Humanism And Theology: Aquinas Lecture No. 7

The Aquinas Lecture in Philosophy

by Werner Wilhelm Jaeger

Book by Jaeger, Werner Wilhelm

94 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1943

About the author

Jaeger attended school at Lobberich and at the Gymnasium Thomaeum in Kempen Jaeger studied at the University of Marburg and University of Berlin. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1911 for a dissertation on the Metaphysics of Aristotle. His habilitation was on Nemesios of Emesa (1914). Only 26 years old, Jaeger was called to a professorship with chair at the University of Basel in Switzerland. One year later he moved to a similar position at Kiel, and in 1921 he returned to Berlin. Jaeger remained in Berlin until 1936, when he emigrated to the United States because he was unhappy with Adolf Hitler's regime. Jaeger expressed his veiled disapproval with Humanistische Reden und Vortraege (1937) and his book on Demosthenes (1938) based on his Sather lecture from 1934. Jaeger's messages were fully understood in German university circles; the ardent Nazi followers sharply attacked Jaeger.
In the United States, Jaeger worked as a full professor at the University of Chicago from 1936 to 1939, at which time he moved to Harvard University to continue his edition of the Church father Gregory of Nyssa on which he started before World War I. Jaeger remained in Cambridge, Massachusetts, until his death. The Canadian philosopher James Doull was among his students at Harvard.
Jaeger wrote two dissertations, one in Latin and one in German, on Aristotle's Metaphysics. Jaeger's edition of the Metaphysics was printed in 1957. Only two years after editing Gregory of Nyssa's Contra Eunomium (1921), Jaeger became famous with his groundbreaking study on Aristotle in 1923 which largely remained undisputed until the 1960s.
Jaeger founded two journals: Die Antike (1925–1944) and the influential review journal Gnomon (since 1925).
Jaeger was the editor of the church father Gregory of Nyssa, Gregorii Nysseni Opera, editing Gregory's major work Contra Eunomium (1921, 1960). This edition is a major scholarly achievement and the philological foundation of the current studies on the Cappadocian Fathers.
Jaeger is perhaps best known for his multivolume work "Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture", an extensive consideration of both the earliest practices and later philosophical reflections on the cultural nature of education in Ancient Greece, which he hoped would restore a decadent early 20th century Europe to the values of its Hellenic origins.
Jaeger's last lecture, Early Christianity and Greek Paideia (1961) is a very impressive summary of his life's work covering Greek philology, philosophy and theology from Homer, the Presocratic philosophers, Plato to the Church Fathers, roughly a thousand years.
Source

Reviews

[Drew Norwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. In these lectures, Werner Jaeger defines humanism as the "paideia of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle," which was later united with Christian theology in Augustine and Thomas Aquinas (and other medieval scholastics); he contrast this true humanism with its counterfeit: modern, man-centered humanism, which had its birth in the Greek sophist (Protagoras and other relativists of his age) and which later fueled the agnostic and anthropocentric philospohies of more modern times. I don’t know Greek philosophy or medieval theology well enough to assess any of this, but it does encourage me as to Jaeger's view of things, and it excites for starting Jaeger's three volume "Paideia" series.

"[Plato affirmed that] God is the measurement of all things. The word of Protagoras that man is the measurement is reversed and changed into its contrary. The tue paideia, be it education or legislation, is founded on God as the supreme norm. It is--to speak with Plato's Republic--'conversion' from the world of sensual self-deception to the world of the one true being which is the absolute good and the one desirable. Or in the words of Plato's Theaetetus: true human virtue is assimilation to God. The historical development of the Greek mind seems to move in a circle, for Plato has arrived again at the same point at which the Greek way had started. The world of Plato like that of Homer may be described as at once anthropocentric and theocentric. Man and human life are in the foreground of Socrates' and Plato's thought and in that sense it is anthropocentric; but God is in the center of that human world. In spite of this analogy with Homer the relation of man to the superhuman in Plato's philosophy is no longer the Homeric one. It is based on the intrinsic experience of the soul and its forces, most of all the force of reason which is the golden link that connects the philosopher with God. Thus the circle of which we spoke is not a real circle after all, but the development resembles a spiral which ascends and thereby arrives at a higher point perpendicularly above its point of departure. The insight into the nature of this development of the philosophical mind of the Greeks is enlightening in the highest degree. For the return of the human mind to its point of departure and the new synthesis of all the elements which had emancipated themselves from their original unity during the earlier stages of that process seems to indicate an inherent structural law of the mind which requires God as the center of its world, the cosmos both without and within."

