Philosophical Movements of the Medieval Period

1. Philosophical Movements of the Medieval Period Aristotle Neoplatonism Manichaeism Augustine of Hippo St. Thomas Aquinas Monasticism

2. Neoplatonism • Neoplatonism is a thought form rooted in the philosophy of Plato (c. 428-347 B.C.E.), but transforming it in many respects. • Neoplatonism developed as a school of thought in the Roman Empire from the 3rd to 5th century A.D. • Neoplatonist ideas are more explicitly religious than those of Plato • Plato developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) but also developing the habits of healthy emotional responses and therefore harmony between the three parts of the soul (according to Plato, reason, spirit, and appetite) • Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to understand everything on the basis of a single cause that they considered divine, and indiscriminately referred to as “the First”, “the One”, or “the Good”. • This is evidenced in Plotinus's now-famous maxim that the Absolute "has its center everywhere but its circumference nowhere.

3. Manichaeism • Manichaeism, religious movement founded in Persia in the 3rd century AD by Mani(q.v.), who was known as the “Apostle of Light” and supreme “Illuminator.” Although Manichaeism was long considered a Christian heresy, it was a religion in its own right • Mani was born in southern Babylonia (now in Iraq). Mani preached throughout the Persian Empire. • At first unhindered, he later was opposed by the king, condemned, and imprisoned. After 26 days of trials, which his followers called the “Passion of the Illuminator” or Mani’s “crucifixion

4. Manichaeism • Mani viewed himself as the final successor in a long line of prophets, beginning with Adam and including Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. • At its core, Manichaeism was a type of Gnosticism—religion that offered salvation through special knowledge (gnosis) of spiritual truth.

5. Manichaeism • Manichaeism taught that life in this world is unbearably painful and radically evil. Inner illumination reveals that the soul which shares in the nature of God • To know one’s self is to recover one’s true self, which was previously clouded by ignorance and lack of self-consciousness because of its mingling with the body and with matter. • In Manichaeism, to know one’s self is to see one’s soul as sharing in the very nature of God and as coming from a transcendent world. 

6. Saint Augustine • First truly important philosopher in the Christian Platonic tradition • Maintained ideals somewhere in between the classical world and medieval world • His philosophy is a profound meditation on the relation between God and the human being • Very focused on the ideas of free will and evil • He is known for his writings that influenced the development of western Christianity.

7. Why does Augustine Matter? • He matters because of what he criticized about the Roman Empire; its values, its outlooks, and because Rome has so many things in common with the west today

8. What do the experts say about Celebrity Worship? • By examining celebrity as a cultural linchpin within a growing global fascination with fame, being famous, and those who are famous, we can better understand a dynamic that plays out at an unconscious level, controlling our thoughts and behaviors in ways it would be best to become aware. • Are we choosing opinions and worldviews with at least some degree of personal agency, or are we absorbing messages flooding into our consciousness and embedded in unconscious drives derived from external media sources, each faction aligned with its own seeds of propaganda (to further their own causes and missions), strategies of disinformation (to deflect attention away from actual intelligent analysis), to that which hypes and ballyhoos the particular “brand” in question (with motivational undertones that seek out personal, corporate, and institutional advancement and fiscal growth at all costs), with the results, oftentimes, of humanity be damned?

9. Two Dominant Ideas the Romans Believed in Augustine’s Time • Romans had two General ideas about their culture and society that Augustine points out in his writings that were considered by him flawed:

10. Who Is Augustine? • Augustine of Hipponesis was an early Christian theologian and philosopher who lived from approximately 354 AD to 430 AD. • He was the bishop of Hippo Regius, which is modern-day Algeria, on the frontier of the declining Roman Empire

11. Augustine as a Young Man • In his dramatic and passionate life, several currents flow together • He had a pagan father • Mother was a devout Christian • Studied classical philosophy and rhetoric as well as Neoplatonism • He sowed wild oaths in his student years, while studying in Carthage • Having a child with his common law companion

12. Augustine as a Young Man • His Mother, Monica deeply grieved at her son's heresy, forbade him her house, until reassured by a vision that promised his restoration • Before his conversion, morally his life was perhaps at its lowest point. • Promised to marry a women of a wealthy family, he had put away the mother of his son; but neither the grief which he felt at this parting nor regard for his future wife, who was as yet too young for marriage, prevented him from taking a new concubine for the two intervening years.

13. Augustine and Manichaeism • Between 20-30, he was a Manichaean, but after a vivid conversion experience, he converted back to Christianity • Two things especially attracted him to the Manicheans: 1. they felt at liberty to criticize the Scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, with perfect freedom 2. they held chastity and self-denial in honor. • The prayer which he tells us he had in his heart then, " Lord, give me chastity and temperance, but not now,"

14. Augustine’s Conversion to Christianity • In the summer of 386, at the age of 31, Augustine converted to Christianity. • He said his conversion was prompted by a childlike voice he heard telling him to "take up and read" which he took as a divine command to open the Bible and read the first thing he saw. • Augustine read from Paul's Epistle to the Romans wherein Paul outlined how the Gospel transformed believers, and the believers' resulting behavior.

15. Augustine’s Conversion • Help came in a curious way. A countryman of his visited him and told him things which he had never heard about the monastic life and the wonderful conquests over self which had been won under its inspiration. • Augustine's pride was touched, while he with all his learning was still held captive by the flesh, seemed unworthy of him. 

16. Augustine’s Conversion • In this moment he had a mental breakdown and cried. • He picked up the copy of St. Paul's epistles. • When he came to the words, " Let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness," • It seemed to him that a decisive message had been sent to his own soul, and his resolve was taken.

