Scholasticism

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SCHOLASTICISM

SCHOLASTICISM . An abstract noun formed from the Latin-Greek stem scholastic-, pertaining to "school," scholasticism signifies principally the type of training used in the schools, and secondarily, the doctrine given, usually in the universities of the Latin Middle Ages. In a pejorative sense, it connotes dictatorial or authoritarian methods, or a hidebound and unimaginative view, much like the "correct" answer that a schoolmaster would demand from his pupil in the classroom.

Method

Principally Scholasticism indicates a method of training and learning that developed in Christian schools between about 1000 and 1650 and reached its peak in the thirteenth century. It arose naturally and spontaneously in the early Middle Ages as teachers lectured on a fixed text, pausing to explain a difficult passage by posing a question and lining up authorities pro and con, sic et non. Divergent resolutions of difficulties were often written in the margins of the Bible or lawbook. Abelard's work Sic et non is both a collection of seemingly contradictory theological texts and a reasoned methodology for resolving such apparent contradictions. The underlying supposition was the commonly held conviction that truth cannot contradict itself and that all truth is from God. Thus, logic, coupled with a respect for antiquity, was always considered the chief instrument of Scholastic teaching in the Middle Ages.

From its earliest beginnings in the classroom two distinct elements appeared, which developed independently into two Scholastic functions by the thirteenth century: the lecture (legere ), or explanation of the text, eventually restricted to the morning sessions; and the academic disputation (disputare ) of a special point, eventually restricted to the afternoon sessions and to special days. In the patristic period only the bishop or a qualified delegate could expound the sacred text or settle disputes; in the Middle Ages these became the formal functions of a "master" (magister ). Thus a medieval commentary is the master's statement (sententia ) of the meaning intended in the text; and a medieval "disputed question" is the master's resolution (determinatio ) of the debate.

When universities (studium generale, in the singular) were founded in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, the association of masters established rules for the induction of new masters into the guild. The basic liberal arts studies, prior to theology or other higher faculties and required of all, took about eight years and led to the master of arts degree at the age of twenty-one (minimum), followed by two or more years of teaching the arts. There were three higher faculties: theology (the minimum age for the master being thirty-five), law (civil and canon), and medicine. Each faculty had its own masters with chairs, required textbooks, and agreed upon statutes by which the faculty was governed by a chancellor, dean, or rector. The preferred term for a qualified teacher in the Middle Ages was "master," but by the thirteenth-century Bolognese lawyers preferred to be called "doctor."

By 1230, in the faculty of theology, there were apprentices called "bachelors," who assisted the master in the performance of his duties by reading the text to the younger students in a cursory manner and by responding to questions raised by the students. Soon the subordinate role of the bachelor was subdivided into that of the cursor biblicus, who did the preliminary reading of the Bible, and that of the bachelarius sententiarum, who lectured on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (1100–1160), a collection of patristic texts organized according to doctrinal points.

In all scholastic training the chief instrument of learning was logic, the purpose of which was to acquire scientific knowledge (scientia ) through definition, division, and argument. For this art the fundamental source was Aristotle, originally in the version of Boethius (d. 524). Before all of Aristotle was known in the late twelfth century, studies preliminary to the study of Bible or any of the higher subjects consisted in studying the seven liberal arts (logic, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy), with special emphasis given to logic and grammar. Organization of universities at Bologna, Paris, and Oxford took place just as the "new learning" made its appearance in the Latin West from Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew sources in the twelfth century. New works of logic (the rest of Aristotle's Organon ) and Ptolemaic and Arabic astronomy were simply worked into the known seven arts, but other books—namely those on natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and first philosophy, or metaphysics—could only be added to the arts as "the three philosophies" to make up the faculty of arts and sciences.

The method of teaching these new sciences, although basically the old method, was perfected by these books of "the new logic," especially Posterior Analytics. A distinct philosophical content was given to medieval teaching in arts, which inevitably flowed over to theology, thus creating a diversity of scholasticisms.

