Medieval Christian Philosophy: From Patristics to Scholasticism
Medieval Christian Philosophy
Historical Context
Medieval philosophy spans from the 5th century to the mid-15th century. Its doctrines were largely shaped by three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Christian philosophy, a subset of medieval philosophy, focused on God, the world, and humanity through the lens of Christian faith. It integrated classical philosophical heritage with the doctrines of the Old and New Testaments, primarily using the categories of Greek thinkers. Until the 13th century, Christian philosophy relied heavily on Platonism due to the limited availability of Aristotle’s works in Latin.
Key Themes
Christian philosophy explored two main themes:
- The value of intellectual knowledge related to universal concepts.
- The relationship between reason and faith.
Two Main Streams
Christian philosophy developed in two main streams:
- Patristics (1st to 7th centuries AD)
- Scholasticism (8th to 14th centuries AD)
Patristics
The Church Fathers, responsible for building Christian doctrine, focused on:
- Apologetics: Defending Christians from persecution and Christian doctrine from pagan philosophy.
- Defining the contents of the New Testament.
- Establishing the correct interpretation of biblical texts.
A key figure in Latin Patristics was St. Augustine, who synthesized Christian teachings and Platonism. He believed both aimed to understand Christian truth. His formula, “Believe to understand, understand to believe,” expresses the relationship between faith and reason, with reason subordinate to faith. For Augustine, God is the source of all knowledge, and the soul knows unchanging truths through divine illumination. Humans must look within to be illuminated by God.
Scholasticism
Scholasticism, flourishing in medieval schools (palatine, cathedral, and monastery) and universities from the 13th century, focused on the liberal arts (trivium: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric; and quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music) under the guidance of a ‘scholasticus’. It employed lectio and disputatio as teaching methods and aimed to demonstrate the rationality of faith.
Scholasticism encompassed various currents:
- Dialectical: Applying logic to theology.
- Anti-dialectical/Mystical: Reacting against dialectics as distorting faith.
- Augustinian: Intertwining reason and faith.
- Latin Averroism (from the 13th century): Championed by Siger of Brabant, asserting the autonomy of reason.
Thomas Aquinas represented the culmination of Scholasticism and the integration of Aristotelianism. In the 13th century, Aquinas received Aristotle’s works through Arab philosophers and their interpretations. He critiqued Averroism, proposing a balance between faith and reason. While believing in one truth accessible through both faith and reason (preambles of faith), he argued for their autonomy, with reason ultimately serving faith.
The 14th century marked a crisis in Scholasticism. William of Ockham, the father of nominalism, was a major critic. He viewed reason and faith as distinct sources of knowledge, with no common truths. For instance, God’s existence, a preamble of faith for Aquinas, was unprovable by reason. Ockham, supporting the emperor against the Pope, advocated for the separation of spiritual and temporal power, arguing the Pope’s authority should be limited to serving the Church.
This separation of reason and faith laid the groundwork for Renaissance philosophy, where reason, free from restrictions, led to the diverse currents characteristic of the Renaissance.