1. Week 2
The Medieval Mindset

2. Christianity and the West
Christ was born into the height of the Roman Empire 3 B.C A.D.
Bible contains the Old Testament of Judaism and the New Testament containing the 4 Gospels and Letters of St. Paul.
The Trinity = Hypostatic Union
Church develops in the 4th century - Catholicism
Emperor Constantine - Edit of Milan 313

3. Early Christian Communities
Local leaders: Bishops - used the system set up by Diocletian …. hence Dioceses
Regional variation in doctrine and ritual
Nature of resurrection
Role of women
Gradual acceptance of core texts
Ecumenical “Church” Councils
Council of Nicaea - 325
Council of Chalcedon - 451

4. Christian Morality Tertullian 160-240
What Has Jerusalem to do with Athens?
What exactly is Tertullian’s point in this excerpt?
Philosophical Standpoint

5. The Germanic Successor States, c. 500
Last Roman emperor deposed by Germanic Odoacer, 476 CE
Administrative apparatus still in place, but cities lose population
Germanic successor states:
Spain: Visigoths
Italy: Ostrogoths
Gaul: Burgundians, Franks
Britian: Angles, Saxons

7. Western Thought
Christianity helped to shape Western Thought in the Early Middle Ages.
Church Fathers are the source of intellectualism
St. Jerome
St. Ambrose
St. Augustine
Boethius

8. St. Jerome 340-430 Vulgate - Latin translation of the Bible
A big influence on the medieval Latin literature.

9. The First Father
As a result of contribution to the dissemination of the “good news” Jerome is deemed the first father of the Church.
Avidly supported the monastic community
Misogynistic views that looked to women as the fall of man.

10. St. Ambrose 340-397 Archbishop of Milan On the Duties of Ministers
Extremely Active in the concerns of the world

11. Stoic Christianity
Ambrose’s work on Christian Duty closely resembled Cicero’s work On Duties.
Reverence of God should supersede all human conduct.
Gift of Grace is something that God helps some Christians see but not all.
Emperor Theodosius and importance of morality
Church and State Relations?

12. St. Augustine 354-430 Arguably the greatest of all the Church Fathers
Basis for Medieval Theology and Philosophy
Struggled with his Christianity

13. Moral Evil
How can one explain the existence of evil in human experience?
Christianity preached the existence of a “Good” God.
If God created all things, and God was good, then how is it possible for evil to exist in a perfectly good world?

14. A wayward Christian
Although his mother was a devout Christian, Augustine did not get baptized until age 33.
Influenced by Manicheanism and Plotinus he struggled to find meaning in the world.
Confessions - explains how he discovered God
Influenced by Ambrose in 387 who he traveled to hear preach the Good News.
Converts and quickly ascends … became the Bishop of Hippo in 395

15. Overcoming Skepticism
Any conscious person is certain he exists, that he is alive, and that he can think
“We move up toward God form exterior to the interior”

16. Doctrine of Illumination
Plato discussed the concept of memory … world of the forms.
To Augustine this is Grace and it comes directly from God.

17. Ex Nihilo God created all things ex nihilo that is ‘out of nothing’
“We made not ourselves, but He made us that abideth forever”
Distinction between finite and infinite.

18. Augustinian Theology The Sinfulness of Humanity
God’s Omnipotence and Human Corruption
Although one has the power to choose good over evil, only God chooses to save mankind.
Doctrine of Predestination

19. City of God
Augustine believed people chose good in the hopes that they would be chosen by God (Grace).
Doctrine of Charity (good works) and avoids a life of cupidity.
City of Earth - “live according to man” vs. City of God = “live according to God”

21. Boethius
A roman aristocrat who became a follower of Augustine
Ancient Learning at the end of Antiquity
Liberal Arts
More of a philosopher than a theologian

22. Liberal Arts Boethius wanted to preserve the ancient ways of learning.
grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music
Wrote handbooks on two … arithmetic and music

23. Consolation of Philosophy
Christian Theology = Augustinian as seen in the Consolation of Philosophy
Condemned to die by Theodoric asks the questions - What is human happiness?
Highest Good = pursuit of God

24. The Wheel of Fortune
Since Boethius was condemned to die, he equated his life to the downward fall of the Rota Fortunae
Myth of Orpheus - man chooses good or evil
“Happy is he who can look into the shining spring of good; happy is he who can break the heavy chains of earth”

26. St. Anselm 1033-1109 No clear line between philosophy and theology
Sought clarity in the depiction of the universe as related to God.

27. Ontological Argument Faith Seeking Understanding
Psalms 14:1 “The fool in his heart said there is no God”
That than which nothing greater can be thought

28. The Essence Monologion and Proslogion Degrees of gradation
He already starts with his mind and the belief in God
The Definition of God
Issues???

29. Avicenna
Born in Persia and studied geometry, logic, jurisprudence, physics, theology and the Koran.
Became a physician at 16
Rediscovery of Aristotle

30. Proof For God Something Exists
Either it is a necessary being or a possible being
If it is a necessary being, then QED
If it is a possible being, then its existence must be caused by some other being
This other being causes must be either necessary or possible.
There cannot be an infinite series of possible beings.
Therefore there must be a necessary being

31. Averroes 1126-1198 Spanish Muslim scholar
Rejected the disillusion between essence and existence
The Truth

32. Moses Maimonides 1135-1204 Spanish Jewish scholar
Guide of the Perplexed
Borrowed heavily from the philosophy of Aristotle

33. The Perplexed No contraction between faith and reason
Law (Torah) and Philosophy does not contradict
“The goal (teleos) of human life is to achieve humanity’s appropriate perfection.

34. Scholasticism Emphasis upon logic and dialectic
Conceptual analysis rooted in the art of disputation
Aristotelian principle of Sufficient Reason

35. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 Influenced by Avicenna and Maimonides
Linked God to Humans

36. Via Antique Aquinas believed that essence was existence. I am who am
Deontological - cause to effect
The Five Proofs - Aristotle’s Reasons for Causality.
Summa Contra Gentiles & Summa Theological

37. The Five Ways Proof from Motion Proof from Efficient Cause
Proof from Necessary versus Possible Beings
Proof from Degrees of Perfection
Proof from the Order of the World

38. Views on Law
Eternal Law
Natural Law
Human Law
Divine Law

39. William of Ockham 1280 - 1349 Ockham’s Razor
Reduces everything to the simplest equation.
Nominalism

40. Via Moderna
Ockham did not believe there was a need for proofs because there is faith.
There are no UNIVERSALS outside of words and concepts.
To be is to be an individual

41. Next Week
We shall turn the medieval world upside down and look to the age of progress during the period of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment.
Question Cards - What was the biggest take away from today’s lecture? What questions do you still have lingering?