Reason and faith : philosophy in the Middle Ages

133 Pages·2007·0.831 MB·English

by  Williams, Thomas

Reason and Faith:
Philosophy in the
Middle Ages
Part I

Professor Thomas Williams

THE TEACHING COMPANY ®
Thomas Williams, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies,
University of South Florida

Thomas Williams, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at
the University of South Florida, received his B.A. in Philosophy from
Vanderbilt University in 1988 and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University
of Notre Dame in 1994. Before joining the faculty of the University of South
Florida in 2005, he taught at Creighton University and the University of Iowa,
where he received a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Award in
2005. He was the Alvin Plantinga Fellow at the Center for Philosophy of
Religion at Notre Dame from 2005 to 2006.
Professor Williams’s research interests are in medieval philosophy and theology
(with a focus on Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, and Duns Scotus) and the
philosophy of religion. He is the coauthor of Anselm, a volume in the Great
Medieval Thinkers series from Oxford University Press, with Sandra Visser. He
edited The Cambridge Companion to Duns Scotus and co-edited Thomas
Aquinas: Disputed Questions on the Virtues. His translations include
Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will and Anselm: Basic Writings.
Professor Williams has contributed essays to four other volumes in the
Cambridge Companions series—Augustine; Anselm; Abelard; and Medieval
Philosophy—as well as essays for the Cambridge History of Medieval
Philosophy and The Oxford Handbook of Thomas Aquinas. Journals where his
articles have appeared include Modern Theology, Philosophy and Literature,
Apeiron, Faith and Philosophy, Journal of the History of Philosophy, and
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. He is on the editorial board of Studies in
the History of Ethics.

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Table of Contents

Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages
Part I

Professor Biography...........................................................................................i
Course Scope......................................................................................................1
Lecture One Faith Seeking Understanding....................................4
Lecture Two Augustine’s Platonic Background.............................9
Lecture Three Augustine on Authority, Reason, and Truth...........13
Lecture Four Augustine on the Origin of Evil..............................16
Lecture Five Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy.............19
Lecture Six Boethius on Foreknowledge and Freedom..............22
Lecture Seven Anselm and the 11th-Century Context.....................25
Lecture Eight Anselm’s Proof That God Exists............................28
Lecture Nine Anselm on the Divine Attributes ............................31
Lecture Ten Anselm on Freedom and the Fall............................34
Lecture Eleven Abelard on Understanding the Trinity....................37
Lecture Twelve Abelard on Understanding Redemption..................40
Timeline............................................................................................................43
Map...................................................................................................................46
Glossary............................................................................................................48
Biographical Notes...........................................................................................53
Bibliography.....................................................................................................57

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Reason and Faith: Philosophy in the Middle Ages

