In his commentary of Dionysius the Areopagite’s Mystical Theology Albert the Great outlines the allegorical exegesis of Moses’ ascent of the mount as a way to the unknown God. Step by step Moses has to purify himself, to leave behind his natural knowledge. Separated from all human beings he alone proceeds to the cloud of unknown. At last the infusion of divine light lets him know God through negations. The normal, human way of knowing God is limited, so the mind (...) should attain the paradox of knowing in unknowing. Albert claims that all we cannot properly predicate by names obtained from things known to us, is best indicated by negations. The peak described by Dionysius as union, Albert shows to be intellectual perfection. Guided by divine illumination man contemplates the Trinitarian God. Thus contemplation supports any theological investigation. Descending the mountain, as Albert says in his Summa, Moses spoke to the people. Likewise after contemplation the theologian has to illumine others about what he... (shrink)

This study examines the answers of Suarez and Descartes to basic questions regarding the philosophical knowledge of God. It is placed against the background of the reactions to both by Dutch Reformed theologians and philosophers in the seventeenth Century.

Die Konstitution des menschlich-personalen Geistes ist fur Augustinus und Anselm von<I> Canterbury von<I> zentraler Bedeutung. Dabei sind Einheit und Identitat des Geistes und die Erkenntnis Gottes als des immer schon gewussten absoluten Grundes untrennbar miteinander verbunden. Dies wird bei Augustinus unter anderem in der Zeituberhobenheit des Geistes und bei Anselm im ontologischen Argument deutlich. Mit Hilfe der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse konnen auch unterschiedliche Perspektiven in okumenischer Hinsicht deutlich gemacht werden, wie anhand zweier Exkurse aufgezeigt wird.".

The theory of an intuitive knowledge of God and the separate substances, without any conversion to material phantasms, is a doctrine of Albert the Great, which was received by the Cologne Albertists in the fifteenth century as a hallmark of their school in contrast to the Thomistic view. The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it aims to present the most popular Albertist texts of the second half of the fifteenth century, which deal with the explanation of the third (...) book of Aristotle’s De anima: a short commentary and three examples of Reparationes, a new literary genre. Secondly, the paper focuses on the way the Albertists read and interpreted Albert’s theory of the intellect: despite the deference to their master, the Albertists changed some important aspects of his doctrine. (shrink)

Although dominated by scientific and technical methodologies, contemporary philosophy and science remain essential aids for deepening our understanding of faith. Knowledge of the empirical sciences, however, must be complemented by a meta-science that goes beyond phenomenalism. Moreover, I argue that atheistic and agnostic views fail to provide a sufficient basis for the justification of morality.

Although dominated by scientific and technical methodologies, contemporary philosophy and science remain essential aids for deepening our understanding of faith. Knowledge of the empirical sciences, however, must be complemented by a meta-science that goes beyond phenomenalism. Moreover, I argue that atheistic and agnostic views fail to provide a sufficient basis for the justification of morality.

In this paper, I attempt to demonstrate the role emotions play in the reflexive process of the rational knowledge of God in Anselm’s Monologion and Proslogion. Special attention has been paid to the Proslogion, containing the renowned “unum argumentum”, which itself was commonly understood as a special form of Anselm’s methodology of the “sola ratione” for the knowledge of God. It could be seen as a significant argument against the emotions as affective expression of the soul, disqualifying the relevance of (...) the “affectus”. Introduced in the Monologion, the emotion is there a basic concept in the argument for the knowledge of God, and it assumes its full shape in the Proslogion. The aim of my contribution is to give an insight in the cognitive attitude, in respect to “affectus” as a “leading power” of the soul, as it unites with “ratio” and “fides” for the knowledge of God as a whole in the Proslogion. (shrink)

This study, regarding the problems surrounding 'time' during the 9th to 11th centuries, offers new insights into the scientific interests and rationality of the quadrivium, and argues for the existence of a 'discovery of nature' prior to the 12th century.