Pagans and philosophers : the problem of paganism from Augustine to Leibniz

362 Pages·2015·1.58 MB·English

by  Marenbon

Pagans and Philosophers
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Pagans and Philosophers
The Problem of Paganism from
Augustine to Leibniz
John Marenbon
P r i n c e to n U n i v e rs i t y P r e s s
Princeton and Oxford
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Copyright © 2015 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marenbon, John.
Pagans and philosophers : the problem of paganism from Augustine to Leibniz /
John Marenbon.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0-691–14255–5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Paganism—History. 2. Philosophy—
History. 3. Philosophy and religion. I. Title.
BL432.M37 2015
261.2’2—dc23
2014011053
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Sabon
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To the Memory of Jeremy Maule
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Contents
Preface ix
A Note on References and Citations xi
Introduction: The Problem of Paganism 1
Part I: The Problem Takes Shape
Chapter 1
Prelude: Before Augustine 19
Chapter 2
Augustine 23
Chapter 3
Boethius 42
Part II: From Alcuin to Langland
Chapter 4
The Early Middle Ages and the Christianization of Europe 57
Chapter 5
Abelard 73
Chapter 6
John of Salisbury and the Encyclopaedic Tradition 95
Chapter 7
Arabi, Mongolia and Beyond: Contemporary Pagans in the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries 109
Chapter 8
Aristotelian Wisdom: Unity, Rejection or Relativism 127
Chapter 9
University Theologians on Pagan Virtue and Salvation 160
Chapter 10
Dante and Boccaccio 188
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viii • Contents
Chapter 11
Langland and Chaucer 214
Part III: The Continuity of the Problem of Paganism, 1400– 1700
Chapter 12
Pagan Knowledge, 1400– 1700 235
Chapter 13
Pagan Virtue, 1400– 1700 263
Chapter 14
The Salvation of Pagans, 1400– 1700 281
Epilogue: Leibniz and China 301
General Conclusion 304
Bibliography 307
Index 339
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Preface
There is a story behind my dedication, and it tells a great deal
not only of how this book came to be written, but also about its goals.
Jeremy Maule, who died fifteen years ago in his mid- forties, was my col-
league when my job was to teach English literature to undergraduates at
Trinity College. Although the actual writing of this book was almost all
done in the past year or so, its origins go back to that time. ‘Paganism’
had been chosen as an optional set topic for the Medieval English Paper.
Since much of my own work was on Boethius and Abelard, the subject
fascinated me. But my job was to give not lectures but individual super-
visions to Trinity undergraduates: I encouraged them to choose ‘Pagan-
ism’, but when they came to talk about their essays, there was so much
background for me to supply that the sessions turned into a monologue.
I looked to see if there was any general book on the area, and there was
none. So I wrote to the English Faculty, suggesting I might give a set of
lectures on the topic, since none was planned. But my offer was indig-
nantly refused. It was at this point that Jeremy, who was responsible for
organizing the teaching at Trinity, stepped in, with the suggestion that I
should teach about paganism in the form of college lectures— a form of
Cambridge teaching unheard of for decades. I gave them for two years,
and then the faculty relented and invited me to make the lectures part of
its teaching, until the special topic was changed.
Over the years my views on almost every text discussed have changed,
and the range of material I covered in those lectures is only a small part
of what I consider in this book. Yet they have shaped its content and aims
in three ways. First, by being asked to think about the topic of (simply)
Paganism in medieval writing, I quickly saw that there was an important
theme of which recognized topics such as pagan virtues and the salvation
of pagans are just the disparate parts: I realized that there was a Problem
of Paganism, even before I coined the name for it. Second, because the
Medieval English Paper stretched up to 1550, from the start I included in
my scope not just the pagans of Greece and Rome, but contemporary pa-
gans, such as the Native Americans. Third, and perhaps most important
of all, I was forced to bring together two sides of my work which I had
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x • Preface
always kept apart: my research and writing on medieval philosophy, and
my teaching on medieval literature. I had always known that the philoso-
phers and theologians helped to illuminate the poets, but I came to realize
that, on a subject such as paganism, writers such as Dante, Chaucer and
Langland also made a philosophical contribution in their own right. For
the past ten years, I have been able to devote myself to medieval philoso-
phy, and it is from that perspective that I have written this book. But,
thanks to its origins, in writing the book I have discovered a grain in the
marble that, without such serendipity, would have remained hidden: a
broader conception of medieval philosophy than I could have imagined.
And it is particularly fitting that such a project should go back to Jer-
emy’s initial encouragement, since he was someone whose extraordinary
knowledge, surpassed only by his boundless curiosity, was unfettered by
disciplinary constraints.
I am also grateful to Zygmunt Baranski, Delphine Faivre (Carron) and
Aurélien Robert for generously letting me see their work before publica-
tion, and to George Corbett, from whose writing and conversations about
Dante I have learned much. I am especially grateful to Peter von Moos.
Not only did he let me see and use his important study of the salvation
of pagans and the edition of a treatise on the salvation of Aristotle with
which it is being published; he also read the whole of my manuscript after
it was submitted to the publisher and gave me very valuable critical com-
ments, as did the two anonymous readers commissioned by the publisher.
I hope that I have managed to improve the book thanks to their advice.
The Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto and the
Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies there arranged for me to be a
visiting fellow in the autumn of 2010, and gave me the chance to deliver
public lectures and organize a series of seminars on the Problem of Pa-
ganism: I am grateful to all who attended and discussed my ideas, and
especially to John Magee, who made the stay possible and so enjoyable.
Ian Malcolm at Princeton University Press, more recently Al Bertrand
and Hannah Paul, and most recently (for the production of the book)
Debbie Tegarden have all given me both every possible encouragement
and support, and I have been greatly assisted by the patient work of my
copy editor, Joseph Dahm. My greatest debts of all are to Trinity College,
which has given me the means, place and time to write this book, and to
Sheila and Maximus, who have not only put up with it and me, but even
sometimes let slip that, unlike anything else I have written, my ‘pagans’
might actually be quite interesting.
Cambridge, 5 March 2013
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