The second significant piece of late antiquity to survive into the Middle Ages is Christianity. Christianity had grown in importance in the late Roman Empire and, with the demise of the empire’s social structures, the Church remained until the twelfth century virtually the only institution capable of supporting intellectual culture.
• Augustine: We can not properly philosophize until our human wills are transformed, that clear thinking is possible only under the influence of God’s grace. For Augustine, true philosophy was inconceivable without a joining of faith and reason. To him, wisdom was Christian wisdom. He believed that we can not properly philosophize until our human wills are transformed, that clear thinking is possible only under the influence of God’s grace. In this way, Augustine set the dominant direction and style of Christian wisdom of the Middle Ages.
Some problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason, the existence and unity of God, the object of theology and metaphysics, the problems of knowledge, especially of universals, and of individuation. Philosophers from the Middle Ages include the Christian philosophers Augustine of Hippo, Boethius, Anselm, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham， the Muslim philosophers Avicenna, and Averroes; the Jewish philosophers Maimonides。
The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Book VIII, Paragraphs 28 and 29.
• I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain figtree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And, not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto Thee: and Thou, O Lord, how long? how long, Lord, wilt Thou be angry for ever? Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words: How long, how long, "tomorrow, and tomorrow?" Why not now? why not is there this hour an end to my uncleanness? So was I speaking and weeping in the mort, when, lo! I heard from a neighboring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, "Take up and read; Take up and read. " Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember
Background of Medieval Philosophy
Main doctrines: Papacy , Scholastism
St. Augustine Papacy , Thomas Aquinas
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It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that He should not exist. It is the heart which experiences God, and not the reason. --- Blaise Pascal
• The theory of illumination (the analogy between (a) the sun in the visible world and (b) the Form of the Good in the intelligible world. • God (the scriptural name for God given to Moses, “I Am That I Am,” --God is being itself. • Concept of time • Free will as the cause of evil • The two cities • His Confession: his successive conversions from adolescent sensuality-- the image-laden religion of the Manichaeans– a version of Noeplatonism--Christianity
ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.
Focus of the philosophy in the Middle Ages: • Universals • Proofs for God’s existence • The relation between faith and reason sources: Greek, Christianity, Jewish, Muslim thought