With a Pure Conscience : Christian Liberty before the Reformation / Ian Christopher Levy.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Levy, Ian Christopher, Author.

Contributor:

Knowledge Unlatched, Funder.

Series:

Fordham Series in Medieval Studies

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

LaVergne : Fordham University Press, 2025.

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2025]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Offers new perspectives on freedom of conscience and religious liberty by tracing their origins to the Middle Ages, thereby challenging the common assumption that these core tenets of modernity were products of the EnlightenmentDeeply committed to the formation of a just and sacred society, medieval theologians and canon­ists developed sophisticated arguments in defense of religious liberty and freedom of conscience. They did so based upon the conviction that each human person possesses an inalienable right to pursue his or her spiritual vocation and to inquire into the truth, provided that such pursuits were not deemed injurious to the commonweal. For this was an age in which all power, whether secular or sacred, was held to be exercised legitimately only insofar as it served the common good. Within these basic parameters there existed a domain of personal freedom guaranteed by natural and divine law that could not be infringed by either secular or ecclesiastical authority. Theologians and canonists did not countenance blind obedience to reigning powers nor did they permit Christians to stand idle in the face of manifest transgressions of sacred tradition, constitutional order, and fundamental human rights.Such foundational principles as the sacred domain of conscience, freedom of intellectual inquiry, dissent from unjust authority, and inalienable personal rights had been carefully developed throughout the later Middle Ages, hence from the twelfth through the fifteenth centuries. Contrary to the popular conception, therefore, the West did not need to wait for the Protestant Reforma­tion, or the Enlightenment, for these values to take hold. In fact, the modern West may owe its greatest debt to the Middle Ages. With a Pure Conscience sheds further light on these matters in a variety of contexts, within and without the medieval university walls, and often amid momentous controversies. This was a robust intellectual culture that revered careful analysis and vigorous disputation in its relentless quest to understand and defend the truth as it could be ascertained through both reason and revelation.With a Pure Conscience: Christian Liberty before the Reformation is available from the Knowledge Unlatched on an open-access basis.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Chapter One University Masters and the Commonweal

Chapter Two Conscience and Censure

Chapter Three The Right to Dispute

Chapter Four From the Interior to the Exterior Forum

Chapter Five To Swear, Correct, and Obey

Chapter Six Papal Power and the Religious Life

Chapter Seven Christians May Correct the Pope

Conclusion

Notes

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Index

Notes:

Title from eBook information screen..

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Apr 2025)

ISBN:

9781531510497

1531510493