Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T23:14:33.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2.3 - Christian Platonism in the Medieval West

from II - History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2021

By
Lydia Schumacher
Edited by
Alexander J. B. Hampton  and
John Peter Kenney
Alexander J. B. Hampton
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
John Peter Kenney
Affiliation:
Saint Michael's College, Vermont
Get access

Summary

This chapter calls into question the longstanding notion that early Franciscans simply systematized or rehearsed ideas from Augustine and highlights instead how they employed Avicenna and Arabic philosophy to forge a completely new understanding of the bishop’s thought. Although this version of Augustinianism was initially passed off as a reading of the Aristotelian tradition as well, it became disassociated with Aristotle as the next generation came to a more authentic understanding of the Greek philosopher’s thought. By contrast, the Augustinianism invented by early Franciscans continued to be widely promulgated and defended for generations and thus impacted conceptions of Christian Platonism that remain influential to this day.

Keywords

FranciscansTheology of AristotleLiber de causisAlexander of HalesJohn of La Rochelledivine illumination
Type
Chapter
Information
Christian Platonism
A History
 , pp. 183 - 206
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamson, Peter. Al-Kindi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Aertsen, Jan A. Medieval Philosophy as Transcendental Thought: From Philip the Chancellor to Francisco Suárez. Leiden: Brill, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander of Hales., Doctoris irrefragabilis Alexandri de Hales Ordinis minorum Summa theologica, 4 vols. Quaracchi: Collegii S. Bonaventurae, 1924–48.Google Scholar
Avicenna Latinus: Liber de Anima seu Sextus de Naturalibus I–III, ed. Simone, Van Riet. Leiden: Brill, 1972.Google Scholar
Avicenna Latinus: Liber de Anima seu Sextus de Naturalibus IV–V, ed. Simone, Van Riet. Leiden: Brill, 1968.Google Scholar
Bazán, Bernardo Carlos. ‘The Human Soul: Form and Substance? Thomas Aquinas’ Critique of Eclectic Aristotelianism’. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age 64 (1997): 95–126.Google Scholar
Bazán, Bernardo Carlos‘Pluralism de formes ou dualism de substances? La pensée pré-thomiste touchant la nature de l’âme’. Revue philosophique de Louvain 67 (1969): 30–73.Google Scholar
Bazán, Bernardo Carlos‘Was There Ever a First Averroism?’ In Geistesleben im 13. Jahrhundert, ed. Aertsen, Jan A. and Speer, Andreas. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.Google Scholar
Bertolacci, Amos. ‘A Community of Translators: The Latin Medieval Versions of Avicenna’s Book of the Cure’. In Communities of Learning: Networks and the Shaping of Intellectual Identity in Europe 1100–1500, ed. Mews, Constant J. and Crossley, John N., 37–54. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.Google Scholar
Bertolacci, Amos.‘On the Latin Reception of Avicenna’s Metaphysics before Albertus Magnus: An Attempt at Periodization’. In The Arabic, Hebrew and Latin Reception of Avicenna’s Metaphysics, ed. Hasse, Dag Nikolaus and Bertolacci, Amos, 197–223. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012.Google Scholar
Bieniak, Magdalena. The Soul-Body Problem at Paris. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Bieniak, Magdalena. ‘Una questione disputata di Ugo di St Cher sull’anima edizione e studio dottrinale’. Studia Antyczne I Mediewistyczne 37 (2004): 127–84.Google Scholar
Burrell, David and Isabelle, Moulin. ‘Albert, Aquinas and Dionysius’. Modern Theology 24, no. 4 (2008): 633–49.Google Scholar
Callus, Daniel A. ‘Introduction of Aristotelian Learning to Oxford’. Proceedings of the British Academy 29 (1943): 229–81, 264–5.Google Scholar
Callus, Daniel A.‘The Powers of the Soul: An Early Unpublished Text’. Recherches de Théologie ancienne et médiévale 19 (1952): 131–70.Google Scholar
Dales, Richard C. The Problem of the Rational Soul in the Thirteenth Century. Leiden: Brill, 1995.Google Scholar
Dales, Richard C.‘The Understanding of Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy by the Early Scholastics’. In The Intellectual Climate of the Early University: Essays in Honor of Otto Gründler, ed. van Deusen, Nancy, 141–50. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1997.Google Scholar
D’Ancona, Cristina, ‘Greek into Arabic: Neoplatonism in Translation’. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, ed. Adamson, Peter and Taylor, Richard, 10–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
D’Ancona, Cristina‘The Liber de causis’. In Interpreting Proclus: From Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. Gersh, Stephen, 137–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
D’Ancona, Cristina‘The Origins of Islamic Philosophy’. In The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, vol. 2, ed. Gerson, Lloyd P., 869–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
D’Ancona, Cristina‘The Textual Tradition of the Graeco-Arabic Plotinus’. In The Letter Before the Spirit: The Importance of Text Traditions for the Study of the Reception of Aristotle, ed. van Oppenraaii, Aafke M. I., 37–71. Leiden: Brill, 2012.Google Scholar
D’Ancona, Cristina‘The Theology Attributed to Aristotle: Sources, Structure, Influence’. In The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, ed. Schmidtke, Sabine and El-Rouayheb, Khaled, 8–29. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Dauphinias, Michael et al., eds. Aquinas the Augustinian. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007.Google Scholar
