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===Introduction===
[[File:Abelard and Heloise.jpeg|thumbnail|left|300px|Abelard and Heloise]]Most likely when you learned about the Middle Ages in history you became familiar with it’s dubious nickname: The Dark Ages. This nickname was bestowed upon the years directly following the collapse of the Roman Empire (6th/7th century) up until the beginning of the Renaissance, which eventually bore the Early Modern Period or Enlightenment. So then, the story supposedly goes like this: Western Europe was trapped within the clutch of tradition and religion until a “rebirth” (or renaissance) in which ancient philosophical texts were newly discovered and translated into Latin (making them available for study). The eyes of the people were opened, they revolted against the system (which is more or less synonymous with Christendom) and began studying philosophy again which allowed for the scientific revolution. Such a narrative depicts the Middle Ages as a period of philosophical and academic poverty, which could not be further from the truth. Furthermore, religion hardly served as a impediment to such philosophical inquiries, but was a stimulus for them. So, it will be the aim of this short essay to give brief sketch of the intellectual landscape as it specifically pertains to Christendom in the Middle Ages.
===Scholasticism===
[[File:Aquinas.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Thomas Aquinas]]One example of a booming intellectual enterprise developed within the medieval period was scholasticism, a philosophical methodology developed in the late eleventh and early twelfth century. The dawn of scholasticism is typically associated with two figures in particular, Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Abelard, though it’s most notable representative is Thomas Aquinas. Scholasticism was a theological methodology that focused primarily on the application of dialectic (logic) in order to weigh and judge the veracity of competing theological viewpoints, specifically those inherited by the Patristics or “Church Fathers.” Scholastics did not regard the faith as something contrary to reason, but believed that the intellect was a medium of growing in faith through meditation on God and his mysteries. Such an intellectual rigor and discipline would lead one to further understanding. Scholastics did not only study theology using dialectic, though. Many such as Abelard were skilled logicians or grammarians, and dabbled in metaphysics, ethics, ontology, legal and political philosophy as well.
In the “high middle ages” (the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) two religious orders dominated the realm of scholasticism: franciscans and dominicans. One of the most discussed and heavily debated questions amongst these two religious orders was something contemporary philosophers might call moral psychology or philosophy of mind. The debate was in regards to whether the will or the intellect was dominant in practical reasoning. The Dominicans (to which Aquinas belonged) believed that the intellect was dominate. This meant that in moral deliberation if one truly knew what was right (what was good) then the will would carry said action out. This position is dubbed the “intellectualist” position. The Franciscans were representative, generally, of what is called voluntarism. This view is more or less opposite of the intellectualist position. It holds that the intellect could supply the will with the right option, but that the will could simply refuse to carry out what it knows is good. In other words they observed that sometimes the will is “weak” and doesn’t carry out what it knows it should.<ref>For more on Franciscan Voluntarism see: Williams, Thomas. <i>John Duns Scotus: Selected Writings on Ethics</i>(Oxford:Oxford University Press, 2017).</ref>
===Monasticism===
[[File:Illuminated.jpg|thumbnail|left|300px|Fourteenth century illuminated manuscript]]As Irvin and Sunquist note, Monasticism has always been known as a dominant center of learning in the West. Monks during the Middle Ages were responsible for the preservation of Europe’s intellectual history. Because the printing press had yet to be developed, books had to be copied by hand--monks were primarily responsible for doing so due to their extended amount of free time (as opposed to farmers, merchants, or knights who were burdened by intense physical labor) and their knowledge of grammar that was deemed necessary for participation in liturgical life. Indeed, many monasteries had libraries that served as archives for local records and contained a vast collection of invaluable manuscripts that were carefully preserved for scholars and clerics to study.<ref> Irvin & Sunquist,<i>History of the World Christian Movement</i>(Indianapolis: Orbis, 2008), pg. 423.)</ref>
Further, an important aspect of monastic life was education, specifically study of the scriptures, the early church fathers (Patristics) and the classics of the Greco-Roman period. Learning was considered a form of devotion to God and a necessary component of loving God in body, mind, and spirit. In addition it is also known that some convents even engaged in the copying of manuscripts and provided intellectual avenues for learned (albeit aristocratic) women to pursue the scholarly life.
===Conclusions===
Hopefully it has become clear that through investigation into the actual intellectual climate of the Middle Ages that it was a period of intellectual growth and interest, not a period indebted to scholarly barrenness. Monks, scholastic philosophers, and clergymen alike all rendered study as an essential component to growing their faith and devotion to God. Not only was the Bible and the Patristics suitable for study, but also subjects such as logic, grammar, and the classics of the Greco-Roman Period, including Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Indeed, there was an obvious synthesis between Christianity and reason that existed during the Medieval period. Reason was thought to shed light on theological questions; it was not viewed as a danger to faith. The dichotomy between faith and reason that many are surely familiar with in today’s political and cultural climate would not be introduced until after the Reformation and grew substantially among fundamentalist reformed movements in America in the seventeenth century.
==References==
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[[Category:Wikis]]
[[Category:Religious History]][[Category:Medieval History]][[Category:Christian History]][[Category:Roman History]]
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