1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910784192003321

Autore

Otten Willemien

Titolo

From paradise to paradigm : a study of twelfth-century humanism / / Willemien Otten

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston : , : Brill, , 2004

ISBN

1-280-85986-5

9786610859863

1-4294-2714-0

90-474-0617-6

1-4337-0502-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xv, 330 pages)

Collana

Brill's studies in intellectual history, , 0920-8607 ; ; v. 127

Disciplina

144/.09/021

Soggetti

Civilization, Medieval - 12th century

Theology - History - Middle Ages, 600-1500

Philosophy, Medieval

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-319) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Preliminary Material -- Introduction: Understanding Medieval Humanism -- Chapter One: From Paradise to Paradigm. An Introduction to the Problem of Twelfth-Century Humanism -- Chapter Two: Nature and Scripture: Tale of a Medieval Analogy and Its Demise -- Chapter Three: Opening the Universe: William of Conches and the Art of Science -- Chapter Four: Opening the Mind: Peter Abelard and the Makeover of Traditional Theology -- Chapter Five: Fortune or Failure: the Problem of Grace, Free Will and Providence in Peter Abelard -- Chapter Six: Tragedy in the Twelfth-Century Rhetorical Imagination: Bernard Silvestris on Suicide -- Chapter Seven: Conclusion. From Adam’s Fall to Nature’s Tear and Beyond: Paradise and Its Discontent -- List of Abbreviations -- Latin Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects.

Sommario/riassunto

This book presents a study of twelfth-century humanism seen as an all-embracing discourse in which the human and the divine interact on equal terms. The book focuses on a number of twelfth-century intellectuals, especially Thierry of Chartres, Peter Abelard, William of



Conches, Bernard Silvestris, and Alan of Lille. Defining characteristic of their texts is the fact that God, nature and humanity enter into a trialogue of sorts involving many disparate subjects and aiming to bring out the archetypal relatedness of all kinds of knowledge with respect to human nature. As the authors studied here engage the divine and the universe in a joint conversation, the book ultimately concentrates on trying both to understand its appeal and to explain its subsequent demise.