Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages - Softcover

Rubenstein, Richard E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156030098 ISBN 13: 9780156030090

Publisher: Harvest Books, 2004

Synopsis

Europe was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten, until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. His ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, offering the scientific view that the natural world, including the soul of man, was a proper subject of study. The rediscovery of these ancient ideas sparked riots and heresy trials, caused major upheavals in the Catholic Church, and also set the stage for today's rift between reason and religion. In Aristotle's Children, Richard Rubenstein transports us back in history, rendering the controversies of the Middle Ages lively and accessible-and allowing us to understand the philosophical ideas that are fundamental to modern thought.

About this title

Review:

"Anyone who wants to understand where we are going in the great political struggles over religion, read this amazing story."
--Marc Gopin "author of Holy War: Holy Peace: How Religion Can Bring Peace to the Middle East "

"Christianity's 'rediscovery' of Aristotle through Muslim Spain...challenges generations today to reclaim the interrelatedness of reason, science and religion."
--John L. Esposito "author of What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam "

"With a lively, engaging style, ARISTOTLE'S CHILDREN is a remarkable book that illuminates the long-standing relations between faith and reason."
--Edward Grant "Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Indiana University "

"Relevant and captivating."
--R. Scott Appleby "Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame "

PRAISE FOR ARISTOTLE'S CHILDREN
"A superb storyteller who breathes new life into such fascinating figures as Peter Abelard, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, William of Ockham and Aristotle himself." -Los Angeles Times

"[An] accomplished, entertaining history of ideas."
--Alibi

"An intellectual thriller. The real-life adventure of how the great thinker was found again... told with zest and excitement."
--Jack Miles "Pulitzer Prize-winning author of God: A Biography "

"A compelling account of how the rediscovery of Aristotle changed the way the Western world looked at humans, God, nature."
--School Library Journal

"Stimulating and thought-provoking reading, overturning caricatures of scholastic philosophy while suggesting how its insights can be applied to the present."
--The Christian Century

From the Back Cover:

"A superb storyteller who breathes new life into such fascinating figures as Peter Abelard, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, William of Ockham and Aristotle himself." --Los Angeles Times
The intellectual explosion that transformed Europe in the Middle Ages and coursed through the Western world, triggered student riots and heresy trials, and set the stage for today's rift between reason and religion. The ideas came from Aristotle. His work, like the rest of Greek culture, had been lost in the centuries after the fall of Rome, when the Greek language was forgotten. But in the Muslim world, the wisdom of the Greeks was never lost and contributed to the flowering of Islamic culture.
When scholars in the twelfth century collaborated on translating the ancient classics, they resurrected ideas that turned Western thinking away from the supernatural world and toward the world of nature. With their optimistic view of human nature, these ideas sparked fierce controversies in the universities and caused major changes in the Catholic Church. Rubenstein shows how the Church adopted these new ideas and struggled to reconcile science and religion and how Western thinking was set on the path it has followed ever since.
This is a feast for readers who are fascinated by medieval history, and a treat for all who want to understand the ideas that are fundamental to modern thought.
Richard E. Rubenstein, a professor of conflict resolution and public affairs at George Mason University, is the author of When Jesus Became God, a Publishers Weekly Best Religion Book. A graduate of Harvard College, Oxford University (Rhodes Scholar), and Harvard Law School, he lives in Fairfax, Virginia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0156030098
• ISBN 13: 9780156030090
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384