Class 8:

Propagation of the mentality

Cultural, philosophical, religious, scientific, technological, social and

political news, innovations, trends, Zeitgeist - transmitted and disseminated by the wonderers, settlers, conquerors, emissaries, and the mass media

Hellenization:       The arts and philosophy in a search for truth, harmony and beauty 

                                       Ethos of decency, pride, honor.                Democratic collectivism

                                       Focus on the self-perfecting virtuosi

Romanization:       State-controlled law to impose order & duty. Materialism, egoism

                                       Focus on the strong and fearless

Christianization:  Schools, hospitals, charities, services.       Spiritualism, altruism

                                       Focus on the weak, poor and helpless

The Middle Ages (Medieval Period)

               Fall of Rome to Barbarians                      476

               Fall of Constantinople to Muslims    1453

The Roman Empire partitioned into:

• Western (Latin) part,  fragmented into small kingdoms.

                                                                   later re-united as an empire again. 

• Eastern (Greek) part, called the Byzantine Empire 

                                                                  Survived until the Muslim invasion in 1453

EARLY (Dark) Middle Ages  476 – 1000

The Fall of Rome:    the collapse of law and order, anarchy:

                                        lack of central authority, the terror of local usurpers,   

                                        robbery and attacks of criminal gangs

   Byzantine Emperor Justinian goes to war against the Ostrogoths 

  The Huns led by Attila invaded Greece, Macedonia and Turkey 

                 552              Earthquake in Beirut: 250 000 victims

                 541 - 767  Multiple epidemic crises halved the population.

                                       of Central Africa, Byzantium, Spain, and France  

570    Prophet Mohammed born in Mecca

            Islam  - a new monotheist religion

           The followers (Muslims or Moslems) start the conquest

            Religious conquest: to convert the “infidels” and fight the competitors

             ISLAM = submission to the will of God (Allah)

Propagation of Islam and the military conquests from the Arabian Peninsula to: 

         Egypt, Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, Spain, and France. Muslim invasion and blockade of Byzantium.  

 The Frank armies (led by Gen. Charles Martel) stop the Muslim military invasions  

 at Tours and Poitiers (today France)

Political unification of the Western Europe. Restoration of the Roman civilization (law & order) and the Christian ethics

Carolingian dynasty  (730 -  830);  grandson of Gen. Charles Martel  - Charles the Great  “Charlemagne”  768 - 800 the King, 800 - 814 the Emperor of The Holy Roman Empire        

                                       Carolingian renaissance  

Re-integration of the fragmented Europe

- Rebirth of the Greco-Roman civilization 

   combined   with Christian ethics

- Restoration of Roman law and order; “Capitulare”

- Promotion of romantic code of conduct:

   honour, decency, patriotism, courtesy, elegance, respect

   chivalry: horsemanship. Wrestling, archery, care, poetry, music

- Romanesque, Gothic and Carolingian architecture

- Romanesque ethos: law, justice, honour, decency, patriotism, chivalry, piety

Christianization resulting from missionary activity or king’s conversion 

European kingdoms were Christianized either in

    - The Roman rite,      e.g., Poland      in 966    or

    - The Byzantine rite, e.g., Ukraine in 989 

Monasterial movement

• First as the withdrawn individual hermits:  prayers and meditations.

• Later as communities of monks or nuns:    living in seclusion.

• Some orders remained isolated in monasteries,

     while others would reach out to offer nursing, caring, teaching, 

     charity, and farming   Ora et labora 

     Religious nurses (“sisters”, “brothers”)  in hospitals in Beirut,

     Damascus, Lubeck.  At times of plagues, they died massively…

   541 - 767  Pandemic crisis in the Central Africa, Spain, France,

                    and Byzantium: 

                    in 14 epidemics, caused probably by the Smallpox

1344 - 1352  the Bubonic Plague*  also called the Black Death** 

                brought by Mongolian armies attacking the Crimea

                 The bacteria yersinia pestis transmitted from rats via fleas to people

                The plague killed 25 million

High Medieval 1000-1250

Vikings settled in Newfoundland;     and Northern France “Normans”

The pilgrims to the Holy Land blocked by the Muslim army

1095 - 1291  European kings organize eight Crusades -   to regain access. Templar Knights in the castles/garrisons to protect the Holy Land

Gothic architecture, e.g., Notre Dame, Paris 1182 

Public schooling, ordered by the Council of Rome 1215 

Rise of the first universities: Bologna, Salerno, Paris, Oxford, Modena, Cambridge,  Napoli,  Salamanca, Seville, Padua. 

