Étienne Gilson - Medieval Essays

Medieval

Essays

tienne Gilson translated by James G. Colbert

CASCADE Books - Eugene, Oregon

MEDIEVAL ESSAYS

Copyright 2011 Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .

Published under license from Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.

tienne Gilson, tudes mdivales

<< Vrin-Reprise >>

Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, Paris, 1986 .

http://www.vrin.fr

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

W. th Ave., Suite

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

ISBN : 978-1-60899-387-1

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Gilson, tienne, 1884 1978 .

[Etudes mdivales]

Medieval studies / tienne Gilson ; foreword by Jean-Franois Courtine; translated by James G. Colbert.

x + p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN : 978-1-60899-387-1

. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Courtine, Jean-Franois. II. Colbert, James G. III. Title.

B 2430. G E 88 2011

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

To

Ana

Foreword to the French Edition

O F NECESSITY THERE IS something arbitrary in assembling nine essays from the prolific opus of tienne Gilson, for which we still stops at 1958 .

The contributions gathered here range over thirty-five years and represent classical studies of doctrinal history or models for essays in the history of ideas. In any case, the scholarly research which involves so many explorations into the doctrinal jungle that is the Middle Ages, sketches the powerful perspectives of our philosopher-historian and contributes to the articulation of fundamental questions about the respective status of philosophy and theology. Guided by the watchword, back to theology, which Gilson launched at Rome in 1950 , the historical critical research partially assembled here can not help but nurture philosophical reflection for a long time to come, if it is true, as Auguste Comte maintained, that in the famous commitment that scholasticism constitutes, it is theology [that] makes itself dependent on metaphysics.

Jean-Franois Courtine

. [Translators note: see, however, McGrath, Etienne Gilson: A Bibliography .]

. [Translators note: see Edie, Writings of tienne Gilson, .]

. Text quoted by Gouhier, La pens mdivale, .

Critical Historical Research and the Future of Scholasticism

W HAT CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE does critical historical research
suggest for our approach to scholasticism? What indications does it provide about its future? The question posed is broad, so we may be excused if we simply touch upon its main point within the brief space of a paper.

A century ago in 1850 , Barthlemy Haurau published De la philosophie scolastique , followed by his Histoire de la philosophie scolastique in 1872 and 1880 . Since then, works on medieval philosophy are countless: in 1900 Maurice de Wulf, Histoire de la philosophie mdivale ; in 1905 Franois Picavet, Esquisse dune histoire gnrale et compare des philosophies mdivales ; in 1921 Martin Grabmann, Die Philosophie des Mittelalters ; in 1928 Bernard Geyer , Die patristiche und scholastiche Philosophie . We could mention others without even considering innumerable works devoted to the philosophies of Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, and Ockham. But for every ten histories of medieval philosophy, how many histories of medieval theology do we find? For twenty volumes on the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, how many historical expositions of his theology are there? For a century historians of medieval thought generally seem to have tended to represent the medieval ages as inhabited by philosophers rather than theologians.

There are several reasons for this, the first a dogmatic one. Since philosophy was overtly established as a science separated from theology in the seventeenth century, there has been a desire to contrast scholasticism, qua pure philosophy, with other pure philosophies that attacked it. This trend started in the sixteenth century but accelerated towards the end of the seventeenth. In 1667 , under the pseudonym Ambrosius Victor, the Oratorian Andr Martin, devoted his five-volume Philosophia Christiana to turning St. Augustine into a philosopher. In 1679 Antoine Goudins Philosophia juxta Thomae Dogmata came out, and innumerable Cursus Philosophiae Thomisticae were to follow up to our time. In 1746 Josephus Antonius Ferrari would defend Aristotles philosophy rationibus Joannis Duns Scoti subtilium principis . What a distance had been traversed since the time of Duns Scotus! In the fourteenth century, he used Aristotle to defend the faith! In the eighteenth century it is he who is conscripted to defend Aristotle. In 1782 Carolus Josephus a Sancto Floriano published his Joannis Duns Scoti Philosophia , which was not to be the last. Then as now, it was a question of comparing philosophy to philosophy, which is why medieval theologians who never wrote any philosophy in life, composed so much after death. But strictly historical factors complement the previous consideration. In the measure that history of philosophy was established as a distinct area of study, it became more and more difficult for it to neglect the Middle Ages. Might it not be that there was a great deal of philosophizing in the faculty of arts? Above all, one could not help noticing the striking difference that distinguishes modern philosophy at its inception from Greek philosophy at its end. Metaphysics emerged from the Middle Ages different from the state in which it entered them. Thus something had happened in philosophy, even within the theology faculties. That is why so many studies wavering between theology and philosophy had to be published, treating theologians as philosophers; in short, doing what could be done without troubling oneself excessively about theoretical distinctions. It was certainly necessary to search out medieval philosophy where it was.