Stormy though it was, Abelard's life gives at first sight an impression of consistency. He was a dedicated teacher who had a devoted student following but who also, as a young logician, a middle-aged monk and an elderly theologian, aroused widespread antagonism. Quarrels – with his teachers, his superiors, his colleagues and with the Church authorities – provided the backdrop to his other activities. Similarly, his work, although varied in form and subject, appears to show a high degree of continuity. There is throughout his writings the same willingness to challenge accepted views, to find and dwell on awkward questions, and to press ideas to their logical conclusions. The tools and vocabulary of logic are almost everywhere on display in his theological writings, and favourite concepts and themes recur from text to text. Even the one episode which fits uneasily into a life otherwise so devoted to ideas, the romance with Heloise, is characteristic of Abelard's wholeheartedness, his disregard of consequences and his practical unwisdom.

In fact, however, the apparent consistency hides an important break. This break was the direct though paradoxical result of Abelard's romance and marriage. After his castration, Abelard became a monk. He did so, he admits, not from religious zeal but out of shame. Yet, once he had entered religious life, he quickly (if not so quickly as he claims) began to take the ideas of monasticism very seriously. He did not abandon intellectual work for prayer, but his main interest shifted, gradually but decisively, away from logic to theology. His life remained one of conflicts, but their character altered. As a teacher of logic, he had been embroiled in the ecclesiastical and clan rivalries of the time, not because of what he taught but because his teaching was seen to be outstanding.