History of Medieval Philosophy

Fr. Ian Neil Llona

Assignments:

Nicene Creed – Needed

Articles of Faith - Needed

Greek Alphabet – Needed + Memorize = name in Greek

Noramilize Greek writing

Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, (H)Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lamda, Mu, Nu, Xi,

Omicron, Pi, Rho, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, (f)Phi, (kh)Chi, Psi, Omega

Medieval Ages / Middle Ages

Medieval Ages – a long historical period from the fall of the Roman Empire 476 until the beginning of the
modern times.

Majority of historians agree that it is a historical period beginning in the 5 th and ending with the 15th
century.

Scholastic Philosophy is under the Golden age of Medieval Philosophy

Divided into Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Cosmology

Points of reference in Medieval Era Philosophy

a. Milieu
- Marks the triumph of the Christian faith.
- Makes the Medieval Philosophy a Christian Philosophy.
- The epoch in which the church converted all Europe to Christian faith.
- Church Fathers: used Philosophy to defend the Catholic faith against heresies
- The church established a profound spiritual, cultural, and political unity for the peoples living
within and outside of Rome’s ancient boundaries.
- Gave birth to medieval society or “respublica Christiana”
- Citizens placed a strongly Christian imprint on all their manifestations of life; laws, customs, art,
and literature, music, poetry, education and morals, or in short culture itself.
- Greatest thinkers of this period elaborated a general perspective on things by taking many
principles directly from the Gospel. (Orthodox/Heretic)
- Their system of thought is rightly called “Christian Philosophy” / Medieval Philosophy

I. Christian Philosophy
- Philosophy, to a great extent because it is done by Christian thinkers, to whom were Clerics
 History of Medieval Philosophy
Fr. Ian Neil Llona

- Clerics: Ordained – Monastery = can afford

- Medieval Philosophy marks the triumph of the Christian faith.
- A philosophy that can be labeled as Christian philo – a rational, new, original, and all-embracing
understanding of God, of man, and of the world. – Cleric
- The Father – is not - the Son – is not - the Holy Spirit --> is God
- A philosophy given birth by Christianity in its effort to give rational explanation to Catholic
Dogma and doctrines.
- A philo that tries to see the world, man, and God in the eys of faith and reason
- A systhesis between Hellenic thought and Christian truths(Heidegger) - Scholasticism
- Hellenistic though – Greek philosophy and thought
- Theology is queen of philosophy
- Philo is the handmaid of Theology
- A harmonious construction – a fruit of an intelligent operation which allowed Christianity to
arrive at a rational expression it did not have earlier and which allowed philo to enrich itself with
new and precious contents that previous Greek philoso[phers were not able to provide.
- Christianity is a religion, not a philo, it is a history and a structure of salvation, not a simple
speculation about ultimate problems.

Philo truths of Chris Philo

- Truths which determined the historical development of Chris Philo

- Truths which Greek philo could not even develop in any detail and whose concepts were even
ignored.

1. Concept of Person
In ancient Greek Philo, the term to express personality did not exist. – Zeller
It was Christianity that created a new dimension for man, that of the human person.
This notion was so extraneous to classical rationalism that the Greek fathers were not able to
find the categories and words in Greek philo to express this new reality.
- We call God “person”
Person - Individual substance with rational nature (human or spiritual)
- Hellenistic though was unable to conceive the fact that the infinite and universal could express
itself in a person.
- Only thanks to the concept of the person – a being gifted with infinite dignity and absolute value
– brought to light by Christianity, which makes all men ummages of God created directly by Him,
could all discriminations become illegitimate, unjust and odious,
- All men are equally worthy of esteem, respect and love, even one’s enemies, especially the
weak, the poor and the most humble. Thanks to the revolutionary concept of the person, Chris
Philo were able to substitute Greek aristocratic and racist humanism with a truly universal
humanism.
 History of Medieval Philosophy
Fr. Ian Neil Llona

2. Freedom
- The sense of man’s sovereignty over himself
- Shook Greek Philo of considering man to be chained under the unshakable powers of fate,
nature, and history.
- YOU can create your own destiny

3. History and Time

- Greeks saw these as mechanical and fatal chronological sequences, not as a totality of events
propitious/favorable(Kairoi) to man and for which man takes responsibility.
- Christian concept of H & T is diametrically opposed to Greek concept of circular movement
returning to the beginning after a certain number of years(generally calculated by 10k years)
- Christian concept offers end of time, not reset
- Chris Philo is Linear and ascending concept of T&H; and history has already indicated a decisive
amount(Kairos), that of Christ’s coming.

4. God
- The anthropomorphic and polytheistic conception of the divine which prevailed in Greco-Roman
culture was challenged by an absolutely new concept in which we see an admirable balance of
some qualities expressing his infinite distance from man and the world(such uniqueness and
infinity) and his closeness and intimacy to man and the world(such as paternity, goodness,
providence, mercy, etc.)
- God id a loving God – not of Greek concepts
- It is the originally and singularity of the concept of God that allowed

5. Evil
- Historians of ideas recognize that the concept of moral evil is a Christian concept making up part
of the logic of the cultural framework established by the four preceding concepts.
- Greek – Evil and Good stand side by side
- Moral evil implies a personal relation between man and the divinity, as well as autonomy, a
responsibility and a freedom of man before the divinity. This the Greek culture did not possess,
although it did become part of the Christian message.
- Evil Personified? – Satan – offered by Christianity

6. Creation
- Creatio ex nihilo vs Matter is good
- God created all things out of nothing and called them good
 History of Medieval Philosophy
Fr. Ian Neil Llona

- Within the Christian religion is intellectual development and contribution – added to the body of
Philosophy.