<<

Introduction

The period between the death of and the recovery of the classical philosophical and theological tradition in the 12th century, between the 5th and the 12th centuries, is still too frequently considered to be a “Dark Age” so far as is concerned. Contemporary scholars con- tinue to reverse this anachronistic interpretation of the Latin Early Medieval period, showing that what seemed to earlier historians to be a defined by absence of philosophical curiosity and theological innovation was in one in which the intellectual foundations for and even for Euro- pean thinking, were developed. But even the dourest critic of medieval intellectual activity, and there can be few more critical than , admitted that one shined with meteoric splendor during the Early Me- dieval period, namely John Scottus Eriugena. Throughout the ’s recovery of the philosophical innovations of the past, scholars have readily perceived Eriugena as an anomaly; here was a subtle and inventive theologian capable of uniting Cappadocian with Aristotelian and with Augustinian , in a time when most theologians were barely conversant with the newly established seven liberal arts. Yet for all the research that has been published on the scholasticism that was to follow him, Eriugena continues to receive less attention from scholars and readers not active in the field of Eriugenian studies than other, better known thinkers. Still, great progress has been made. The 20th century saw the publica- tion of the edition of the Periphyseon of I.P.Sheldon-Williams, supplanting the Migne edition upon which earlier scholars relied, as well as the biographical work and the great critical editions of Edouard Jeauneau; starting with Alice Gardner, Henry Bett and M. Cappuyns, in the first half of the 20th century, and continuing with Dermot Moran, J.J.O’Meara, and Willemien Otten, in the sec- ond half, there have been a series of valuable interpretive studies which have made great forays into the dense forest of the Periphyseon. The proceedings of the various conferences held under the auspices of the for the Promo­ tion of Eriugenian Studies have also greatly contributed to a remarkable body of of many aspects of Eriugena’s as , theolo- gian, translator, and exegete. This volume proposes to afford an overview of the insightfulness and wis- dom of this multi-faceted thinker, teacher and writer. It builds on the prec- edents of Eriugenian scholarship by mapping extant and potential new perspectives on Eriugena’s work, including the Christological dimension of his thought, the correspondence between theology-dialectic-, the

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi:10.1163/9789004399075_002 2 Introduction thinkers and works that have influenced the thought of Eriugena, and finally the impact of Eriugena’s in the middle ages and modernity. The first section provides the context for Eriugena’s thought. Alfred Siew- ers relates Eriugena to the Irish intellectual culture that had developed in the monasteries and scriptoria and its influence on his thinking. John Contreni’s essay outlines the Carolingian philosophical milieu in which Eriugena was formed as a philosopher and as a teacher and his own contributions to this culture through his teaching and writings. Eriugena’s greatest contribution and innovation was to elevate the arts to the status of true wisdom, merging the tradition of the artes with the speculative systems of Dionysius the Areopagite, Maximus Confessor and Augustine. Eriugena’s thought is one of the highlights of Neoplatonism in the Latin West, and Michael Harrington’s essay describes how he used various Neoplatonist sources while exploring philosophical prob- lems associated with the Christian tradition. Harrington recounts Eriugena’s familiarity with ’s Timaeus through Chalcidius, the Cappadocians, Maxi- mus, Dionysius, and Augustine, noting that John never mentions either Por- phyry or in his works. The that is perhaps most indicative of Eriugena’s originality is his that the creatures we perceive and under- stand have their being wholly in . Harrington explores Eriugena’s rea- soning behind this in the second half of his chapter, showing how Eriugena’s analysis of the relation of cause to effect led to his conclusion that all creatures have their formal being in the primordial causes, and that the perceptible ef- fects of these creatures are also real within God. This collapses the typically Augustinian divide between Creator and creature. One consequence of this is to shift the traditional understanding of the ’s being from a lesser spiritual being dependent on the divine ideas for its to an effective equal of those perfect intelligible . Both of these innovations, Harrington concludes, use Neoplatonic reasoning to push beyond the boundaries of Neoplatonism’s standard beliefs. The final essay of the first section, by Christophe Erismann, explores the relationship of Eriugena’s thought to the logical tradition includ- ing Porphyry, Martianus Capella and and explains how he merges it with the Greek logical tradition exemplified by Maximus Confessor. Erismann argues that Eriugena, as a logical realist, is a true innovator in the logical tradi- tion whose blending of , and metaphysics both challenges and entices the reader. The second part of the volume deals with Eriugena’s magnum opus, the Periphyseon, offering several avenues of interpretation of this complex book. To aid the reader who may not have a firm grasp on the argument, Elena Lloyd- Sidle offers a helpful outline and overview of the argument of the Periphyseon. Too often Eriugena is discussed as a philosopher, the creator of a synthesis of Greek theology and Latin metaphysics and it is easy to forget that Eriugena