ainent CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Scholastiism Scholasticism GET THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA ON CD-ROM —- = This entire website is avs Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more... SALE: 20% off if you buy now... FREE Shipping Worldwide... able on CD-ROM. Click here. Scholasticism is a term used to designate both a method and a system. It is applied to theology as well as to philosophy. Scholastic theology is distinguished from Patristic theology on the one hand, and ftom positive theology on the other. The schoolmen themselves distinguished between theologia speculativa sive scholastica and theologia positiva. Applied to philosophy, the word "Scholastic" is often used also, to designate a chronological division intervening between the end of the Patristc era in the fith century and the beginning of the modern era, about 1450. It will, therefore, make for cleamess and order if we consider: 1. The origin of the word "Scholastic"; I The history of the period called Scholastic in the history of philosophy; IIL, The Scholastic method in philosophy, with incidental reference to the Scholastie method in theology; and IV. The contents of the Scholastic system. The revival of Scholasticism in recent times has been already treated under the head NEO-SCHOLASTICISM. There are in Greek literature a few instances of the use of the word scholastikos to designate a professional philosopher. Historically, however, the word, as now used, is to be traced, not to Greek usage, but to early Cristian institutions. In the Christian schools, especially after the beginning of the sixth century, it was customary to call the head of the school magister scholae, capiscola, or scholasticus. As time went on, the last of these appellations was used exclusively. The curriculum of those schools included dialectic among the seven liberal arts, which was at that time the only branch of philosophy studied systematically. The head of the school generally taught dialectic, and out of his teaching grew both the manner of philosophizing and the system of philosophy that prevailed during all the Middle Ages. Consequently, the name "Scholastic" was used and is still used to designate the method and system that grew out of the academic curriculum of the schools or, more definitely, out of the dialectical teaching of the masters of the schools (scholastici). It does not matter that, historically, the Golden Age of Scholastic philosophy, namely, the thirteenth century, falls within a period when wn enadventorgicathen13548a.him 18sirens CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Scholasissm the schools, the curriculum of which was the seven liberal arts, including dialectic had given way to another organization of studies, the studia generalia, or universities. The name, once given, continued, as it almost always does, to designate the method and system which had by this time passed into a new phase of development. Academically, the philosophers of the thirteenth century are known as magistri, or masters; historically, however, they are Scholastics, and continue to be so designated until the end of the medieval period. And, even after the close of the Middle Ages, a philosopher or theologian who adopts the method or the system of the medieval Scholastics is said to be a Scholastic. The Scholastic period The period extending from the begining of Christian speculation to the time of St. Augustine, inclusive, is known as the Patristic era in philosophy and theology. In general, that era inclined to Platonism and underestimated the importance of Aristotle, The Fathers strove to construct on Platonic principles a system of Christian philosophy. They brought reason to the aid of Revelation, They leaned, however, towards the doctrine of the mystics, and, in ultimate resort, relied more on spiritual intuition than on dialectical proof for the establishment and explanation of the highest truths of philosophy. Between the end of the Patristc era in the fith century and the beginning of the Scholastic era in the ninth there intervene a mumber of intercalary thinkers, as they may be called, like Claudianus Mamertus, Boethius, Cassiodorus, St. Isidore of Seville, Venerable Bede etc., who helped to hand down to the new generation the traditions of the Patristic age and to continue into the Scholastic era the current of Platonism, With the Carolingian revival of leaming in the ninth century began a period of educational activity which resulted ina new phase of Christian thought known as Scholasticism, The first masters of the schools in the ninth century Alcuin, Rabanus, etc., were not indeed, more original than Boethius or Cassiodorus; the first original thinker in the Scholastic era was John the Scot (see JOHN SCOTUS ERIUGENA). Nevertheless they inaugurated the Scholastic movement because they endeavoured to bring the Patristic (principally the Augustinian) tradition into touch with the new life of European Christianity, They did not abandon Platonism. They knew little of Aristotle except as a logician, But by the emphasis they laid on dialectical reasoning, they gave a new direction to Christian tradition in philosophy. In the curriculum of the schools in which they taught, philosophy was represented by dialectic. On the textbooks of dialectic which they used they wrote commentaries and glosses, into which. Little by litle, they admitted problems of psychology, metaphysics, cosmology, and ethics. So that the Scholastic movement as a whole may be said to have spring from the discussions of the dialecticians, Method, contents, and conclusions were influenced by this origin, There resulted a species of Christian Rationalism which more than any other trait characterizes Scholastic philosophy in every successive stage of its development and marks it off very definitely from the Patristic philosophy, which, as has been said, was ultimately intuitional and mystic. With Roscelin, who appeared about the middle of the eleventh century, the note of Rationalism