Ann Blair, CB20

Lecture 6: Aquinas and contemporaries on eternity of the world I. Spectrum of opinion in mid-13th ct Paris • disagreements within the Church, over independence of arts faculty (=philosophy teaching) and use of reason • absent from this spectrum: Tertullian, mystics

II. Radical Aristotelianism: Siger of Brabant (d. 1281) • independence of philosophy in the universities • combined with fideism (belief by faith alone) • interpreted in 19th ct as free-thinking (=early atheism) • accused at the time of leading to a double truth • major source is Averroes, the Commentator See Oliver Leaman, Averroes and his Philosophy (1988)

III. Conservative theology: Bonaventure (d. 1274), Franciscan • reason is a divine gift flawed by the Fall: reason cannot find truth alone, always needs guidance of faith • main source is Augustine • reason properly exercised proves creation See Etienne Gilson, Philosophy of St Bonaventure (1965)

IV. The middle way: Thomas Aquinas (1227-74), Dominican • one truth (against Siger) • reason and faith in harmony; reason cannot contradict faith, but reason has its limits (source: Maimonides) • preambles of faith vs. mysteries of faith • risk of scandal to the Church by abusing reason (e.g. Bonaventure) • Aquinas one of many scholastic theologians, the favorite of the Dominicans; canonized in 1323; declared doctor of the Church in 1567; in 1879 upheld as the model for Catholic theology by pope Leo XIII See Cambridge Companion to Aquinas (1993), eg. David Burrell "Aquinas and Islamic and Jewish thinkers"

Terms to retain: Radical Aristotelianism=Latin Averroism; Siger of Brabant, Bonaventure, Aquinas; double truth; fideism; rationalism; Averroes, Maimonides; preambles of faith vs mysteries of faith; one truth; scandal to the Church; post-lapsarian (=after the Fall)