17. Augustine’s Conversion • He describes the moment of his conversion: I was greatly disturbed in spirit, angry at myself with a turbulent indignation because I had not entered thy will and covenant, O my God, while all my bones cried out to me to enter .it was I who willed and I who was also unwilling. In either case, it was I..suddenly I heard his voice of a boy or a girl..I know not which- coming from a neighboring house, chanting over and over again , pick it up, read it……in silence I read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: “Not in reveling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries, rather arm yourselves with the lord, Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and natures appetites

18. Augustine’s Conversion • Augustine’s ideas shaped medieval Christianity’s view of the human self and personality as dependent on God • He underscore a sense of guilt about the human body’s appetite • In Augustine’s confessions- he relates his own spiritual struggles, the tensions between his conscience and his will.

19. St. Augustine In 391 Augustine was ordained a priest and in 395 was made a bishop. He was canonized by the Catholic Pope Boniface VIII in 1298. He worked tirelessly in trying to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity. His friend Possidius described Augustine as a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in all financial stewardship.

20. Augustine and Original Sin • All humans were crooked because all of us are unwitting he to the sins of Adam • Libido Dominandi- A desire to dominate. We cannot properly love because we are distorted by our ego and pride. • Our Reason is clouded- we treat everyone around us brutally, lust haunts our days and nights, we fail to understand ourselves • It is simple human condition, nothing we can control

21. What was Augustine’s Criticism of Roman Society • Roman thinker Eusebious had thought Romans were running a meritocracy • He claimed Earthly power was God’s instrument for establishing Christianity on earth • The powerful in Rome were not just privileged, but also blessed and righteous in God’s eyes • He claimed this was arrogant and boastful. Augustine said there could never be justice in Rome or anywhere on earth • God did not give good people wealth, nor did he distinguish between them

22. The Two Cities

23. St. Thomas Aquinas • Born to a noble family in Italy in 1225 • He was an immensely influential philosopher, priest, and lawyer • His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas- science, religion, and politics • He was said to have visions of the Virgin Mary and the power to levitate

24. St. Thomas Aquinas • He took seriously the medieval maxim that “grace perfects and builds on nature; it does not set it aside or destroy it.” • Thomas thought about philosophy as the discipline that investigates what we can know naturally about God and human beings, he thought that good Scriptural theology supported good philosophical analysis and argumentation.  • He set out to solve a philosophical question that still bedevils thinkers today- How to reconcile Religion with Science; Faith with Reason?

25. What Log-jam did Aquinas clear for Christianity? • He answered how non-Christians can have wisdom, even if they had no interest or knowledge of Jesus • Good ideas can come from any corner of the world from any person • He taught the west that any human being, not just Christians, could have access to great truths when they use God’s greatest gift, reason

26. St. Thomas Aquinas • When Thomas Aquinas arrived at the University of Paris, the influx of Arabian-Aristotelian science was arousing a sharp reaction among believers • Aquinas became deeply interested in these Ancient Greek and Roman texts • During this time, Church authorities tried to block the naturalism and rationalism that was promoted by philosophy was seducing the younger generations • For the first time in history, Christian believers were being challenged by scientific rationalism. • At the same time, technical progress was requiring men to move from the rudimentary economy of an agrarian society to an urban society

27. St. Thomas Aquinas • The logic of Aquinas’s position regarding faith and reason required that the realities of nature be recognized. • A physis (“nature”) has necessary laws. • He taught God moves sovereignly all that he creates; but the supreme government that he exercises over the universe is conformed to the laws of a creative power that wills each being to act according to its proper nature

28. Aquinas’ Theory on Two Laws: Aquinas argues, God's authorship and active role in prescribing and sustaining the various natures included in creation may rightfully be called a law. After defining law as "an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by someone who has care of the community, and promulgated

29. St. Thomas Aquinas • Certainly, all Christian philosophers taught the distinction between matter and spirit. • Some viewed the material world merely as a physical and biological reality, a stage on which the history of spiritual persons is acted out, their culture developed, and their salvation or damnation determined. • The history of nature is believed to be only by chance the setting for the spiritual history- man is a foreigner, playing a brief role only to escape as quickly as possible from the world into the realm of pure spirit, the realm of God.

30. St. Thomas Aquinas • Thomas, on the contrary, noted the inclusion of the history of nature in the history of the spirit • Man is situated at the juncture of two universes, “like a horizon of the corporeal and of the spiritual.” In man there is not only a distinction between spirit and nature but there is also a relationship between the two. • Aristotle furnished Aquinas with the categories necessary for the expression of this concept: the soul is the “form” of the body. For Aristotle, form is that which makes a thing to be what it is; form and matter—that out of which a thing is made—are the two intrinsic causes that constitute every material thing. • For Thomas, then, the body is the matter and the soul is the form of man. The objection was raised that he was not sufficiently safeguarding the transcendence of the spirit, the doctrine that the soul survives after the death of the body.

31. How Did Aquinas help Christian Society avoid what happened to Islamic Society? • Islamic societies had flourished by being open to knowledge from all over the world • However in the 12th century, Islamic civilizations became more oppressive due to the influence of fanatical religious leaders • The reacted violently to Muslim Scholars • These leaders did not want to depart from the literal word of the Quran • Aquinas’ arguments helped promote tolerance for philosophy and science

32. Monasticism • Monasticism • •About 1 in 10 lived a monastic life (life devoted to the service of God) • Many monks took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience

33. A Medieval Monk’s Schedule

34. Duties of a Medieval Monk • Monks farmed the land and raised livestock on Church property. • They ran inns (which included restaurants) and hospitals to serve others. • They gave refuge to people in time of war or crisis • Monks maintained libraries and “scriptoria” to copy books and illuminate manuscripts. • Monks provided schools for children of upper class. • Eventually, monasteries became too small to teach all who wanted to be educated. • “Classes” began meeting outside monastery. • Those buildings grew into universities.