Treatise on Divine Predestination is one of the early writings of the author of the great philosophical work Periphyseon (On the Division of Nature), Johannes Scottus (the Irishman), known as Eriugena (died c. 877 A.D.). It contributes to the age-old debate on the question of human destiny in the present world and in the afterlife.

Finocchiaro's new and revised translations have done what the Inquisition could not: they have captured an exceptional range of Galileo's career while also letting him speak--in clear English. No other volume offers more convenient or more reliable access to Galileo's own words, whether on the telescope, the Dialogue, the trial, or the mature theory of motion. --Michael H. Shank, Professor of the History of Science, University of Wisconsin--Madison

The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries witnessed a rising interest in Arabic texts describing and explaining the rituals of the Coptic Church of Egypt. This book provides readers with an English translation of excerpts from three key texts on the Coptic liturgy by Abu al-Barakat ibn Kabar, Yuh.anna ibn Sabba', and Pope Gabriel V. With a scholarly introduction to the works, their authors, and the Coptic liturgy, as well as a detailed explanatory apparatus, this volume provides a useful and needed introduction to the worship tradition of Egypt's Coptic Christians. Presented for the first time in English, these texts provide valuable points of comparison to other liturgical commentaries produced elsewhere in the medieval Christian world.

This volume makes available for the first time in English full translations of Book 1 of Peter Lombard's "Sentences," the work that would win the greatest teacher of the twelfth century a place in Dante's Paradise and would continue to excite generations of students well beyond the Middle Ages.

This anthology brings together the most important works of three Jewish Philosophers of the Middle Ages. It includes selections of the writings of Philo of Alexandria, edited with an introduction by Hans Lewy; Sa'adia Gaon's "Book of Doctrine's and Beliefs", abridged, introduced and translated from the Arabic by Alexander Altmann; and Yehuda Halevi's influential "Kuzari", abridged and with an introduction and commentary by Isaak Heinemann, with a selection of Halevi's poetry. All educated students of Jewish thought should be familiar with these seminal writers.

This book offers a comparative study of emotion in Arabic Islamic and English Christian contemplative texts, c. 1110-1250, contributing to the emerging interest in 'globalization' in medieval studies. A.S.Lazikani argues for the necessity of placing medieval English devotional texts in a more global context and seeks to modify influential narratives on the 'history of emotions' to enable this more wide-ranging critical outlook. Across eight chapters, the book examines the dialogic encounters generated by comparative readings of Muhyddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240), 'Umar Ibn al-Farid (1181-1235), Abu al-Hasan al-Shushtari (d. 1269), Ancrene Wisse (c. 1225), and the Wooing Group (c. 1225). Investigating the two-fold 'paradigms of love' in the figure of Jesus and in the image of the heart, the (dis)embodied language of affect, and the affective semiotics of absence and secrecy, Lazikani demonstrates an interconnection between the religious traditions of early Christianity and Islam.

MARSILIO FICINO of Florence (1433-99) was one of the most influential thinkers of the Renaissance. He put before society a new ideal of human nature, emphasising its divine potential. As teacher and guide to a remarkable circle of men, he made a vital contribution to changes that were taking place in European thought. For Ficino, the writings of Plato provided the key to the most important knowledge for mankind, knowledge of God and the soul. It was the absorption of this knowledge that proved so important to Ficino, to his circle, and to later writers and artists. As a young man, Ficino had been directed by Cosimo de' Medici towards the study of Plato in the original Greek. Later he formed a close connection with Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici, under whom Florence achieved its age of brilliance. Gathered round Ficino and Lorenzo were such men as Landino, Bembo, Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola. The ideas they discussed became central to the work of Spenser, Shakespeare, Donne, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Durer, and many other writers and artists. The first letter in this volume is from Cosimo to Ficino, inviting him to visit him on his estate at Careggii and to bring with him `Plato's book on The Highest Good' (the Philebus) which Cosimo had asked him to translate in 1463. Though there is some uncertainty about the precise nature of Ficino's Platonic Academy, in another letter he replies to a correspondent's request for `that maxim of mine that is inscribed around the walls of the Academy'. This revised edition has corrected errors made in the original translation more than four decades ago, and the notes to the letters and the biographical notes have incorporated much new material from scholarship on the period which has grown enormously in the intervening years and continues to flourish.

