4A - Christian Philosophy and Science Flashcards
what were Pope Gregory VII ‘s concerns and how did they lead to the creating of the University
- one concerns was priests were not always sufficiently educated to understand the Latin that was read during Christian services.
- He felt that ordained priests should understand the language, liturgy, and concepts of the Roman Catholic Church in order to be best prepared to lead their congregations.
-His reforms slowly increased the overall education level of the clergy, which in turn raised the expectations of the learning provided by the monastic schools. As the reputation of monastic schools grew, schools began to distinguish themselves as experts in certain fields. For example, Paris became known for theology and Bologna for law.
university, a term first used to describe the school at ____
Paris
With the advancement of education came a desire to better understand and be able to explain how the world works. The universities began to copy and translate the works of ancient philosophers into Latin to better understand the logic of the past, and - as the monks and priests learned ancient philosophy - many sought to apply it to Christian teachings. The theories of ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle in particular were rediscovered in the middle of the 12th century and became very popular among Christian academics. Though Aristotle lived and died many years before Jesus, and was not a Christian, it appeared to the medieval scholars reading Aristotle’s work that he had theorized that there was one divine being whose influence could be seen in the world. Aristotle also spoke about human virtues and the nature of humanity: to be rational, in control on one’s self, and to be good.
read it bruh bruh
Aristotle and Plato provide a logical model around which it is possible to formulate the purpose of all created things. What is something made of? What does it look like? How did it come to be? And what is it used for? This framework would eventually be adopted by theologians such as the Dominican monk St. Thomas Aquinas to describe
how the human person also has an ideal material and formal cause, how we are brought into the world through an efficient cause, and how the final cause of every person is a relationship with God.
St. Thomas essentially uses Aristotle to ask the question
How did we come to be, what are we to do in this world, and where are we going in the next? St. Thomas believed that humans could certainly come to know the truth about God through the Bible and the teachings of the Church. However, he also believed that the same truths of faith could be found through the use of logic and philosophy (as guided by the Church).
st thomas acquires was proclaimed
a Doctor of the Church in 1567 and also called the “Prince and Master of all Scholastic Doctors”. For hundreds of years he was the standard by which all Catholic philosophy would be judged.
Using reason to understand God was in fact an important endeavour for scholars in the 12th and 13th centuries. Not only did St. Thomas build upon use Aristotle to explain the reasons that humans exist, but he also sought to use Aristotelian philosophy to prove the existence of God. In particular, he built upon Aristotle’s work on the relationship between the individual and the cosmos and applied it about understanding the motus (Latin for motion or change) that affects all things.
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motus
Latin for motion or change) that affects all things.
St. Thomas perceived that every cause
had an effect, and nothing could move by itself. Therefore, he claimed, God must be that one primary cause that produces every other effect visible in the material world.
the first mover
Without a first mover, he believed, the universe could never have begun to move. Logically, the existence of God makes rational sense as the first cause of all changes in the world. Also, to use another of St. Thomas’ proofs adapted from Aristotle, it is possible know that the whole world is ordered in a perfect and complex way. It also stands to reason that such order does not come about naturally – for example, we cannot take all the separate pieces of a watch and presume that they would assemble themselves. For a world to fit together as perfectly as it does, there must be - according to St. Thomas - a God who has ordered the whole world with intention.
the names of Acquinas’s work
summa Theologiae
From a very young age, St. Hildegard experienced many illness-inducing visions which she interpreted as God’s revelation.
These visions informed her introspection and explanation of how Christians should live and combat temptations in order to reach the afterlife. Like Aristotle, she looked for God’s involvement in all aspects of the material world and wrote extensively on the natural world, medicine, politics, ethics and music both in letters and larger treatises.
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From a very young age, _______ experienced many illness-inducing visions which she interpreted as God’s revelation.
These visions informed her introspection and explanation of how Christians should live and combat temptations in order to reach the afterlife. Like Aristotle, she looked for God’s involvement in all aspects of the material world and wrote extensively on the natural world, medicine, politics, ethics and music both in letters and larger treatises.
St. Hildegard
St. Hildegard’s work
Her work Physica is particularly renowned for observations of the natural world.
-She considered the air, rivers, earth, rocks and minerals, plants, mammals, birds, fish, etc. in order to determine their cardinal properties (hot, cold, wet, dry) and their possible uses. Her observational approach led to further writings on medicine, an important subject in her context since her home served as a hospital where her nuns took care of the elderly and infirm. However, St. Hildegard understood that medicine and natural science were interrelated to the material world and consequently to the divine.
She strongly felt that the Holy Spirit inspired all of her works, though she doubted her ability to write them down until Pope Eugenius III confirmed her gift in 1148. St. Hildegard of Bingen’s remarkable insights have since granted her recognition as the first German scientist, a Doctor of the Church (one of only a few women granted this designation), and as a saint.
