the Church fathers, side by side, using logic and (Aristotelian) dialectic to resolve contrary opinions.
He created theological categories: Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, eschatology. (Bauer, 53)
Trivium
Three disciplines that focused on how to express knowledge: grammar, logic, rhetoric
Quadrivium
Four disciplines that focused on the content of knowledge: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy
Original conception of the universities
the universities were in part the result of the growth of cities. Students congregated in urban centers, first at the cathedral schools, and then at others, and all of these were eventually united in what came to be known as “general studies.” Out of these evolved the main universities of Europe. But these were not so much institutions like our modern universities as they were guilds of scholars, both teachers and students, organized in order to defend the rights of their members, and to certify the level of proficiency achieved by each. (Gonzalez, 372)
A kind of student guild, started with groups of students gathering around popular teachers
Students, tired of being taken advantage of by the local merchants, demand fair prices with the threat of leaving en masse
accountability for professors
generally didn’t draw a salary from the institution but rather were paid directly by students
students levied high expectations on the professors
Professors eventually formed their own guild to deal with the students
idea of awarding a diploma, diploma necessary to capitalize on the education
Legacy of the medieval universities
not architecture or regalia/ritual Institutions -curriculum of study -the awarding of degrees -various faculties and colleges
Universities of Bologna and Paris
The University of Bologna was the center for Legal studies (i.e. Law) while the University of Paris was the center for Theology.
Gratian
An Italian legal scholar who created the Concordance of Discordant Canons was “a vast collection of Church law, putting together ecclesiastical pronouncements that contradicted each other, and then using dialectic to resolve the inconsistencies
Canon Law
Canon law is the body of laws and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (Church leadership), for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members.