is very distinctly sounded, and the first rumbling is heard of the inevitable reaction, the voice of Christian mysticism uttering its note of waning, and condemning the excess into which Rationalism had fallen. In the eleventh and twellth centuries, therefore, Scholasticism passed through its period of'storm and stress. On the one side were the advocates of reason, Roscelin, Abelard, Peter Lombard; on the other were the champions of mysticism, St. Anselm, St. Peter Damian, St. Berard, and the Vietorines. Like all ardent advocates, the Rationalists went too far at first, and only gradually brought their method within the lines of orthodoxy and harmonized it with Christian reverence for the mysteries of Faith. Like all conservative reactionists, the mystics at first condemned the use as well as the abuse of reason; they did not reach an intelligent compromise with the dialecticians until the end of the twelfth century. In the final outcome of the struggle it was Rationalism that, having modified its unreasonable claims, triumphed in the Christian schools, without, however driving the mysti from the field. wn enadventorgicathen13548a.himsirens CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Scholasissm Meantime, Eclectics, like John of Salisbury, and Platonists, like the members of the School of Chartres, gave to the Scholastic movement a broader spirit of toleration, imparted, so to speak, a sort of Humanism to philosophy, so that, when we come to the eve of the thirteenth century, Scholasticism has made two very decided steps in advance. First, the use of reason in the discussion of spiritual truth and the application of dialectic to theology are accepted with. out protest, so long as they are kept within the bounds of moderation, Second, there is a willingness on the part of the Schoolmen to go outside the lines of strict ecclesiastical tradition and lear, not only from Aristotle, who was now beginning to be known as a metaphysician and a psychologist, but akso ffom the Arabians and the Jews, whose works had begun to penetrate in Latin translations into the schools of Christian Europe. The taking of Constantinople in 1204, the introduction of Arabian, Jewish, and Greek works into the Christian schools, the rise of the universities, and the foundation of the mendicant orders — these are the events which led to the extraordinary intellectual activity of the thirteenth century, which centered in the University of Paris. At first there was considerable confusion, and it seemed as ifthe battles won in the twelfth century by the dialecticians should be fought over again, The translations of Aristotle made ffom the Arabian and accompanied by Arabian commentaries were tinged with Pantheism, Fatalism, and other Neoplatonie errors. Even in the Christian schools there were declared Pantheists, like David of Dinant, and outspoken Averroists, like Siger of Brabant, who bade fair to prejudice the cause of Aristoteleanism, These developments were suppressed by the most stringent disciplinary measures during the first few decades of the thirteenth century. While they were stilla source of danger, men like William of Auvergne and Alexander of Hales hesitated between the traditional Augustinianism of the Christian schools and the new Aristoteleanism, which came fiom a suspected source. Besides, Augustinianism and Platonism accorded with piety, while Aristoteleanism was found to lack the element of mysticism. In time, however, the translations made ffom the Greek revealed an Aristotle fee from the errors attributed to him by the Arabians, and, above all, the commanding genius of St. Albertus Magnus and his stil more ilustrious disciple, St. Thomas Aquinas, who appeared at the critical moment, calmly surveyed the difficulties of the situation, and met them fearlessly, won the victory for the new philosophy and continued suecessfilly the traditions established in the preceding century. Their contemporary, St. Bonaventure, showed that the new leaming was not incompatible with mysticism drawn from Christian sources, and Roger Bacon demonstrated by his unsuecessfil attempts to develop the natural sciences the possibilities of another kind which were latent in Aristoteleanism. ‘With Duns Scotus, a genius of the first order, but not of the constructive type, begins the critical phase, of Scholasticism, Even before his time, the Franciscan and the Dominican currents had set out in divergent directions. It was his keen and unrelenting search for the weak points in Thomistic philosophy that irritated and wounded susceptibilities among the followers of St. Thomas, and brought about the spirit of partisanship which did so much to dissipate the energy of Scholasticism in the fourteenth century. The recrudescence of Averroism. in the schools, the excessive cultivation of formalism and subtlety, the growth of artificial and even barbarous terminology, and the neglect of the study of nature and of history contributed to the same result. Ockhamis ‘Nominalism and Durandus's attempt to "simplify" Scholastic philosophy did not have the effect which their authors intended, "The glory and power of scholasticism faded into the warmth and brightness of mysticism," and Gerson, Thomas 4 Kempis, and Eckhart are more representative of what the Christian Church was actually thinking in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries than are the Thomists, Scotists, and Ockhamists of that period, who ffitered away much valuable time in the discussion of highly technical questions which arose within the schools and possess litle interest except for adepts in Scholastic subtlety. After the rise of Humanism, when the Renaissance, which ushered in the modem era, was in full progress, the great Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese commentators inaugurated an age of more healthy Scholasticism, and the great Jesuit teachers, Toletus, Vasquez, and Francisco Suarez, seemed to recall the best days of thirteenth century speculation. The triumph of scientific wn enadventorgicathen13548a.him Er