The Scholastic method, therefore, was universally one and the same throughout the Middle Ages: (1) it was always in Latin, of varying proficiency and elegance on an approved text universally acknowledged as worthy of study; (2) it was structured according to the Aristotelian logic of defining, dividing, and reasoning in its exposition of the text and its resolution of difficulties; and (3) all studies, even the related field of law, led to theology as the "Queen of the Sciences," that is, to the understanding of the Bible. But considering the great diversities that existed among outstanding masters and their followers in terms of loyalties and priorities, it is possible to speak of various schools, movements, and -isms among Scholastics of different periods.

Teachings

Scholasticism as a doctrine is usually divided into three periods: (1) medieval, up to the Reformation; (2) second scholasticism, or the renewed Thomism of the sixteenth century; and (3) a revival of Thomistic philosophy from around 1850 to the Second Vatican Council, or Leonine Thomism. Medieval Scholasticism is also divided into three periods: early medieval, before the introduction of Aristotle to the universities around 1200; high medieval, a vigorous assimilation of Aristotelian thought despite strong opposition in the thirteenth century; and late medieval, usually considered as declining around 1350, after the Black Death.

In early Scholasticism special emphasis was given to grammar and logic during training in arts prior to a long study of the scriptures. Among its outstanding masters were Alcuin at York; Lanfranc and Anselm, first at Bec, then at Canterbury; Anselm and his brother Ralph at Laon; Ive and his successors at Chartres; Peter Abelard in and around Paris; and the canonist Gratian at Bologna. Although the problem of "universals" ranked high, the principal theological problems concerned the Eucharist, the trinity of persons in one God, and the incarnation of the Son of God.

High Scholasticism, incorporating the works of Aristotle in the universities and assimilating his thought, notwithstanding a background of Augustinian Platonism, necessarily includes the vast works of Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Thomas Bradwardine, and their contemporaries—with all their philosophical differences and similarities. This was the age of assimilation and of new syntheses of thought, such as Thomism, Scotism, and nominalism (Ockham). Within these syntheses one should note the varying influences of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Ibn Rushd (Averroës), and certain pseudo-Aristotelian works, such as Liber de causis.

Late Scholasticism, depending on where one makes the division (some put it at 1277, others around 1315), is generally considered to be a period of intellectual and spiritual decline before the Italian Renaissance (fifteenth century) or the Protestant Reformation (sixteenth century). Wherever its bounds, the period witnessed the rapid spread of universities, a special stirring of popular devotion (Devotio Moderna) in prayer, hymns, and sermons, and a widespread interest in the spoken word of God (the Bible), especially in the vernacular. Heiko Oberman sees this period as the ripening of medieval thought preparatory to Luther's harvest of Christianity. While one must recognize the flowering of art, the spread of printing, the expansion of global exploration, and a growing literacy among the laity, one must nevertheless admit that as far as Scholasticism is concerned, the period yielded a sterile and barbarous formalism performed with perfunctory brevity.

Second scholasticism is a term given to the brief spring of scholastic thought in the sixteenth century, when the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas replaced the Sentences of Peter Lombard in major Catholic universities. This change was accomplished mainly by Dominicans such as Peter Crokaert in Paris, Thomas de Vio Cajetan at Pavia, Konrad Koellin at Heidelberg and Cologne, and Francisco de Vitoria at Salamanca. All of these men had many disciples with considerable influence later. This revival was given special impetus when the Council of Trent (1545–1563) redefined much of Catholic doctrine, utilizing Thomistic as well as traditional patristic teaching, and when the prestigious Society of Jesus (Jesuits) was founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534, pledging to follow the teaching of Thomas Aquinas and subsequently renovating Catholicism throughout the world. The revival found expression not only in official documents like the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent, but also in its Catechism of the Council of Trent, issued by order of Pius V in 1566, and in the innumerable textbooks of scholastic philosophy and theology (iuxta mentem S. Thomae ) for use in colleges and seminaries established under the Tridentine reform. The leading Jesuit scholastics of this period were Roberto Bellarmino, Francisco de Toledo, Francisco Suárez, Luis de Molina, professors of the Collegio Romano founded by Ignatius in 1551, and the Complutenses, namely, teachers at the Jesuit college at Alcalá, founded by Cardinal Francisco Ximénes de Cisneros in 1508.

