The Greeks and Romans developed a place for testimony and authority in topics manuals as nontechnical, extrinsic, or inartificial arguments. The early Christians, dependent upon Jewish history and reports of Jesus’ work and resurrection, had reason to emphasize the reasonableness of reliance on testimony. Luke in his sketch of Jesus’ life and the early church bases his authority on eyewitness accounts. Paul, outlining his authority to teach, claims access to divine testimony. As Christians came to dominate Western education, they had good reason to retain Greek and Roman ways of teaching testimony and authority in the art of being reasonable.

St. Augustine is the most important figure in this creating a Christianized version for the dialectic using testimony. Augustine did not simply baptize classical traditions. He created a new tradition that was psychologically deeper, epistemologically more sophisticated, and ecclesiastically anchored. In medieval Europe the classical and Augustinian traditions of testimony and authority were constricted within two lesser traditions, the Boethian and Cassiodoran. In both cases, the traditions were stripped down and presented without the rich examples, discussion, or analysis of earlier writers. Boethius encouraged a philosophical and theological tradition that held extrinsic knowledge at arm’s length. He also tantalizingly but without explanation proposed a position between Aristotle’s persuasive truth and Stoic assent that depended on a spontaneous and willing belief. Cassiodorus was the most significant developer of a pedagogical tradition that encouraged emphasis on testimony and authority. Working in the Hellenistic tradition of encyclopedists who wrote economical and comprehensive guides to the liberal arts, Cassiodorus provided an overview of what should be taught in each of the seven arts, which became the model for the tightly packaged form of dialectic that came to dominate Renaissance and early modern education. Given the centrality of historical reports in Christianity, it is surprising that the Christian-dominated culture of medieval Europe did not do more with the dialectic of testimony and authority; however, Augustine, Boethius, and Cassiodorus kept testimony and authority firmly in the curriculum.

EYEWITNESSES AND FAITH BEFORE AUGUSTINE

Early Christian apologetics was founded on appeals to the authority of history and eyewitness testimony. Stephen, the first martyr, was stoned after reinterpreting the history of Abraham, Moses, and David in a way that supported Christianity.