Description: This book is a collection of nine articles by the
twentieth century's leading medievalist, Etienne Gilson. A major
participant in the revival of Thomistic philosophy, Gilson was a
member of the French Academy and, after a university career
culminating at the Sorbonne and the College de France, he turned
down an invitation from Harvard University to become the guiding
spirit of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the
University of Toronto for several decades. Several of the articles
stand on their own as making a significant contribution to topics
like St. Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God.
Likewise, "The Middle Ages and Naturalism" contrasts Renaissance
Humanists and Reformers with the medievals on the defining issue of
their attitude toward nature in order to understand who actually
stands closer to the ancient Greeks. All of the articles give an
insight into the great synthetic visions articulated by the
better-known works of Gilson like The Spirit of Medieval
Philosophy. We see Gilson's meticulous spadework for the broader
theme of Christian philosophy in his examination of the Latin
Averroist Boethius of Dacia's book on the eternity of the world.
Gilson finds that Boethius never expresses the view attributed to
Latin Averroism that there are contradictory truths in religion and
philosophy, although he does think that Boethius is unsuccessful in
his account of the relations between philosophy and theology. The
opening piece revisits a battle now won (and won in great measure
by Gilson's efforts), namely the fight to acknowledge the very
existence of medieval philosophy and win its place in the academic
world. But the article also makes the effort--which becomes a
connecting thread throughout the nine articles-to pinpoint the
uniqueness of what Gilson calls Christian philosophy. The closing
article studies the profound influence of the great Muslim thinker
Avicenna on Latin Europe drawing a parallel between Avicenna's work
and that of the great Christian medievals like Thomas Aquinas and
Duns Scotus. When Gilson died in 1978, a great deal of his work on
the history of philosophy, and specifically God, the primacy of
existence or esse over essence, and the impact of Christianity on
philosophy had been translated. A significant amount of material,
however, has not yet appeared in English. The publication of
Medieval Studies represents a vital step in bringing these
important works into the English-speaking world. Endorsements:
"Back in the days before Vatican II, when Catholic students of
philosophy were trying to understand manuals such as the ones
written, say, by the Benedictine, Joseph Gredt, OSB, while their
contemporaries at secular schools were excited by existentialism or
phenomenology or analytic philosophy, they would turn to the works
of Etienne Gilson. In my recollection, Gilson's luminous historical
works helped them both to understand Aquinas and to situate his
thought in relation to such modern philosophers as Descartes, Hume,
and Kant intelligently and without distorting caricature. Turning
to these Medieval Essays with a certain sentiment of nostalgia,
then, I marveled to encounter the subtle scholarship, the
wide-ranging erudition, and the detailed knowledge of the authors
and texts in relation to issues that still burn today. Gilson's
even-handed defense of the study of medieval philosophy is imbued
with an understanding of the justice of the Renaissance and
Enlightenment complaints against scholastic thought; but it takes
the readers by the hand and leads them into an utterly refreshing
appreciation of those old authors and texts that is rarely, if
ever, matched in the depth of its gratitude to his masters and in
its profound courtesy towards those with whom he disagrees. These
essays take the readers back to school and offer the opportunity to
experience the thrill of discovery even with regard to texts and
issues with which they may have had a great
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