History of Theology Volume II: The Middle Ages: 2 (History Of Theology (2)) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814659160 ISBN 13: 9780814659168

Publisher: Michael Glazier, 2008

Synopsis

2009 Catholic Press Association Award Winner!

At last, a thorough, balanced, and readable history of medieval theology for nonspecialist readers! This is that book we so often ask for and so seldom get: written by a scholar for everyone to read. Giulio D 'Onofrio, a historian of philosophy and theology, uses his deep and broad-ranging knowledge of the thought of the scholars (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim) of the Middle Ages to describe in a thoroughly readable style the development of ideas from the beginnings of what can rightly be called Western culture to the Renaissance and the eve of the Reformation. No longer can medieval theology be regarded as merely Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure with appendages fore and aft. This book is a page-turner, as readers are continually invited to join scholars and mystics of another age in the perennial pursuit of faith seeking understanding.

It is this quest for a synthesis of faith and reason that guided the medieval thinkers and is the unifying thread running through this book. Readers follow as the Roman world of thought gives way to a Christian world whose philosophy builds on that of Greeks and Romans. That early phase in turn yields to the era of the monastic and cathedral schools, where Christian learning was nurtured until the rise of the universities. In that high flowering, the encounter with Jewish and Arabic thought brought a new energy that issued not only in the work of great masters like Thomas and Bonaventure but also in a flowering of mysticism. Along the way, the great controversies of the era sparked new thinking and new learning, as suppressions of thought proved only temporary setbacks and correctives on the way to greater understanding.

Matthew O 'Connell's translation is masterful. Readers will be captivated as much by his lucid and readable English as by D 'Onofrio's clear presentation. It is a work of great merit that should be on the shelf, and frequently in the hand, of everyone who is at all curious about how human beings in the past, as in the present, have sought to understand the faith that is in them.

Giulio d 'Onofrio teaches the history of medieval philosophy at the University of Salerno, Italy, and also teaches the history of medieval philosophy, Latin, and the exegesis of philosophical texts at the Pontifical Lateran University. He is the editor of Volume III, The Renaissance, in this series.

About this title

Review:

This is an excellent book which no library and no serious student of the Middle Ages should be without. . . . The book is excellent and truly an investment in advancing one’s theological/philosophical knowledge of the Middle Ages.Catholic Books Review

This book offers a readable history of medieval theology and is highly recommended.Catholic Library World

Synopsis:

This volume examines the history of theology and the basic innovations in theological thought during the Renaissance era. It explores the councils, people, movements, pedagogy and theological methods of the 15th and 16th century. From the beginning of the 15th century on, the unresolved crisis that was fragmenting Christendom led to an urgent call for a renewal of the methods, themes and purposes of theological thought. To the humanists who had a renewed interest in the works of the Church forebears, the patristic sources were no longer simply authorities to be regularly cited in support of the technical divisions of the questions under discussion. They also represented another way of thinking that followed freer and more fruitful criteria than those rigidly fixed by medieval Aristotelian rationalism. This new relationship with the patristic model was one factor that distinguished the periods of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages.

D'Onofrio points out how this call for a renewal of the methods, themes and purposes of theological thought established important and unrenouncible premises, both positive and negative, for the development of philosophical and theological thought in the modern age.

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Glazier
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0814659160
• ISBN 13: 9780814659168
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 560
• Editor: D'Onofrio Giulio