The foundations of Christian scholasticism were laid by
Boethius through his logical and theological essays. and
Jewish philosophy, especially
Jewish Kalam.
Early scholasticism The first significant renewal of learning in the West came with the
Carolingian Renaissance of the
Early Middle Ages.
Charlemagne, advised by
Peter of Pisa and
Alcuin of York, attracted the scholars of England and Ireland, where some Greek works continued to survive in the original. By a 787 decree, he established schools at every abbey in his empire. These schools, from which the name
scholasticism derived, became centers of medieval learning. During this period, knowledge of Ancient Greek had vanished in the West except in Ireland, where its teaching and use was fairly common in its
monastic schools. Irish scholars had a considerable presence in the
Frankish court, where they were renowned for their learning. Among them was
Johannes Scotus Eriugena (815–877), one of the founders of scholasticism. Eriugena was the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period and an outstanding philosopher in terms of originality. The
Latin translations of the 12th century also included figures like
Constantine the African in Italy and
James of Venice in Constantinople. Scholars such as
Adelard of Bath traveled to Spain and Sicily, translating works on astronomy and mathematics, including the first complete translation of
Euclid's
Elements into Latin. At the same time, the
School of Chartres produced
Bernard of Chartres's commentaries on
Plato's
Timaeus and a range of works by
William of Conches that attempted to reconcile the use of classical pagan and philosophical sources in a medieval Christian concept using the kludge of , treating the obviously
heretical surface meanings as coverings disguising a deeper (and more orthodox) truth. Abelard himself was condemned by
Bernard of Clairvaux at the
1141 Council of Sens and William avoided a similar fate through systematic self-bowdlerization of his early work, but his commentaries and encyclopedic and were miscredited to earlier scholars like
Bede and widely disseminated.
Anselm of Laon systematized the production of the
gloss on Scripture, followed by the rise to prominence of
dialectic (the middle subject of the medieval
trivium) in the work of
Abelard.
Peter Lombard produced a collection of
Sentences, or opinions of the Church Fathers and other authorities. More recently,
Leinsle,
Novikoff, and others have argued against the idea that scholasticism primarily derived from philosophical contact, emphasizing its continuity with earlier
Patristic Christianity. This remains, however, a minority viewpoint.
High scholasticism The 13th and early 14th centuries are generally seen as the high period of scholasticism. The early 13th century witnessed the culmination of the
recovery of Greek philosophy. Schools of translation grew up in Italy and Sicily, and eventually in the rest of Europe. Powerful Norman kings gathered men of knowledge from Italy and other areas into their courts as a sign of their prestige.
William of Moerbeke's translations and editions of Greek philosophical texts in the middle half of the thirteenth century helped form a clearer picture of Greek philosophy, particularly of Aristotle, than was given by the Arabic versions on which they had previously relied.
Edward Grant writes "Not only was the structure of the Arabic language radically different from that of Latin, but some Arabic versions had been derived from earlier Syriac translations and were thus twice removed from the original Greek text. Word-for-word translations of such Arabic texts could produce tortured readings. By contrast, the structural closeness of Latin to Greek, permitted literal, but intelligible, word-for-word translations." Other important Franciscan scholastics were
Duns Scotus,
Peter Auriol and
William of Ockham. By contrast, the Dominican order, a teaching order founded by
St Dominic in 1215, to propagate and defend Christian doctrine, placed more emphasis on the use of reason and made extensive use of the
new Aristotelian sources derived from the East and Moorish Spain. The great representatives of Dominican thinking in this period were
Albertus Magnus and (especially)
Thomas Aquinas, whose artful synthesis of Greek rationalism and Christian doctrine eventually came to define Catholic philosophy. Aquinas's masterwork,
Summa Theologica (1265–1274), is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy.
Post-scholasticism Philosopher Johann Beukes has suggested that from 1349 to 1464, the era between the deaths of
William of Ockham and
Nicholas of Cusa, there was a distinct period characterized by "robust and independent philosophers" who departed from high scholasticism on issues such as institutional criticism and materialism but retained scholasticism's method. These philosophers include
Marsilius of Padua,
Thomas Bradwardine,
John Wycliffe,
Catherine of Sienna,
Jean Gerson,
Gabriel Biel and ended with Nicholas of Cusa.
Spanish scholasticism Late Scholasticism Protestant Scholasticism Lutheran Scholasticism Reformed scholasticism Following the Reformation,
Calvinists largely adopted the scholastic method of theology, while differing regarding sources of authority and content of theology.
Neo-scholasticism The revival and development from the second half of the 19th century of medieval scholastic philosophy is sometimes called neo-
Thomism.
Thomistic scholasticism As J. A. Weisheipl
O.P. emphasizes, within the
Dominican Order Thomistic scholasticism has been continuous since the time of Aquinas: "Thomism was always alive in the Dominican Order, small as it was after the ravages of the Reformation, the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic occupation. Repeated legislation of the General Chapters, beginning after the death of St. Thomas, as well as the Constitutions of the Order, required all Dominicans to teach the doctrine of St. Thomas both in philosophy and in theology." "Thomistic scholasticism" or "scholastic
Thomism" identifies with the philosophical and theological tradition stretching back to the time of St. Thomas Aquinas. It focuses not only on exegesis of the historical Aquinas but also on the articulation of a rigorous system of orthodox Thomism to be used as an instrument of critique of contemporary thought. Due to its suspicion of attempts to harmonize Aquinas with non-Thomistic categories and assumptions, scholastic Thomism has sometimes been called, according to philosophers like
Edward Feser, "Strict Observance Thomism". A discussion of recent and current Thomistic scholasticism can be found in ''La Metafisica di san Tommaso d'Aquino e i suoi interpreti'' (2002) by , which includes such figures as Sofia Vanni Rovighi (1908–1990),
Cornelio Fabro (1911–1995), Carlo Giacon (1900–1984),
Tomas Tyn O.P. (1950–1990), Abelardo Lobato
O.P. (1925–2012), Leo Elders (1926– ) and
Giovanni Ventimiglia (1964– ), among others. Fabro in particular emphasizes Aquinas' originality, especially with respect to the
actus essendi or act of existence of finite beings by participating in being itself. Other scholars such as those involved with "Il Progetto Tommaso" seek to establish an objective and universal reading of Aquinas' texts. Thomistic scholasticism in the English speaking world went into decline in the 1970s when the Thomistic revival that had been spearheaded by
Jacques Maritain,
Étienne Gilson, and others, diminished in influence. Partly, this was because this branch of
Thomism had become a quest to understand the historical Aquinas after the
Second Vatican Council.
Analytical scholasticism A renewed interest in the "scholastic" way of doing philosophy has recently awoken within
analytic philosophy. Attempts emerged to combine elements of scholastic and analytic methodology in pursuit of a contemporary philosophical synthesis. Proponents of various incarnations of this approach include
Anthony Kenny, Peter King, Thomas Williams or
David Oderberg. == Scholastic method ==