What was Scholasticism? Give an example of what the Scholastics did.
Scholasticism is referred to the synthesis of the Christian theology and the philosophies of Aristotle. Aristotle’s works were lost during the Middle Ages or Dark Ages. During the High Middle Ages, the holy crusades led to the discovery of his works. Islamic and Jewish philosophers were influenced by Aristotle’s ideas and they tried to incorporate them into their respective religions:
Avicenna was a Persian Muslim physician and philosopher. He came across the philosophy of ancient Greeks, particularly Aristotle and was highly influenced from his ideas. Avicenna had read Aristotle’s “Metaphysics” about 40 times and could recite it by heart. He wrote books in his later life on topics such as Medicine, Mathematics, Politics, Astronomy, Metaphysics, Linguistics, and others.
Averroes immensely influenced by Aristotle’s philosophies and arguments as well as Avicenna’s interpretations regarding Aristotelian philosophy. His writings are mainly on the ideas of Aristotle with emphasis on the senses, memory and sleep.
Maimonides was a Jewish Biblical and Talmudic scholar, who gave the logic that several passages from the Talmud and the Old Testament could be understood rationally by applying logic and need not be taken on faith alone.
Later, the Christian theologians, such as St. Anselm, Peter Abelard, St. Thomas Aquinas, William of Occam and others followed their Islamic and Jewish counterparts and did the same. The works of the Scholastics are as follows:
Peter Abelard (1079-1142 AD): He translated Aristotle’s works and introduced a method of studying that was popular in the Scholastic period. It was known as dialectic method.
He believed that theological questions should be backed by arguments and counter-arguments. He wanted to remove the inconsistencies and arrive at a position, where the authority of Bible will be considered final.
St. Anselm (1033-1109 AD): In a book named “Faith Seeking Understanding”, St. Anselm reasoned that proper reason should supplement the Christian faith. This concept of reasoning along with the faith in Christian doctrines was a shift from the traditional Christian beliefs.
St. Anselm gave the famous concept of “ontological argument for the existence of God” which means there must be any cause behind the thoughts that come to our mind. These were all Aristotelian school of thought.
Peter Lombard (1095-1160 AD): Like St. Anselm, Lombard argued that one can learn about God by three things, namely, reasoning, having faith and studying the works of God. Peter Lombard said that one does not need to escape from the physical world to experience God.