Scope:
The great medieval Christian thinkers would all have been bewildered by the
idea, widespread in contemporary culture, that faith and reason are
fundamentally at odds. Though their philosophical outlooks varied widely, they
were in general agreement that philosophical reasoning could and should be
used to defend and elucidate the doctrines of the Christian faith. This use of
philosophy took three main forms. First, medieval thinkers used philosophical
reasoning to prove the existence of God and to establish conclusions about the
divine attributes. Second, they used philosophical views about the acquisition of
knowledge to determine which Christian doctrines are beyond the scope of
rational demonstration. And third, they used philosophical argumentation to
defend Christian beliefs against objections and to establish the internal
consistency of Christian doctrine by showing the compatibility of Christian
beliefs that might appear to contradict each other. In making all three kinds of
arguments, medieval Christian thinkers felt free to adopt the views of non-
Christian philosophers when those views could be pressed into the service of
Christian teaching; and they were confident that the errors of pagan philosophy
could be exposed by the use of natural reason, without appealing to faith in a
supernatural revelation.
This general agreement about the proper roles of faith and reason provided a
certain continuity in the history of medieval philosophy, but there were striking
discontinuities as well. As new philosophical texts were discovered and new
techniques of argumentation introduced, as philosophical schools rose to
prominence or fell into eclipse, the ways in which medieval philosophers carried
out their project of “faith seeking understanding” changed dramatically. For
Augustine, at the beginning of the medieval period, philosophy meant
Platonism, but for Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th century, it was Aristotle, not
Plato, who was known simply as “the Philosopher.” Philosophers also had to
cope with changing fashions in theology, not to mention simple church politics.
Thus, Peter Abelard was the target of ecclesiastical harassment for making an
argument that Anselm had made, without controversy, a mere half-century
earlier.
Medieval philosophy began with Augustine (354−430), who was deeply
influenced by the fundamental Platonic distinction between the intelligible
realm—perfect, unchanging, and accessible only by the mind—and the sensible
realm—imperfect, ever-changing, and apprehensible by the senses. In some
strands of Platonic thought, these two realms are irreconcilably at odds; the fact
that our souls are embodied is a regrettable, if temporary, impediment to human
fulfillment. For Augustine, however, the sensible realm is created by God and
reflects his goodness. The temporal and embodied character of our experience
means that we must rely on authority in our quest for truth. Nonetheless, by
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reflecting on the imperfections and mutability of creatures, the human mind can
come to understand something of the unchanging perfection of the creator.
Precisely because we come to know God as both perfect and creator, Augustine
was faced with the perplexing problem of the origin of evil in a world created
by a perfect God.
Boethius (c. 476−c. 526), writing a century later than Augustine, continued the
tradition of pressing pre-Christian philosophy into the service of Christian
thought. In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius turns to Philosophy,
personified as a woman, for comfort and reassurance that the world is justly
governed by divine providence. Philosophy argues that there is one God who
governs the universe and has power over all things, including human affairs.
She also undertakes to show how human freedom and moral responsibility are
possible, arguing that because God is eternal—that is, outside time altogether—
he does not foreknow our actions (he simply knows them, timelessly) and our
actions are therefore not necessary in any sense that threatens freedom or moral
responsibility.
For nearly 500 years after the death of Boethius, there was little noteworthy
philosophical activity. In the 11th century, however, there was a revival of
philosophical techniques and their application to theological discussion. The
outstanding Christian philosopher of the 11th century was Anselm (1033−1109),
who developed an explicit and systematic account of what he called “the reason
of faith”: the intrinsically rational character of Christian doctrines in virtue of
which they form a coherent and rationally defensible system. Anselm’s most
famous contribution to Christian philosophy is his argument for the existence of
God, but his account of the divine nature has also had an enduring influence.
The leading 12th-century philosopher, Peter Abelard (1079−1142), is often
thought of as a theological rebel, but in fact, he was firmly in Anselm’s tradition
of elucidating and defending Christian doctrine in accordance with the standards
of philosophical reasoning. His controversial treatments of the Trinity and the
Atonement show a willingness to challenge received theological wisdom in the
pursuit of philosophical rigor.
The recovery of the full Aristotelian corpus by the end of the 12th century
revolutionized Christian thought in the Latin West. Aristotle’s thinking offered
a conceptual apparatus of obvious power and usefulness for philosophy and
theology, but many of Aristotle’s ideas were at odds with Christian doctrine.
Thirteenth-century thinkers had to figure out how to accommodate this new
material. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225−1274), using the works of Aristotle as his
primary philosophical inspiration, developed arguments for the existence of
God, as well as an account of the powers and limits of human reason in knowing
God. He also drew on Aristotle for his understanding of human nature and
ethics. By contrast, Bonaventure (c. 1217−1274) was willing to borrow
Aristotelian doctrines when he found them helpful, but he argued passionately
against excessive enthusiasm in following Aristotle. Such excesses were
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attributed to the integral Aristotelians of the University of Paris, for whom
Aristotelian philosophy was a complete, freestanding account of the natural
world.
This engagement with Aristotelian philosophy, in all its different forms, made
the 13th century a particularly lively and inventive period in Christian
philosophy. This energy continued through the work of John Duns Scotus
(1265/66−1308) and William Ockham (c. 1288−1347). But Aristotelianism did
not remain dominant for long. Such thinkers as Nicholas of Autrecourt
(c. 1295−1369) and Nicholas of Cusa (1401−1464) marked a turn away from
Aristotle and toward a kind of Platonism that would become dominant during
the Renaissance.

