Reason and Belief in the Age of Roscelin and Abelard

Constant J. Mews

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040250792
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

The previous collection by Constant J. Mews focused on the work and thought of Peter Abelard (1079-1142); the present volume looks more broadly at Abelard's intellectual and religious context in the Latin West, and at his teacher, the controversial nominalist philosopher and theologian, Roscelin of Compiègne. It opens with surveys of educational theory and practice in the 12th-century schools. Mews next explores the widespread movement in the period which sought to explain religious belief in terms accessible to reason, and the background to accusations of heresy made by monks troubled by new attempts to interpret Christian belief, both within and outside a school environment. Five related studies then deal with previously unedited texts by Roscelin of Compiègne and St Anselm that throw new light on the importance of the philosopher and theologian who exercised a major influence on Peter Abelard.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• I Orality, Literacy, and Authority in the Twelfth-Century Schools
• II Philosophy and Theology 1100-1150: The Search for Harmony
• III Guibert of Nogent's Monodiae (III, 17) in an Appendage to the De haeresibus of Augustine
• IV In Search of a Name and its Significance: A Twelfth-Century Anecdote about Thierry and Peter Abaelard
• V La Bibliothèque du Paraclet du XIIIe Siècle a la Révolution
• VI St Anselm and Roscelin: Some New Texts and their Implications. I. The De incarnatione verbi and the Disputatio inter Christianum et Gentilem
• VII Nominalism and Theology before Abaelard: New Light on Roscelin of Compiègne
• VIII St Anselm, Roscelin and the See of Beauvais
• IX The Trinitarian Doctrine of Roscelin of Compiègne and its Influence: Twelfth-Century Nominalism and Theology Re-considered
• X St Anselm and Roscelin of Compiègne: Some New Texts and their Implications. II. A Vocalist Essay on the Trinity and Intellectual Debate c. 1080-1120
• Addenda and Corrigenda
• Index
• Index of Manuscripts