"The religious foundations of earlier Greek life had been crumbling gradually during the 5th century. We can pursue the barometric curve of this intellectual process in the works of Attic tragedy, Aeschylus, sophocles, and Euripides. . . At the beginning of the 5th century, B.C., we have the founder of tragedy, the prophetic Aeschylus, whose mind is deeply rooted in the religious tradition of his people. He is like a wrestler of gigantic strength. That strength is due to his unshakeable confidence in the divine wisdom that governs the life of man in spite of its tragic nature which stirs the poet's human sympathy and fear. Sophocles, to my mind the greatest artist of the three, has accomplished in his works a perfect balance of the human and the divine aspects of life. He does not question the godsent character of events, but he has neither the power nor desire of Aeschylus to struggle with the problem of God for its own sake. He silently bows to the inaccessible majesty of the superhuman but he turns with all his intensity towards the human side of the picture. His art is centered around the suffering and the tragic greatness of his hero, man. The third of the classical tragedians of Athens, Euripides, is an artist of tremendous gifts, but his world, entirely humanized and relativistic, lacks an absolute center. He is a sceptic, the true contemporary of Protagoras. The historians of this age, Thucydides, tells the story of the Peloponnesian war as the collapse not only o the Athens' power and empire but also of Greek society, faith, and morality. He shows the naturalism of his time at work in real life. And against this background we must see the sophists with their despaired idea of human culture which makes man the measurement of all things."

[AShaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

Foundational lecture for anyone trying to get into humanism/theological studies. Jaeger, with such clarity and brief introduction gives you all the context you need in understanding the history and origin of “humanism”. Many other books consume volumes and chapters with what he summarized in mere paragraphs. Very short read and well worth the space on your shelf.

[David Haines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ce livre donne un bon analyse de l'importance et l'effet de la véritable humanisme (que l'auteur retrouve chez Thomas d'Aquin, Augustine, et, moins efficace, chez les théologiens de la renaissance) qui est, en réalité, theo-centrique. Écrit par un maître de la philosophie ancienne, ce livre vaut vraiment la peine d'être lu.

[I · Rating 5 out of 5]

În prefața cărții "Dincolo de bine și de rău", Nietzsche definea creștinismul ca fiind "platonicism pentru norod". În scurta lucrare intitulată "Umanism și teologie", Werner Jaeger prezintă istoria dezvoltării teologiei creștine în acord cu cultura grecilor antici, cultură a cărei piloni sunt considerați a fi "natura umană și rațiunea".
Dimensiunile reduse ale acestei cărți nu sacrifică complexitatea sa, autorul reușind să ne ofere o istorie a umanismului și multiple argumente ce dovedesc legătura strânsă dintre creștinism și filosofia greacă.

[Quodvultdeus Septemcastrensis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Textele „Umanism și Teologie” și „Paideia Christi” se prezintă mai mult decât actuale în aceste vremuri în care, precum în deceniul premergător celui de-al doilea Război Mondial, a devenit din nou o modă în a accentua rupturile, revoluțiile, conflictele și discontinuitățile istorice. Werner Jaeger, urmând modelul Sfinților Părinți și al Sfântului Toma de Aquino, ne oferă o perspectivă asupra dezvoltării teologiei creștine în raport cu filosofia greacă în care diferențele și contrastele sunt suprimate într-o sinteză care reușește să îndreptățească fiecare moment al progresului istoric. Istoria este un tot organic în care fiecare parte, deși aparent autonomă, este subîntinsă și salvgardată de întreg. Mai mult decât atât, pentru filosofii greci și teologii creștini, istoria nu numai că are un sens, dar ea este și locul de desfășurare a pedagogiei providențiale care călăuzește umanitatea înspre împlinirea propriei ei naturi, al cărui scop ultim este, indiferent de cum îl numim, eternizarea, îndumnezeirea sau restaurarea asemănării cu Dumnezeu. Aceasta este vechea și nepieritoarea înțelepciune umanistă pe care Jaeger ne-o propune ca antidot la derivele fals umaniste. – Dan Siserman