de Boer, Sander. The Science of the Soul: The Commentary Tradition on Aristotle’s De anima c. 1260–1360. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Dondaine, Henri F. Le corpus Dionysien de l’Université de Paris au XIII siècle. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e letteratura, 1953.Google Scholar
Doucet, Victorin. ‘The History of the Problem of the Summa’. Franciscan Studies 7 (1947): 26–41, 274–312.Google Scholar
Doucet, Victorin.‘Prolegomena in librum III necnon in libros I et II Summa Fratris Alexandri’. In Alexandri de Hales Summa Theologica. Quaracchi: Collegio S Bonaventurae, 1948.Google Scholar
Dronke, Peter, ed. A History of Twelfth-Century Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Endress, Gerard. ‘Building the Library of Arabic Philosophy: Platonism and Aristotelianism in the Sources of Al-Kindi’. In The Libraries of the Neoplatonists, ed. D’Ancona, Cristina, 319–50. Leiden: Brill, 2007.Google Scholar
Even-Ezra, Ayelet. ‘The Summa Halensis: A Text in Context’. In The Summa Halensis: Sources and Doctrines, ed. Schumacher, Lydia. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020.Google Scholar
Finan, Thomas and Twomey, Vincent, eds. The Relationship Between Neoplatonism and Christianity. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Gannagé, Emma. ‘The Rise of Falsafa: Al-Kindi (d. 873), On First Philosophy’. In The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Philosophy, ed. Schmidtke, Sabine and El-Rouayheb, Khaled, 30–62. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Gersh, Stephen. ‘The First Principles of Latin Neoplatonism: Augustine, Macrobius, Boethius’. Vivarium 50, no. 2 (2012): 113–38.Google Scholar
Gersh, Stephen.From Iamblichus to Eriugena: An Investigation of the Prehistory and Evolution of the Pseudo-Dionysian Tradition. Leiden: Brill, 1978.Google Scholar
Gersh, Stephen.Middle Platonism and Neoplatonism, vol. 2: The Latin Tradition. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Gilson, Étienne. ‘Les sources Greco-arabes de l’augustinisme avicennisant’. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen age 4 (1929): 5–107.Google Scholar
Gössmann, Elisabeth. Metaphysik und Heilsgeschichte: Eine theologische Untersuchung der Summa Halensis (Alexander von Hales). Munich: Max Hueber, 1964.Google Scholar
Hankey, Wayne J. ‘Aquinas, Plato and Neoplatonism’. In The Oxford Handbook of Aquinas, ed. Davies, Brian, 55–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Hasse, Dag. N. Avicenna’s De Anima in the Latin West. London: The Warburg Institute, 2000.Google Scholar
John of La Rochelle, . Summa de anima. Ed. Bougerol, Jacques Guy. Paris: Vrin, 1995.Google Scholar
Karamanolis, George E. Plato and Aristotle in Agreement? Platonists on Aristotle from Antiochus to Porphyry. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
McGinn, Bernard, ed. Three Treatises on Man. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1977.Google Scholar
O’Daly, Gerard. Platonism Pagan and Christian: Studies in Plotinus and Augustine. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.Google Scholar
O’Meara, J. J. Eriugena. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.Google Scholar
O’Rourke, Fran. Pseudo-Dionysius and the Metaphysics of Aquinas. South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Otten, Willemien. ‘Christianity’s Content: (Neo)Platonism in the Middle Ages, Its Theoretical and Theological Appeal’. Numen 63, nos. 2–3 (2016): 245–70.Google Scholar
Porro, Pasquale. ‘The University of Paris in the Thirteenth Century: Proclus and the Liber de causis’. In Interpreting Proclus: From Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. Gersh, Stephen, 264–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Rist, John M. Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Rosemann, Philipp W. The Story of a Great Medieval Book: Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Franz. ‘The Knowledge of Plato’s Philosophy in the Islamic World’. Islamic Culture 13, no. 4 (1940): 387–422.Google Scholar
Saint John Damascene, De fide orthodoxa: Versions of Burgundio and Cerbanus. Ed. Buytaert, Eligius M.. St Bonaventure: Franciscan Institute, 1955.Google Scholar
Salman, O.P., Dominique, H., ‘Jean de La Rochelle et les débuts de l’Averroisme Latin’. Archives d’histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Age (1947–8): 133–44.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Lydia. Divine Illumination: The History and Future of Augustine’s Theory of Knowledge. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.Google Scholar
Schumacher, Lydia. Early Franciscan Theology: Between Authority and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Senocak, Neslihan. The Poor and the Perfect: The Rise of Learning in the Franciscan Order 1209–1310. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Spatz, Nancy. ‘Approaches and Attitudes to a New Theology Textbook: The Sentences of Peter Lombard’. In The Intellectual Climate of the Early University, 27–52. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997.Google Scholar
Quinn, Patrick. Aquinas, Platonism and the Knowledge of God. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1996.Google Scholar
Southern, Richard. Platonism, Scholastic Method and the School of Chartres. Reading: Reading University Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Théry, Gabriel. Autour du décret de 1210 (Paris: Bibliothèque Thomiste, 1932).Google Scholar
Théry, Gabriel. ‘L’authenticité du De spiritu et anima dans Saint Thomas et Albert le Grand’. Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 10 (1921): 373–7.Google Scholar
Turner, Denys. The Darkness of God: Negativity and Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiznovsky, Robert. ‘Avicenna and the Avicennian Tradition’. In The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy, ed. Adamson, Peter, 92–136. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×