History of the Church I: Week 16

Gothic Cathedrals  The Gothic Churches built in the Middle Ages were built to illustrate two ideas:  First – the tall pillars were built make men look towards God  Second – the windows were made to show light or wisdom of God

Scholasticism  For years students were taught the “Dark Ages” was a 1000 year period when there was no learning and Europe actually regressed intellectually  Nothing could be further from the truth  Rodney Stark in his book “Victory of Reason” refutes this by pointing out several points  The monks in the 9 th used capitalism  The scholastics in Europe encouraged education  Most technology was developed in Europe

Scholasticism  Stark wrote a second book called “The Rise of Christianity” in which he says that Christianity actually promoted learning  Universities actually were started to explain the light of God’s truth  This movement was called scholasticism  It had a two-fold purpose:  To reconcile Christian doctrine and human reason  To arrange the teachings of the church in an orderly system

Scholasticism  The basis for this learning remained the same: this a not a “free search” for truth  The purpose was to show the reasonableness of the doctrines and to explore their implications  Naturally this movement started with the monks in the monasteries but eventually spread beyond them  Even as far back as Charlemagne, the goal was to provide education to all those able to learn

Scholasticism  What drew students to this new type of learning were the master teachers  These master teachers started to teach in towns where they had patrons who would allow them to teach full-time  From these master teachers, universities spread up where students would pay the masters for an “education”  The 1 st universities started in France but quickly spread to England and Italy

Peter Abelard  One of the early masters in France  Came from a wealthy background and was able to travel to get a top education  In time, he started to lecture and write in Paris where he developed a following  His work Sic et Non (Yes and No) discussed 158 questions about Christian teaching by answering each one  However his teaching method of inquiry ran him afoul of the Church and he was condemned for heresy

Thomas Aquinas  The Papacy was watching all this educational work with high interest  The Popes wanted to make sure the Church retain its power  The university at Bologna became endorsed by the Pope as the university on canon law or matters dealing with theology  Eventually, the universities questioned even Church matters so the Pope sent Aquinas  He wrote the work Summa Theologica – reason does not contradict revelation