Pagans and Philosophers : The Problem of Paganism from Augustine to Leibniz / John Marenbon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marenbon, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy and religion.

Philosophy--History.

Philosophy.

Paganism--History.

Paganism.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (369 p.)

Edition:

Pilot project. eBook available to selected US libraries only

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

From the turn of the fifth century to the beginning of the eighteenth, Christian writers were fascinated and troubled by the "Problem of Paganism," which this book identifies and examines for the first time. How could the wisdom and virtue of the great thinkers of antiquity be reconciled with the fact that they were pagans and, many thought, damned? Related questions were raised by encounters with contemporary pagans in northern Europe, Mongolia, and, later, America and China.Pagans and Philosophers explores how writers-philosophers and theologians, but also poets such as Dante, Chaucer, and Langland, and travelers such as Las Casas and Ricci-tackled the Problem of Paganism. Augustine and Boethius set its terms, while Peter Abelard and John of Salisbury were important early advocates of pagan wisdom and virtue. University theologians such as Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and Bradwardine, and later thinkers such as Ficino, Valla, More, Bayle, and Leibniz, explored the difficulty in depth. Meanwhile, Albert the Great inspired Boethius of Dacia and others to create a relativist conception of scientific knowledge that allowed Christian teachers to remain faithful Aristotelians. At the same time, early anthropologists such as John of Piano Carpini, John Mandeville, and Montaigne developed other sorts of relativism in response to the issue.A sweeping and original account of an important but neglected chapter in Western intellectual history, Pagans and Philosophers provides a new perspective on nothing less than the entire period between the classical and the modern world.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

A Note on References and Citations

Introduction: The Problem of Paganism

Part I: The Problem Takes Shape

CHAPTER 1. Prelude: Before Augustine

CHAPTER 2. Augustine

CHAPTER 3. Boethius

Part II: From Alcuin to Langland

CHAPTER 4. The Early Middle Ages and the Christianization of Europe

CHAPTER 5. Abelard

CHAPTER 6. John of Salisbury and the Encyclopaedic Tradition

CHAPTER 7. Arabi, Mongolia and Beyond: Contemporary Pagans in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

CHAPTER 8. Aristotelian Wisdom: Unity, Rejection or Relativism

CHAPTER 9. University Theologians on Pagan Virtue and Salvation

CHAPTER 10. Dante and Boccaccio

CHAPTER 11. Langland and Chaucer

Part III: The Continuity of the Problem of Paganism, 1400-1700

CHAPTER 12. Pagan Knowledge, 1400-1700

CHAPTER 13. Pagan Virtue, 1400-1700

CHAPTER 14. The Salvation of Pagans, 1400-1700

EPILOGUE. Leibniz and China

General Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691176086

0691176086

9781400866359

1400866359

OCLC:

903900599