This study of the interaction of the Aristotelian and Augustinian views of the soul traces the disarray of Latin concepts by 1240, the solutions of Bonaventure ...

The question of the eternity of the world was much debated in antiquity, for it seemed to be one of the key philosophical differences between the majority of pagan philosophers and the Christians. Indeed, the whole meaning of the Christian drama was grounded in a historical account of the cosmos, which had an absolute beginning at the Creation, a critical turning point at the Incarnation, and a triumphant conclusion at the Resurrection. But the pagan philosophers, with the possible exception of (...) Plato, who was ambiguous on this point, taught by means of highly sophisticated arguments that the world was eternal. This occasioned a head-on clash between the Fathers and the philosophers, and it provoked a good deal of thought on the part of the Christian writers. This thought was crystalized in Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and Augustine's Confessions and City of God. The problem seems to have been largely forgotten during the formative period of Latin Christianity from the seventh to the ninth centuries; the traditional Christian version of the beginning was frequently asserted, but the question was not argued, nor was there any attempt to reconcile Genesis with the teaching of the philosophers. (shrink)

The 65th year of a scholar who has devoted 40 years to editing and elucidating Robert Grosseteste provides us with a collection of essays. Not surprisingly, they emanate from colleagues and former students of Richard Dales and reflect his interest, among other concerns, in Grosseteste's aspectus et affectus - range of vision and disposition of mind - those twin peaks with which the 13th century thinker helped to get Christian thought through Aristotle without mutual destruction.

L'A. pubblica una quaestio di Gilberto di Stratton, contenuta nel ms. Assisi, Bibl. Comunale, 158 dal titolo Utrum aliquod eviternum potuit fuisse Deo coeternum che, a suo avviso, rappresenta forse il primo esempio di difesa della posizione assunta da Tommaso all'interno del dibattito de aeterniate mundi, posizione che, come è noto, fu oggetto di condanna nel 1277 . Nella breve introd. che precede il testo, l'A. sottolinea il fatto che Gilberto oltre a riprendere e ad assumere la posizione di Tommaso, (...) ed in particolare quella della non contradditorietà tra l'esse factum e l'esse aeternum, mostra di conoscere le critiche che aveva mosso Bonaventura al Doctor angelicus e gli argomenti ex infinito formulati dal maestro francescano per dimostrare l'inizio temporale del mondo. Di Gilberto esiste un'altra quaestio contenuta nello stesso ms. e che sembra una versione alterata del De aeternitate di Tommaso e che l'A. ha pubblicato con O. Argerami in Leiden 1993. (shrink)

Robert Grosseteste was one of the principal links between the thought of the twelfth century and the period of scholasticism. Born in or slightly before 1168 and educated at the cathedral school at Lincoln, whose bishop he later became, he was undoubtedly educated according to the curriculum which had been established during the earlier part of the twelfth century. His works show an intimate knowledge of the Timaeus and Calcidius's commentary, of Priscian, and of Martianus Capella's De nuptiis, writings which, (...) although they were sometimes cited, declined drastically in popularity in the thirteenth century. He also shows a better knowledge of the classical authors than one usually encounters in a scholastic theologian, and he knows and uses Eriugena's Periphyseon, although he does not cite it by name. (shrink)