Historical Development of Scholasticism:
– Scholasticism originated from Latin and Greek roots, emphasizing school-related activities.
– Key historical figures like Boethius, Anselm of Canterbury, and Peter Lombard laid the foundations of Christian scholasticism.
– Early scholasticism saw a revival of learning in the West through figures like Johannes Scotus Eriugena and the Toledo school of translators.
– High scholasticism flourished in the 13th and early 14th centuries, with notable figures such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham influencing various fields of study.
Variants of Scholasticism:
– Spanish Scholasticism, with the School of Salamanca and key figures like Francisco de Vitoria and Domingo de Soto focusing on moral philosophy and economics.
– Late Scholasticism, which emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries, mainly led by Jesuits and addressing theological and philosophical issues.
– Protestant Scholasticism, post-Reformation, where Calvinists and Lutherans adopted the scholastic method with varying theological content.
– Reformed Scholasticism, influenced by John Calvin, emphasized predestination and covenant theology.
Revivals and Movements in Scholasticism:
– Neo-Scholasticism, a 19th-century revival known as neo-Thomism, emphasizing medieval scholastic philosophy and Thomistic thought.
– Analytical Scholasticism, a revival in analytic philosophy merging scholastic and analytic methodologies, with notable proponents like Anthony Kenny and Peter King.
– Thomistic Scholasticism, continuous in the Dominican Order, stresses the tradition from St. Thomas Aquinas and critiques contemporary thought.
Scholastic Method and Practices:
– Focus on acquiring and communicating knowledge effectively through philological and logical analysis.
– Disputationes were arranged to resolve disputes, and students learned through critical reading and dialectics.
– The method emphasized replicating the discovery process and engaging in structured debates for knowledge acquisition.
Resources and Further Reading on Scholasticism:
– Scholarly works like Trueman and Clark’s “Protestant Scholasticism” and Rexroth’s “Knowledge True and Useful” offer in-depth exploration of scholasticism.
– External resources like the ALCUIN database, the Catholic Encyclopedia, and Jacob Schmutz’s Scholasticon provide extensive information for further study.
– Various primary and secondary sources, including books and articles, offer valuable insights into the history and impact of scholasticism.
Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translated scholastic Judeo-Islamic philosophies, and thereby "rediscovered" the collected works of Aristotle. Endeavoring to harmonize his metaphysics and its account of a prime mover with the Latin Catholic dogmatic trinitarian theology, these monastic schools became the basis of the earliest European medieval universities, contributing to the development of modern science; scholasticism dominated education in Europe from about 1100 to 1700. The rise of scholasticism was closely associated with these schools that flourished in Italy, France, Portugal, Spain and England.
Scholasticism is a method of learning more than a philosophy or a theology, since it places a strong emphasis on dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference and to resolve contradictions. Scholastic thought is also known for rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. In the classroom and in writing, it often takes the form of explicit disputation; a topic drawn from the tradition is broached in the form of a question, oppositional responses are given, a counterproposal is argued and oppositional arguments rebutted. Because of its emphasis on rigorous dialectical method, scholasticism was eventually applied to many other fields of study.
Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy, especially that of Aristotle but also of Neoplatonism. The Scholastics, also known as Schoolmen, included as its main figures Anselm of Canterbury ("the father of scholasticism"), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas's masterwork Summa Theologica (1265–1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy; it began while Aquinas was regent master at the studium provinciale of Santa Sabina in Rome, the forerunner of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. Important work in the scholastic tradition has been carried on well past Aquinas's time, such as English scholastics Robert Grosseteste and his student Roger Bacon, and for instance by Francisco Suárez and Luis de Molina, and also among Lutheran and Reformed thinkers.
