The Cambridge History of Later Medieval Philosophy: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Disintegration of Scholasticism, 1100-1600

by Norman Kretzmann (Editor), Eleonore Stump, Anthony Kenny

This 1982 book is a history of the great age of scholastism from Abelard to the rejection of Aristotelianism in the Renaissance, combining the highest standards of medieval scholarship with a respect for the interests and insights of contemporary philosophers, particularly those working in the analytic tradition. The volume follows on chronologically from The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy, though it does not continue the histories of Greek and Islamic philosophy but concentrates on the Latin Christian West. Unlike other histories of medieval philosophy that divide the subject matter by individual thinkers, it emphasises the parts of more historical and theological interest. This volume is organised by those topics in which recent philosophy has made the greatest progress.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

1035 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 1982

Reviews

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

History as it is revealing itself is not univocal and as it is unfolding is somewhat chaotic while the best we can do when studying it is give it our own meta-narrative through our own interpretive lens and call it a story with a narrative. That deceives us into believing there is meaning to the world beyond ourselves when there is not. This book accomplishes the peeling away of the story about the story and looks at the world as the philosophical story was unfolding through itself.

There’s a complex dialog happening across time and space during the Western medieval period and by the time it gets presented today it gets synthesized and reinterpreted through modern lenses. The synthesized homogeneity that we usually accept as the past went through a blender by the time we see it and this book strips away that mixing.

The absurd lengths it takes to justify and defend the fantastic and the foolish only needs a given certainty. Entwined with the statement ‘God’s existence is His essence’ is a convolution that includes Aristotelian metaphysics of potentiality and actuality, sin and forgiveness, Plato’s Timaeus, and the Bible univocally speaking with certainty. It is easy to justify slavery when premises include your conclusion and natural law necessitates order such that Christ is God and the OT commands slavery of the worst kind, and for their world they know with certainty that slaves are lazy and work best under the threat of beatings since eternal life for them is best of all possible worlds.

The arguments aren’t simplistic. They are very sophisticated. A quote from another book I once read “almost all Enlightenment thinkers were Pelagians.” It’s safe to say that not a single Medieval thinker was sympathetic to Pelagius. That is Medieval thinkers did not believe good actions alone warranted grace. The only time this book cited Pelagius was when the thinkers were railing against him.

It’s easy to criticize the Medieval thinkers for contrasting their malleable reality that wielded their truth instrumentally against rationality, common sense, and empathy for others, but the same MAGA irrationality shapes reality while wielding truth as an instrument against rationality, common sense, and empathy. Trump delights in creating misery in others therefore making him feel powerful. At least the Medieval thinkers justified their cruelty through an imaginary certainty in eternal rewards while Trump is just a sadist with no ultimate good except his own ego.

The depth of the themes explored in this tome of a book are relevant today. If only modern apologist were as sophisticated, I would be more sympathetic to their arguments and would not as easily dismiss them for their immaturity.