The scholasticism of this period was not simply a repetition of older views, but its theology was substantially invigorated by clashes with the reformers and its philosophy by a renewed interest in the science of nature. Its theology is best seen in the polemical literature and the great number of exceptional commentaries on Thomas's Summa. Its philosophy is best seen in treatises on motion and in thoughtful commentaries on Aristotle's Physics, De caelo, and other books on nature, notably by Domingo de Soto, Diego de Astudillo, and Juan de Celaya at Paris, and the Jesuit professors, notably Christopher Clavius (1538–1612), at the Collegio Romano. One should distinguish these progressive Artistotelians from the textual type, who were more interested in editing and translating from books than from nature.

Within the context of this revivified philosophy must be seen the astronomy and the two new sciences of Galileo (1564–1642), and to a much lesser extent, the new philosophy of René Descartes (1596–1650). Galileo's early writings depend heavily on the lecture notes of Jesuit professors of philosophy at the Collegio Romano; the butt of his gibes turns out to be the parrots who would not look at the heavens, but only at the text. Descartes, on the other hand, had a less venturesome scholasticism from the Jesuits at La Flèche (1609–1613). While later Descartes sought to replace their teaching with entirely new first principles, their roots, as Étienne Gilson has shown, were medieval and scholastic. Nevertheless both Galileo and Descartes dealt the deathblow to scholasticism and laid the foundation of modern thought.

Meanwhile Catholic theology, which felt the greatest impact from this revival, experienced a second spring. Under Pius V, Thomas Aquinas was declared a doctor of the church, the first so considered since the patristic age; and the first edition of his multivolume Opera omnia was published in Rome (1570–1571). Notable commentaries on Thomas's Summa began to appear, such as those of Thomas de Vio Cajetan (Lyons, 1540–1541), Conrad Koellin (Cologne, 1512), and Franciscus Silvester Ferrariensis on the Summa contra gentiles (Paris, 1552). The original constitution of the Jesuits (1550) obliged its members to study and promote the teaching of Thomas alone. But in the bitter controversy over grace (De auxiliis, 1597–1607) that broke out with the Dominicans over the publication of Molina's Concordia (1588), a new Thomism emerged in the writings of Francisco de Suárez (1548–1617), that tried to reconcile Thomism with Scotism. After 1607 theology was reduced to repetition and division into diverse specialties, courses, and tractates; and moral theology bogged down over probabilism and, later, Jansenism. For all practical purposes, scholasticism was dead by 1650.

A third appearance of scholasticism occurred in more recent times, when there was a revival of solely the philosophical aspects of Thomism, blessed and fostered by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Aeterni Patris (1879). Dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of contemporary philosophy to solve pressing problems had been expressed in Italy early in the nineteenth century by teachers of philosophy in Catholic colleges and seminaries. These professors were concerned primarily with future priests and the state of the world vis-à-vis philosophy. Seminary textbooks were often thoroughly Cartesian, and "Christian" only by reason of a few biblical quotations and references to Augustine or Bossuet without a mention of Thomas Aquinas or the Middle Ages. In the Rhineland the distinguished Georg Hermes (1775–1831) sought to adjust Roman Catholic principles to the supposed requirements of Immanuel Kant; his adjustment was condemned in 1835. In Vienna the prolific Anton Günther (1783–1863) sought to do the same for Hegel; his works were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1857. The principal errors of the day were listed in the Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX (1864), ranging from pantheism and liberalism to communism and indifferentism. In the eyes of many only the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas could bring humankind back to sanity.