This new Companion to Aquinas features entirely new chapters written by internationally recognized experts in the field. It shows the power of Aquinas's philosophical thought and transmits the worldview which he inherited, developed, altered, and argued for, while at the same time revealing to contemporary philosophers the strong connections which there are between Aquinas's interests and views and their own. Its five sections cover the life and works of Aquinas; his metaphysics, including his understanding of the ultimate foundations of reality; his metaethics and ethics, including his virtue ethics; his account of human nature; his theory of the afterlife; his epistemology and his theory of the intellectual virtues; his view of the nature of free will and the relation of grace to free will; and finally some key components of his philosophical theology, including the incarnation and atonement, Christology, and the nature of original sin.

This volume comprises Parts XIII XVI of the Speculum Divinorum et Quorundam Naturalium of Henricus Bate and includes "On Thinking and Happiness.""

Guillelmus de Aragonia was known as a philosopher for his commentary on Boethius and his works on physiognomy, oneirology, and astronomy; he was also a physician, perhaps a personal physician to the king of Aragon. In a time of intellectual upheaval and civil strife, when nobility was on the verge of being defined with legal precision as it had not been since antiquity, Guillelmus taught that true nobility is an acquired habit, not an inborn quality. Guillelmus wrote De nobilitate animi, "On Nobility of Mind," around 1280-1290. Working in the recently renewed Aristotelian tradition, he took an independent and original approach, quoting from philosophers, astronomers, physicians, historians, naturalists, orators, poets, and rustics pronouncing proverbs. This edition presents the Latin text, based on six manuscripts, three of them hitherto unknown, along with an English translation. An introduction reviews Guillelmus's life and work, considering his theory of nobility in the contexts of history, philosophy, and rhetoric, and studies the authorities he quotes with particular attention to the troubadours, lyric poets from the area known today as the south of France. An appendix of sources and analogues is also included.

For many of us, the term 'medieval philosophy' conjures up the figure of Thomas Aquinas, and is closely intertwined with religion. In this Very Short Introduction John Marenbon shows how medieval philosophy had a far broader reach than the thirteenth and fourteenth-century universities of Christian Europe, and is instead one of the most exciting and diversified periods in the history of thought. Introducing the coexisting strands of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish philosophy, Marenbon shows how these traditions all go back to the Platonic schools of late antiquity and explains the complex ways in which they are interlinked. Providing an overview of some of the main thinkers, such as Boethius, Abelard, al-Farabi, Avicenna, Maimonides, and Gersonides, and the topics, institutions and literary forms of medieval philosophy, he discusses in detail some of the key issues in medieval thought: universals; mind, body and mortality; foreknowledge and freedom; society and the best life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

What made the Renaissance tick? Why had it such a force that its thinking spread from a small group of scholars in Florence, working in their own brilliant ways but coming together in Ficino's small villa on the Florentine hillside, supported by the powerful but highly intelligent Medici family - so that it affected the thinking of the whole of Europe, and eventually of America, for five hundred years and is continuing to do so? This is the first English translation of some of the key works: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99), having translated all the extant works of Plato's Greek philosophy for the first time into Latin, absorbs their wisdom and here, in forty short articles, presents to the Medici family, as his patrons and sponsors, his commentaries on the meaning and implications of twenty-five of Plato's Dialogues and of the twelve Letters traditionally ascribed to Plato. The book puts the reader into the moment of history when Cosimo de' Medici and his family were given the opportunity which 'good rulers' have sought, from the earliest Greek state till today, to unite power with wisdom. Though this book will be an essential buy for Renaissance scholars and historians, its freshness of thought and wisdom is presented by its title, jacket illustration and introductory material as a book to be reflected on by general readers of philosophy and wisdom. Here is that extraordinary tsunami of human thought and endeavour and sheer vital power that was the Renaissance, caught for us in its early stirrings of new thought. This is a book of deep wisdom for reflection, as well as a glimpse of mankind awakening once more to its true potential.

