The Medieval Christian Philosophers: An Introduction

by Richard Cross

The High Middle Ages were remarkable for their coherent sense of 'Christendom': of people who belonged to a homogeneous Christian society marked by uniform rituals of birth and death and worship. That uniformity, which came under increasing strain as national European characteristics became more pronounced, achieved perhaps its most perfect intellectual expression in the thought of the western Christian thinkers who are sometimes called 'scholastic theologians'. These philosophers produced (during roughly the period 1050-1350 CE) a cohesive body of work from their practice of theology as an academic discipline in the university faculties of their day. Richard Cross' elegant and stylish textbook - designed specifically for modern-day undergraduate use on medieval theology and philosophy courses - offers the first focused introduction to these thinkers based on the individuals themselves and their central preoccupations.
The book discusses influential figures like Abelard, Peter Lombard and Hugh of St Victor; the use made by Aquinas of Aristotle; the mystical theology of Bonaventure; Robert Grosseteste's and Roger Bacon's interest in optics; the complex metaphysics of Duns Scotus; and the political thought of Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham. Key themes of medieval theology, including famous axioms like 'Ockham's Razor', are here made fully intelligible and transparent.

Genres: Philosophy

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

There is more than one person with this name in the Goodreads catalog. This entry is for Richard ^ Cross.

Richard Cross is John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy. He came to Notre Dame in 2007, having been a Fellow of Oriel College in the University of Oxford from 1993 to 2007. He specializes in medieval philosophy and theology, with a particular focus on Duns Scotus. He is currently at work on a multi-volume history of the metaphysics of Christology. A preliminary volume on Aquinas to Scotus appeared in 2002. Recently, he has published volumes on Reformation Christological Debates (OUP, 2019), and The Metaphysics of Christology in the Seventeenth Century (OUP, 2022). In press or in progress are three more volumes, one on discussions from Ockham to Biel; one on Early Scholastic Christology; and a final one on Latin Christology in late antiquity and the early middle ages. He is also preparing a critical edition of different versions of Peter Auriol's commentary on book 3 of the Sentences.

Reviews

[Gregory Strong · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was challenging intellectually but worth the effort in engaging with some key Christian philosophers and ideas of the medieval period.