Silvia's Response to Cantor's Civilization of the Middle Ages, Ch. 15

Chapter 15
Moslem and Jewish Thought: The Aristotelian Challenge
The chapter provides an approachable summary to the intellectual challenges that Aristotelian philosophy brought to Moslem and Jewish thought during the Middle Ages and subsequently Christian doctrine. As is widely recognized, the Islamic translations of the Greek master via Spain were pivotal in producing one of the most creative and fertile periods of Christian philosophy and theology: the great Scholastic systems of the High Middle Ages. Yet some of Aristotle's concepts contradicted certain doctrines adhered to by all three religious traditions: 1. He taught that world had no beginning in time, but that it has exited eternally. 2. God had no concern for the world 3. There was no personal immortality 4. Proposed an ethical system that was based primarily on self love and self fulfillment 5. Aristotle’s philosophy was basically naturalistic and left little room for the supernatural (or Grace from a Christian perspective).

It is interesting to note that Avicenna (980 1037) and Averroes (1126 – 1198), both Muslim scholars and great Aristotelian commentators never found a way to integrate and reconcile the problematic Aristotelian principles into their Islamic faith tradition, proposing instead the dichotomy of the “two truths” systems: what is true for philosophy can be false in theology and vice versa. Consequently, the Aristotelian philosophicalsystem was never incorporated or influenced Islamic and Jewish theology in a significant way (It was met with great resistance and even opposition.) The author briefly discusses the challenges brought by the philosophy of Aristotle to Jewish thought, explaining the resulting shortcomings due to the restrictive social and economic situation of the Jews in Western Europe. Cantor also points to the rise and influence of Talmudic studies as a conservative reaction to the pagan/ancient philosophical systems; it ultimately served to curtail the development of a distinctive Jewish school of philosophy.

In the case of Christianity, the eventual embrace of Aristotle is a startling contrast to the
other two faith traditions. One of the great achievements of the University of Paris in the 13th century - by way of St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas - was precisely to reconcile
and incorporate Aristotelian principles into a systematic Christian theology
later known as Scholasticism. Ironically, what was first seen as a danger to faith
became in the hands or rather the genius of Aquinas the premier intellectual
approach or foundation for doing Christian theology in the Catholic tradition. The Aristotelian way supplanted the olderNeo-platonic/Augustinian approach to theology.
Aquinas’ Aristotelian approach served to clarify the relationship
between Faith (Revelation) and Reason (Philosophy), to espouse the principle of
non-contradiction (what is true for one must also be true for the other) which
led to his arguments for the existence of God, his account of the power and limits
of human reason, his understanding of human nature and ethics.

Cantor’s concise summary, part of the sweeping narrative to a vast and complex
period, has some shortcomings. Like all the chapters, there are no citations
provided. It is the book’s most salient weakness and not being able to decipher the author’s sources is very frustrating. If I could add something to Cantor’s narrative in Chapter 15, it would be to acknowledge the important contribution of Raymond of Toledo. As the Archbishop of Toledo from 1125 to 1152 and contemporary of Averroes, he was responsible for establishing what became known as the Toledo School of Translators at the Cathedral. He ordered the recovery and translation of numerous classical texts from antiquity including translations from Arabic versions into (Old) Spanish and Latin, thus paving the way for the dissemination of Aristotle’s works in Europe and advances in medicine, algebra and astronomy. (See Michele Goyens’ Science Translated: Latin and Vernacular Translations of Scientific Treatises in
Medieval Europe.)