History of the Christian church

1. Speculations of the Schoolmen

2. Job 11:7-9 (CEV)
 Can you understand the mysteries
surrounding God All-Powerful?
 They are higher than the heavens
and deeper than the grave.
So what can you do
when you know so little,
 and these mysteries outreach
the earth and the ocean?

3.  The term scholasticism comes from the
Greek schole and it refers to a place where
learning takes place.
 For the scholastics, there was one major
preoccupation – proving “existing truth by
rational process.”
 The Scholastics were not going about trying
to establish any new truth; rather, they were
simply attempting to organize truth into a
body so that it would be accepted whether
it came by faith from revelation or via
reason through philosophy.

4.  Averroes’ translation of Aristotle’s writings
 Moses Maimonides (1135 – 1204) of Aristotle,
which was eagerly accepted.
 The interest generated by the new mendicant
orders coupled with the use of philosophy in
the study of revelation.
 The rise and expansion of universities;
universities centered their curriculum on
theology.

5.  Theology was done within an Aristotelian
framework
 Heavy use of syllogism: they took a general
truth, one which is seen as being taken for
granted, and then related it to particular
facts;
 Then they used any relationship evident
between the two to come to a conclusion
which became a “new truth.”
 It was from this mode of doing theology
that “new” theological development took
place during the period of the scholastics.

6. Realism: (1200-1350)
 Owed a lot to Plato’s concept of the
universals.
 According to Plato, for each universal there
is an “objective reality.”
 Universalia ante rem; which means that
universals exist before the created thing.
 Approach to the knowledge of God
 Speculation about the essence of God (not only
his moral character
 Two avenues to knowing God: revelation
and reason.

7.  Knowledge of God through reason
 Dependence upon the universals
 universals (love, beauty, justice, etc) dwell in the
mind of God and present in human minds
 universals – a bridge which allow man to discover
mind of God
 Dependence upon Aristotle’s logic
 Dialectical approach to truth
 Use of the syllogism

8.  Approach to salvation
 man not totally depraved
 man remains a rational being; semi-Pelagianism
 all powers of the soul distorted by four wounds:
 wound of ignorance (reason)
 wound of malice (will)
 wound of weakness (emotion)
 wound of concupiscence (body)
 Among those who acceded to the realist school
are Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Lombard.

9.  Divine infusion of grace through the sacraments
 He moves the free will to accept the gift of
grace
 Justification, a movement from state of
sin to state of justice
 Restoration of the disposition to love and
obey God
 Among those who acceded to the realist
school are Anselm of Canterbury and
Peter Lombard.

10. Moderate Realism:
 “particular things are most real to us but
universals are most real in themselves;”
 This school is also known as the conceptualist
school; universalia in re.
 Among those who were in this school are Peter
Abelard, Albertus Magnus and Thomas
Aquinas.

11. Gal 3:1-4 (NRSV)
 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched
you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ
was publicly exhibited as crucified!
 The only thing I want to learn from you is this:
Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works
of the law or by believing what you heard?
 Are you so foolish? Having started with the
Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?
 Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it
really was for nothing.

12. Nominalism: (1350-1500)
 In their understanding “general truths or
ideas have no objective existence outside
the mind”
 Thus they saw them as being merely
“subjective ideas of common characteristics
developed by the mind as a result” of
observing particular things; universalia post
rem.
 Distinction between God’s absolute and
ordained power.

13.  Main ideas of Nominalism
 God known as far as he wants to reveal himself
 Incomprehensible in his potentia absoluta
 nothing in common with man
 Comprehensible in his potentia ordinata
 revelation of his character
 revelation of conditions of salvation
 importance of divine-human covenant

14.  Salvation dependent upon acquisition of
merits.
 Duty to do what you can with your human
capacities to do what is right
 Natural ability to love and trust God
 After you have done what you can, divine
grace helps you get more merits.

15.  Impact of Nominalism on spirituality
 multiplication of good works (pilgrimages, candles,
rosaries, indulgences)
 great veneration for the saints
 German emphasis on sufferings of Jesus upon the
cross
 great value of relics
 veneration for parts of body of Jesus, rather than
Jesus himself

16.  Soteriology - covenant between God and
humanity.
 Unilaterally imposed by God
 God established the condition for justification
 God has ordained that he will accept individuals
who do their best
 Facere quod in se est: Doing what lies within you or
doing your best.