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Lecture One

Faith Seeking Understanding

Scope: The great medieval Christian thinkers would all have been bewildered
by the idea, widespread in contemporary culture, that faith and reason
are fundamentally at odds. Though their philosophical outlooks varied
widely, they were in general agreement that philosophical reasoning
could and should be used to defend and elucidate the doctrines of the
Christian faith. They used philosophical reasoning to prove the
existence of God and to establish conclusions about the divine
attributes. They also tried to determine which Christian doctrines are
beyond the scope of rational demonstration by examining philosophical
views about how human beings acquire knowledge. They used
philosophical argumentation to defend Christian beliefs against
objections and to establish the internal consistency of Christian
doctrine by showing the compatibility of Christian beliefs that might
appear to contradict each other. They felt free to adopt the views of
non-Christian philosophers when those views could be pressed into the
service of Christian teaching, and they were confident that the errors of
pagan philosophy could be exposed by the use of natural reason,
without appealing to faith in a supernatural revelation.

Outline
I. The great medieval Christian thinkers would all have been bewildered by
the idea that faith and reason, or theology and philosophy, are
fundamentally at odds. For them, both the techniques and the content of
philosophy are (by and large) compatible with the Christian faith.
A. All of them agreed that philosophical reasoning can and should be used
to defend and elucidate the doctrines of the Christian faith.
1. They used philosophical reasoning, in many cases borrowed from
pagan philosophers, to prove the existence of God and to establish
conclusions about the divine nature.
2. On the basis of philosophical doctrines about the nature and scope
of human knowledge, they distinguished between Christian
doctrines that can be known by reason alone and those that can be
known only by faith.
3. They used philosophical argumentation to defend Christian beliefs
against objections and to establish the internal consistency of
Christian doctrine by showing the compatibility of Christian
beliefs that might appear to contradict each other.
B. All of these great thinkers took a generally accommodating attitude
toward pagan philosophy.
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1. They felt free to adopt the views of non-Christian philosophers
when they could be pressed into the service of Christian teaching,
as well as on matters on which Christian teaching was silent.
2. They were (in general) confident that the errors of pagan
philosophy could be exposed by the use of natural reason, without
the need to appeal to supernatural revelation.
3. They held that Christianity can be shown to be superior to pagan
philosophy by the standards accepted by the pagan philosophers
themselves.
II. In spite of these broad areas of agreement, however, medieval philosophy is
far from monolithic. The contours of the accommodation between faith and
reason changed as particular philosophical systems and techniques came
into widespread use or fell into disfavor.
A. In this course, we will examine the contributions of the most influential
thinkers throughout the period, both for their intrinsic philosophical
importance and as illustrating the development of Christian
engagement with issues of faith and reason.
B. Augustine is representative of early medieval philosophy in several
ways.
1. He is heavily influenced by Platonism, which was the dominant
philosophical outlook well into the 12th century.
2. What Augustine takes from Platonism is not so much a set of
precise doctrines or arguments but a general outlook. Thus, he is
concerned more with elaborating a vision than with articulating
precise reasons in support of a thesis. This more visionary or
holistic approach is typical of early medieval philosophy.
C. Boethius is, broadly speaking, in the same tradition as Augustine—
though as the primary transmitter of philosophical logic in the early
medieval period, he is more technically minded than Augustine and
provides more careful support for Platonic-Augustinian theses.
D. Beginning in the 11th century, philosophy becomes more focused on
the development of careful argument. This development becomes even
more pronounced with the reintroduction of the complete works of
Aristotle in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
1. The 11th century saw a renewed emphasis on careful argument in
the service of elucidating and defending Christian doctrine.
Anselm defended recognizably Augustinian views, but his method
was very unlike Augustine’s: a more-or-less continuous series of