Small beginnings were made by Vincenzo Buzzeti in Piacenza, Joseph and Joachim Pecci (later Pope Leo XIII) in Perugia, and the Sordi brothers and Taparelli among the Jesuits in Naples and Rome. By 1850 the ideas of Thomas were again familiar to readers of Civilità Cattholica and the five-volume Philosophia Christiana (Naples, 1853) by Gaetano Sanseverino (1811–1865). These beginnings were augmented in Germany by Josef Kleutgen, in France by Henri Lacordaire, in Spain and the Philippines by Zeferino Gonzales, and in Italy by Tommaso Zigliara. The first major encyclical issued by Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris, called for "the restoration in Catholic schools of Christian philosophy according to the mind of St. Thomas, the Angelic Doctor." In all subsequent encyclicals Leo promoted the teaching of Thomas applied to the modern world, with the result that by the time of his death in 1903 Leo had rehabilitated Thomas.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Scholastic philosophy of Thomas began to take root in all the main centers of the Catholic world. In this revival, philosophy, not theology, was the central issue, since reason seemed to be common to Christianity and the secular world. In this case scholasticism was identified with Thomistic philosophy, somehow conceived as perennial (perennis ) and common to all great minds of all ages. For Leo XIII this philosophy was to be found in the Summa theologiae of Thomas. When cries were raised about other philosophies, such as those of Bonaventure and Suárez, the reply from Rome (1907–1950) was that all others were to be evaluated by the standard of Thomas. This did not mean that other philosophies were wrong, but rather that only the philosophy of Thomas was to be promoted urgently for the church in the modern world. Throughout this same period there were many Catholics who were unconvinced and impatient, insisting that a more modern and relevant philosophy was needed. These were known as "modernists," eager to secularize Christian principles in order to be accepted.

Before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) almost all Catholics were exposed to some shades of Thomistic philosophy, especially through seminaries and colleges, despite the specter of modernism. During the first half of the twentieth century a large number of distinguished Thomists, both Catholic and non-Catholic, addressed important issues in almost every field of human interest: historical, philosophical, sociological, psychological, scientific, and political. Countless journals were founded throughout the world claiming to be scholastic or Thomistic, and the names of Gilson, Maritain, Adler, Grabmann, and Chenu became household names. For many reasons, none of them philosophical, the Second Vatican Council served as a watershed for Leonine scholasticism.

Bibliography

For such a vast subject, it is perhaps best to start with overviews. As such, several entries in The New Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1967) can be recommended: "Scholasticism," by Ignatius Brady, J. E. Gurr, and me; "Thomism," by me; and "Scotism," by C. Balic and me; each has an extensive bibliography.

On Scholastic method, the standard work by Martin Grabmann, Die Geschichte der scholastischen Methode, 2 vols. (1909–1911; reprint, Basel, 1961), can serve as a starting point for the early period, or even Anders Piltz's The World of Medieval Learning (Oxford, 1981). For clarification of its technical meaning, one should consult Artur M. Landgraf's "Zum Begriff der Scholastik," Collectanea Franciscana 11 (1941): 487–490; M.-D. Chenu's Toward Understanding Saint Thomas (Chicago, 1964); and Les genres littéraires dans les sources théologiques et philosophiques médiévales: Définition, critique et exploitation (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1982).

As for the various doctrines taught, one must read the primary texts, important secondary sources about each scholastic, or volumes dealing with particular themes. A simple modern manual is useful for philosophy, such as Désiré Mercier's A Manual of Modern Scholastic Philosophy, 8th ed., 2 vols. (London, 1917); Gallus Manser's Das Wesen des Thomismus, 3d ed. (Freiburg, 1949); Karl Werner's Die Scholastik des späteren Mittelalters, 5 vols. (1881; reprint, New York, 1960); Carlo Giacon's La seconda scolastica, 3 vols. (Milan, 1944–1950); I neotomisti italiani del XIX secolo, 2 vols., edited by Paolo Dezza (Milan, 1942–1944); and Years of Thomism: Aeterni Patris and Afterwards, edited by Victor B. Brezik (Houston, 1981).