Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers

by G.R. Evans

Focusing on individuals whose ideas shaped intellectual life between 400 and 1500, this book is an accessible guide to those religious, philosophical and political concepts central to the medieval worldview.

Genres: Philosophy, History, Medieval, Reference

220 pages, Paperback

First published September 11, 2002

About the author

Professor Emeritus of Medieval Theology and Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a rather good find while I was browsing around the shelves in the big university library that I sometimes find myself in. The main idea is fairly straight foward: Dr. Evans, a prof at Cambridge in mediaeval theology, provides short intellectual biographies on a series of Latin mediaeval authors from Ambrose and Augustine to Gabriel Biel. The choices are intellectuals with a influential body of writings. She provides clear biographies, a discussion of their intellectual work and some indication of the influence on later writers. In addition, a bibliography is provided to spur further research. This is an introduction to these figures, so nobody is covered in considerable detail and she does sneak in a few figures like St. Benedict through the back door as it were as short digressions within the lives of other thinkers.

Evan's style is readable and lively and she has the gift of explain rather abstruse theology in a clear and concise way (that is no mean feat). I found it a good relaxing and informative read.

[Arthur Cravan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty insane book. I'll start with a warning: this book could (& should) have basically just been titled Fifty Key Medieval Theologians or something similar. It's basically a chronological history of medieval Christianity, & boy, does it show how petty, ruthless, cowardly & power-hungry The Church is. Certain periods of time especially seem concerned infinitely more with politics than with my boy Christ. It's at turns sickening and hilarious. Here's some hilarious politics:

In the Church, Greek East and Latin West had been divided since the schism of 1054. At that period the real reasons were probably political, but there were identifiable differences. The two Churches were divided on the primacy, the Greeks taking the view that the Bishop of Rome was not entitled to claim to be primate of the patriarchates of the East as well as of the Western Church. There was a difference of opinion as to whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist.

& here's just Christian hilarity in general:

Bradwardine disapproved of two schools of thought of his day, the ‘Cainites’ who despaired of forgiveness because they had committed such serious sins, and the ‘Judaeans’, who believed they could not be forgiven because they had committed so many sins.

But it surprised me. As I read more & more, I got pretty involved with it all. I couldn't put the book down at times. Outside of all the (melo)drama (of which there is plenty), I just loved learning about the times. I loved the conversational (& adversarial) aspect of all the writing, the practicality behind why a lot of the books were written (basically compiling all the Greatest Hits of past Fathers so they could be taught & distributed to the masses), the balls on some of these guys standing up to the church... There are letters, sermons, saints’ lives, prayers, poems and treatises which he sent to his contemporaries, in an age when ‘publication’ might be no more than such friendly exchange. It's my jam, man.

Anyway, some of the more interesting lives/thinkers imo were:
Anselm of Canterbury
Ps-Dionysius (someone teach me how to say this)
Dante (obvs, but honestly I didn't know much about Dante the man, & got an interesting glimpse here. 'Courtly love' indeed.)
Bernard of Clairvaux
William of Ockham
John Wyclif

I'll definitely be looking to read more of/about those last three in particular. & I want to give an extra special shoutout to my girl Hildegard of Bingen, the sole female 'thinker' in the book. I've found a biography on her which I plan to read soon, because she seemed pretty hectic. From childhood (the story went) she had visions. In 1141 a fiery light filled her and she was given by direct illumination the knowledge of the contents of Scripture which others got only by patient reading.[..] Despite the dramatic story of her education, Hildegard herself laid no claim to divine inspiration. Sign me up.

Well. God bless you all.