In this important collection, the editors argue that medieval philosophy is best studied as an interactive discussion between thinkers working on very much the same problems despite being often widely separated in time or place. Each section opens with at least one selection from a classical philosopher, and there are many points at which the readings chosen refer to other works that the reader will also find in this collection. There is a considerable amount of material from central figures such as Augustine, Abelard, Duns Scotus, and William of Ockham, as well as extensive texts from thinkers in the medieval Islamic world. Each selection is prefaced by a brief introduction by the editors, providing a philosophical and religious background to help make the material more accessible to the reader.This edition, updated throughout, contains a substantial new chapter on medieval psychology and philosophy of mind, with texts from authors not previously represented such as John Buridan and Peter John Olivi.

In this lecture course, Reiner Schurmann develops the idea that, in between the spiritual Carolingian Renaissance and the secular humanist Renaissance, there was a distinctive medieval Renaissance connected with the rediscovery of Aristotle. Focusing on Thomas Aquinas's ontology and epistemology, William of Ockham's conceptualism, and Meister Eckhart's speculative mysticism, Schurmann shows how thought began to break free from religion and the hierarchies of the feudal, neo-Platonic order and devote its attention to otherness and singularity. A crucial supplement to Schurmann's magnum opus Broken Hegemonies, Neo-Aristotelianism and the Medieval Renaissance will be essential reading for anyone interested in the rise and fall of Western principles, and thus in how to think and act today.

Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's 'The Soul's Journey into God' is a masterpiece of thirteenth-century Scholasticism. In his thoughtful and illuminating commentary, Peter Dillard engages with the text to introduce some of the perennial issues and characteristic methods of Scholasticism to a contemporary audience. Dillard addresses the sophisticated speculative system underlying Bonaventure's writing, bringing the reader to a number of fundamental questions in epistemology, metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, dogmatic theology, and contemplative mysticism. A richness of conceptual resources and perspective that spans Platonic, Neoplatonic, and Aristotelian thought, and the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, are also revealed. Dillard offers his own highly engaging speculations on the treatise, developing the "Seraphic Doctor's" insights into lines of thought for further consideration by the reader. 'A Way into Scholasticism' combines academic rigour with accessible clarity. Peter S. Dillard is the author of 'Heidegger and Philosophical Atheology: A Neo-Scholastic Critique' (2008) and 'The Truth about Mary: A Theological and Philosophical Evaluation of the Proposed Fifth Marian Dogma' (2009). 'This commentary will be of great importance to anyone interested in understanding the way in which Scholastic philosophical theology illuminates Christian belief and intellectual tradition.This is a powerful reading and appreciation of Bonaventure's most famous work, "The Soul's Journey into God...". In a spare, precise, and occasionally elegant prose, Dillard brings a contemporary mentality to bear on Bonaventure's project and every step involved in the progress through six stages of spiritual growth leading to the possibility of mystical contemplation or ecstasy.' Patrick Padigan, Heythrop Journal.

This anthology provides a set of distinctive, influential views that explore the mysteries of human nature from a variety of perspectives. It can be read on its own, or in conjunction with Joel Kupperman's text, Theories of Human Nature .

This Element provides an account of Thomas Aquinas's moral philosophy that emphasizes the intrinsic connection between happiness and the human good, human virtue, and the precepts of practical reason. Human beings by nature have an end to which they are directed and concerning which they do not deliberate, namely happiness. Humans achieve this end by performing good human acts, which are produced by the intellect and the will, and perfected by the relevant virtues. These virtuous acts require that the agent grasps the relevant moral principles and uses them in particular cases.

This book explores a wide range of topics relating to scientific and religious learning in the work of Bishop Robert Grosseteste (c. 1168-1253) and does so from various perspectives, including those of a twenty-first century scientists, historians, and philosophers as well as several medievalists. In particular, it aims to contribute to our understanding of where to place Grosseteste in the history of science (against the background of the famous claim by A.C. Crombie that Grosseteste introduced what we now might call "experimental science") and to demonstrate that the polymathic world of the medieval scholar, who recognized no dichotomy in the pursuit of scientific and philosophical/theological understanding, has much to teach those of us in the modern world who wrestle with the vexed question of the relationship between science and religion. The book comprises an edited selection of the best papers presented at the 3rd International Robert Grosseteste Conference (2014) on the theme of scientific and religious learning, especially in the work of Grosseteste.