Brown - Flores – A to Z of Medieval Philosophy and Theology

Scarecrow Press, 2007. – 464 p.

ISBN 978-0-8108-7597-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)

 

The A to Z of Medieval Philosophy and Theology focuses on the philosophy of the Middle Ages, but this is a philosophy so wrapped up in questions of religion that it must also deal with theology. Although covering mainly Christianity and the West, it also spreads to Judaism and Islam and their centers beyond (and, at times, often within) Europe. Finally, while concentrating on the medieval period, it cannot help reaching back to Augustine, many centuries before, and then beyond him to the great ancient philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. What is most interesting, however, is that while usually almost contemptuously relegated to the past, medieval philosophy and theology look into problems and adopt approaches that are not so remote in certain areas from those of the present day and, with the emerging fundamentalism in the three major religions of the Book and a growing clash of civilizations, may become even more important tomorrow.

 

This volume consists mainly of a dictionary section that includes brief entries on important philosophers and thinkers, among many others the leading Christian ones of the period, such as Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Peter Abelard, John Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham, and also—although primarily as concerns their influence on the period—predecessors such as Augustine, Plato and Aristotle, Avicenna and Averroes. The remainder describes the major concepts and issues, institutions and organizations, conflicts, and other events of the period. The overall context in which an amazingly intense and lively debate was played out is considered more broadly in the introduction and traced in the chronology. The bibliography, a rather extensive one, can help readers learn more about all of the various persons and aspects.

 

Given the unusually broad spread of this volume, it is certainly appreciated that, although there are only two authors, they combine an unusually broad range of backgrounds and interests. One, Stephen F. Brown, comes from Philadelphia and the other, Juan Carlos Flores, from San Salvador, although both pursued their doctoral studies at the University of Louvain in Belgium. Both graduated as doctors of philosophy, but both have extensive theological backgrounds. Dr. Brown, who did his undergraduate studies at St. Bonaventure University, has been teaching in the Theology Department of Boston College for over two decades. Dr. Flores, who did his doctoral dissertation on the doctrine of the Trinity and Henry of Ghent, now teaches philosophy at Providence College. Aside from teaching, both have written extensively and are also editors of medieval Latin philosophical and theological texts. This was a rather substantial preparation for one of our broadest volumes, on a subject that—while apparently rooted in the past—will certainly be of use at present.

 

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DIALECTICS

 

Ancient authors, especially Aristotle and his ancient commentators and translators, greatly influenced the medieval understanding of dialectics or logic. Medieval thinkers studied and developed Aristotelian logic, and applied it in new ways, most notably in theology. For example, Christian theologians used logical distinctions when seeking some clarity concerning the mystery of the Trinity, and medieval Jews and Muslims applied logic to issues concerning divine names and attributes. Aristotle considered logic as a necessary instrument for scientific inquiry and his logical works are often referred to as an “instrument” or Organon. This collection is made up of: Categories, an account of the 10 broadest classes or genera (i.e., substance, quantity, quality, relation, where, when, position, state, action, and passion); On Interpretation, dealing with propositions; Prior Analytics, dealing with argument validity; Topics, a treatise on dialectic understood as arguments based on generally accepted opinions; Posterior Analytics, dealing with demonstrative or scientific arguments; and Sophistical Refutations, dealing with argumentative fallacies. Only some of the highlights in the transmission of Aristotelian logic to the Middle Ages are mentioned here.

 

Between the fifth and the seventh centuries, translations of the Organon were made from Greek into Syriac, by Nestorians (mainly) and Jacobites, and the first books of the Organon received then also a number of commentaries. When the Muslims took over the Fertile Crescent in the seventh century, Arabic became the official language of the empire; at this point most translations were still from Greek to Syriac (a form of Aramaic that had become a literary language), though translations from Greek into Arabic began. Translations from Syriac into Arabic only took place until the 10th century. Some of the greatest translators of this period were the two ninth-century Christian Nestorians Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his son, Ishaq ibn Hunayn, whose work helped create a technical philosophical Arabic. Other outstanding figures were ’Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa (d. 757), who wrote epitomes on the Isagoge [Introduction to Aristotle’s Logic] by Plotinus’s student Porphyry (ca. 232–ca. 305) and the first books of the Organon, and the Syrian Ibn Bahriz, who wrote epitomes on the whole Organon. Works such as these contributed to the growth of dialectics in Islam. Medieval Jewish philosophy, which took place in Islamic and Christian regions, also yielded Hebrew translations and commentaries.

 

Latin translations and commentaries of the Organon formed in large part the basic sources of medieval dialectic or logic in Christian Europe. The Categories was translated by Marius Victorinus and paraphrased by Albinus in the fourth century. Boethius (ca. 480–ca. 525) provided a more exact translation of this work and included a commentary. In the beginning of the 10th century, a composite edition was made by an unknown author, relying greatly on Boethius’s version. Porphyry’s Isagoge [Introduction to Aristotle’s Logic] was translated by Boethius. Subsequently, a complement to the Categories entitled The Book of Six Principles was prepared by either Gilbert de la Porrée or Alan of Lille. Boethius translated On Interpretation, a version superior to Marius Victorinus’s earlier one (of which only fragments remain). Moreover, Boethius wrote two expositions of On Interpretation. The second commentary contains important analyses of the text by Greek commentators, especially Porphyry and Ammonius. Topics, Prior Analytics, and Sophistical Refutations were also known in the Latin West through Boethius’s translations. Another translation of this last work from the 12th century, probably by James of Venice, also survives. Posterior Analytics was translated by James of Venice in the first half of the 12th century, and by Gerard of Cremona from an Arabic paraphrase of Abu Bishr.

 

In the medieval Latin West, Categories, On Interpretation, and Porphyry’s Introduction to the Organon constituted what is called the “Old Logic” (Logica Vetus), while Prior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations, Posterior Analytics, and The Book of Six Principles formed the “New Logic” (Logica Nova). Comments on the Old Logic began to appear in the 10th century when Gerbert of Aurillac taught logic at Reims. While Gerbert did glosses on the Topics, most commentaries on the New Logic did not appear until the 12th century. Before the Latin West began in the 13th century to gain fuller access to Aristotle’s other more purely philosophical works, such as Physics, On the Soul, and Metaphysics, intellectual disputes in the European schools of the 11th and 12th century were primarily anchored in questions of logic, such as the status of universal terms and the question of the use of dialectic in theology. Authors like Peter Damian and Bernard of Clairvaux were generally suspicious of dialectics in theological questions. Anselm of Canterbury, on the other hand, employed logic extensively in theology, thus influencing the general spirit of later theological works.