precise arguments.
2. In the 12th century, Peter Abelard conceived an ambitious project
of reformulating Christian doctrine in a rationally coherent way.
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3. The reintroduction of Aristotle in the late 12th and early 13th
centuries gave Christian philosophers the materials to develop
systematic theories using analytically precise and highly technical
methods. At the same time, it posed new problems for the
relationship between faith and reason, because Aristotle had put
these methods to use in arguing for conclusions that were seen as
incompatible with Christian teaching.
E. Even in the period of Aristotelian dominance—the 13th and early 14th
centuries—a variety of approaches to questions of faith and reason
were possible.
1. Bonaventure cast traditionally Augustinian positions in
Aristotelian language but generally resisted the claims of
Aristotelian philosophy to provide an adequate account of the
natural world, let alone the supernatural world.
2. Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus largely agreed in their
views about what we can know about God using the methods of
Aristotelian philosophy; they also shared a generally Aristotelian
view of knowledge. But they drew quite different conclusions
from that view in their account of religious language.
3. William Ockham was also heavily influenced by Aristotle, but he
was much more skeptical about the prospects for a purely
philosophical knowledge of God.
F. In the 14th century, as the Aristotelian tradition began to lose its
dominating position, new philosophical stances came to the fore and,
with them, new ways of understanding the relationship between faith
and reason.
III. Within the historical narrative just outlined, certain authors and certain
topics will receive particular attention.
A. Though medieval philosophers wrote on an astonishingly wide range
of topics, we will consider only those that have an obvious connection
with the central topic of faith and reason:
1. How, in general, do human beings come to know anything? And in
light of the answer to that question, how (if at all) can human
beings come to know about God apart from supernatural
revelation?
2. What are the attributes of God, and how do those attributes bear on
other philosophical topics? For example, can divine
foreknowledge be reconciled with human free will?
3. If indeed God is unimaginably different from the objects of our
ordinary experience, how can we use our language—which is
derived from such experience—to talk about God?
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4. Can such Christian doctrines as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and
the Atonement be defended against charges of irrationality and
incoherence?
B. This course focuses on the history of philosophy; we will not be
concerned either with matters of revealed theology or with intellectual
history more broadly.
1. Revealed theology (or just theology, for short) takes some kind of
supernatural revelation as its starting point, whereas philosophy
takes its starting point from premises that are accessible to unaided
human reason. Natural theology—the project of trying to prove the
existence and nature of God by reason alone, without relying on
supernatural revelation—is, thus, a part of philosophy and not of
(revealed) theology.
2. The chief concern of the historian of philosophy is what people
thought and what arguments they brought forward in support of
what they thought, whereas the intellectual historian is more
attentive to external contextual influences on what people thought.
3. Given the relative isolation of medieval philosophy from broader
currents of the time, a history-of-philosophy approach is especially
fitting, though we will examine broader contextual matters where
appropriate.
C. Though many topics receive frequent discussion throughout the period,
we will concentrate on particularly influential or striking examples.
1. For example, although nearly all medieval Christian philosophers
discussed the claim that God is outside of time, we will examine
the discussion of the topic in Boethius’s Consolation of
Philosophy, which was particularly influential.
2. Anselm and Abelard made similar arguments against a traditional
theory of the Atonement, but only Abelard got into hot water for
them; thus, we will consider Abelard’s discussion.

Essential Reading:
Stephen P. Marrone, “Medieval Philosophy in Context,” in A. S. McGrade, ed.,
The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Philosophy.
Paul Vincent Spade, “Medieval Philosophy.”

Supplementary Reading:
David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought.
Thomas Williams, “Some Reflections on Method in the History of Philosophy.”

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