LATE MEDIEVAL 1250 – 1453

The next universities: Coimbra & Lisbon 1290, Rome 1300, Pisa 1343,  

 Florence 1349, Prague 1350,  Krakow 1364,  Modena 1365, Vienna & Koln 1382, 

 Heidelberg & Ferrara 1391.

• 1344 - 1352  Black Death in Europe.

• 1450 J. Gutenberg - the alphabetic printing machine

• 1453 Fall of Constantinople to Turks. 

                           Exodus of Byzantine scholars to other European countries.

  Medieval school system

527  The Church Council of Toledo:

                                     schools to train priests, lawyers, scribes 

  800  Charlemagne:         cathedral and monasterial schools

1079 Pope Gregory VII:   cathedral school transformed into

                       Studium generale     (theology, philosophy)     and 

                      Studium particulare (medicine, law, commerce, arts)

                         //Prototypes of colleges and universities//                   

Universitas magistrorum et scholarium meant a union of teachers & students

The first universities: Bologna 1089,  Paris 1150,  Oxford 1167,  Salamanca 1218

                                   Latin as an international language in European universities

Teachers: monks, priests or theological scholars

Academic titles: magister (a master), doctor (a teacher)  

Latin became a universal tongue in all European countries’ schools, churches and hospitals.

The Curriculum in the early European universities.

Scholasticism* - the use of rational reasoning and faith in scholarly debates.

                                  A prototype of logic and methodology

ISLAMIC SCHOLARS

Translating and copying works of the ancient

   Greek and Roman philosophers, doctors and writers.

• Discussions on theological matters with Jewish, Christian and Persian scholars.

• Contributions to algebra, medicine, astronomy and theology.

AVICENNA (981-1037)

• Encyclopedic  "Canon of Medicine”  

• Aristotelian-style faculties of the soul: human, animal and vegetative - hierarchically arranged. 

• A person as a microcosm reflecting Neoplatonian macrocosm.  

• Let’s reconcile reason with faith

• Galenic concept of 4 temperaments

Avicenna and Aristotle on 

the differences between the animal psyche and the human mind

Similar:  - basic five senses,

                - common sense, 

                - polysensory generalization,

                - individually learned memory,

                - species memory, instinctive intuition

                - biological urges and needs (individual and species survival)

Different  (specifically human):

• abstract generalization (beyond sensory similarity) 

• consciousness, self-awareness  

• the free will: self-monitoring, self-modelling, judgement and choices 

• altruistic aspirations, perfection in virtues, spiritual actualization 

MAIMONIDES  1135 – 1204

Zeitgeist in Spain then was hostile towards Jews.

the choice: conversion to Islam or exile 

As a “convert”, Maimonides studied medicine in Spain 

Teaching philosophy and theology in Morocco, Egypt and Palestine       

His tomb in the city of Tiberias, Israel

“The Guide for the Perplexed”  - an attempt to reconcile religious 

                                                      the faith with the reason

The Scriptures provide metaphoric stories, symbolic proverbs, analogies, and examples – useful in theological teaching.

