God and Reason in the Middle Ages

Edward Grant author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:30th Jul '01

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God and Reason in the Middle Ages cover

This book shows how the Age of Reason actually began during the late Middle Ages.

Grant argues that the Age of Reason really began in the universities that first emerged in the late Middle Ages (1100 to 1600) when the first large scale institutionalization of reason in the history of civilization occurred. This study shows how reason was used in the university subjects of logic, natural philosophy, and theology.Between 1100 and 1600, the emphasis on reason in the learning and intellectual life of Western Europe became more pervasive and widespread than ever before in the history of human civilization. Of crucial significance was the invention of the university around 1200, within which reason was institutionalized and where it became a deeply embedded, permanent feature of Western thought and culture. It is therefore appropriate to speak of an Age of Reason in the Middle Ages, and to view it as a forerunner and herald of the Age of Reason that was to come in the seventeenth century. The object of this study is twofold: to describe how reason was manifested in the curriculum of medieval universities, especially in the subjects of logic, natural philosophy and theology; and to explain how the Middle Ages acquired an undeserved reputation as an age of superstition, barbarism, and unreason.

'This is a most stimulating study and one that should become required reading for all historians.' Contemporary Review
'… this book provides a good introduction to the uses of logic and reason in the medieval university as well as a strong corrective to the still current view of the middle ages as a period of intellectual sterility.' History

ISBN: 9780521802796

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 10mm

Weight: 770g

408 pages