Louisville Process Theology Network

Aristotle's Children

Sep 24, 2007

Speaking of Plato, a recent book about "Aristotle's Children" offers an interesting historial interpretation of the age-old dichotomy between science and religion.

Maybe 11th and 12th Century scholars would have set Western civilization on a course towards an eventual integration of reason and faith if they had not been suffocated by violent political rivalries between Church and secular authorities.

The full title is "Aristotle's Children: How Christian, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Middle Ages." The author is Richard E. Rubenstein.

In the 7th Century, Islamic and Jewish thinkers uncovered Aristotle's philosophy in ancient libraries and studied his principles of logic for the next four hundred years. This period is said to be one of the highest peaks of Islamic civilization.

Christian scholars would not find these teachings until the 11th Century; and then, thanks largely to libraries left behind by Islamic scholars as Europeans re-conquered the Iberian peninsular. Within the following century, Aristotle's rationalist philosophy would flow into European universities and inspire new ideas and exciting debates.

The high tide probably came in the work of Thomas Aquinas who applied Aristotle's concept of the First Cause to his philosophical argument for the existence of God. So, Aquinas argued that reason is an essential ingredient of faith.

Another century later, exciting ideas like these would be harshly repressed by Church and secular authorities alike in persecutions and wars which over time led to the rise of secular nationalism in Europe.

It seemed both Church and secular authorities feared that Aristotle's logic contradicted their respective claims of God's personal support.