Pierre Abelard

• Teacher of philosophy and theology  in Paris

• Master and canon of Notre Dame School  

• He preferred Plato over Aristotle

• His favourite epistemology was logical reasoning

• Eloquent scholastic polemist 

   using the dialectic method: considering pros & cons 

   of each contrasting opinion,  to reach a conclusion

dia = Greek - through  Dialectic: going through, analyzing my arguments (thesis)

                                     and the opponents' arguments (antithesis) to reach a conclusion

                                     Socrates, Plato, Hegel

Bacon

A Franciscan monk, exposed to Jewish teachers in England 

In France, he studied under the famous Albertus Magnus

Roger Bacon preferred empiricism over rationalism

Experimenting with objects: essays on optics   

Albertus Magnus

German theologian and philosopher

Teaching at Paris University

Aristotle: his favorite philosophy. 

Books on ethics, psychology: sensation, memory, intelligence etc.

Faith and reason are NOT contradictory.

A role model for  

   Thomas Aquinas in Cologne  and Paris

St.-Thomas Aquinas

Dominican Monastery in Monte Casino

    -  University of Napoli

    -  University of Cologne 

    -  University of Paris

• He preferred Aristotle over Plato.   

• Back to the Italian monastery and University of Napoli -

• epoch-making “Summa Theologiae” 

• Thomism a theology

• Postmortem (in 1323)  canonized as a saint.

Thomism, a new theology based on Aristotle:

Epistemology: empirical observations combined 

                        with rational thinking in the study of

                        the material world, God’s creation. In case of

                        doubts, the rules of faith should prevail 

                        over empirical observations.  

Ontology:        Body-mind compositum 

Ethics:             Care of the soul and the body, its habitat 

                        (to be resurrected)

                        Freedom of choice increases with increased

                        knowledge of necessities. 

Asceticism is not necessary to deserve salvation.

Terrestrial life -    is a part of human existence and 

                              should be appreciated and fulfilled

God’s creation should be studied and reflected upon. 

Voice of reason should be given an open and 

sympathetic audience. 

Theology has little to fear from science and reason. 

FAITH and REASON as two valid epistemological tools must be reconciled in scholarly debates

THE HUMAN SOUL

Rational: 

Cognition of the universals and the Intellectual curiosity 

Sensitive-locomotive:

                 Exterior senses:  sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell 

                 Interior senses:   imagination, memory, 

                                                     estimation and common sense                                      

Vegetative: Nutrition, reproduction and growth

The Middle Ages    

• The Fall of Rome brought political turmoil, wars between local usurpers, chaos, the lack of central authority, and anarchy.

               the collapse of the law-and-order: terror bandits and outlaws

• Carolingian Renaissance: restoration of the law-and-order, ethos.

• Christianization and Islamization. Religious wars and conquests

               The Crusades. New military technologies. 

• Migrations, pilgrimages; exchange of opinion, knowledge, genes and … illnesses. 

    Christian civilization (both the Roman and the Byzantine part)

     was based on:

• the Greek classic philosophy

• the Roman law and

• the Judeo-Christian ethics

Regional languages (applying the Latin or Greco-Cyrillic alphabet & grammar):

- Romance:                            Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese 

- Anglo-Saxon:                      German, English, Swedish, Dutch, Danish 

- Slavic: (Latin)                      Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovenian 

- Slavic: (Greco-Cyrillic)    Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbian

• Scholasticism: a prototype of  methodology

• Monasterial movement: 

               - meditation, work, service, ascetic humility

               - copying the Greco-Roman scripts

               - teaching in schools and universities

               - helping the poor (hospices) and ill (hospitals)

               - teaching basic rules of hygiene and ethics

• Emergence of public schools and universities in Europe 

• Re-emergence of Roman customs  (“romantic” as opposed to

               “barbarian”): Romanticized chivalry and respect towards women,

                courtesy, savoir-vivre, virtuous conduct and kindness; the cult of

                virtuous knights, chevaliers and troubadours. 

• Professional ethos and pride of specialists-manufacturers. 

• Anonymous artists and architects: Roman, later Gothic cathedrals, castles and palaces in Europe.

• Development of sacral and secular music notation

• Transition from Augustinian  theology to Thomism  

• Emphasis on the spirituality of human existence.

               Service for others (altruism) to deserve eternity