Ch. 15 Middle Ages

Sophie Before

A week passed without Sophie hearing from Alberto. She read Alberto’s letters over and over,

looking for some clue that would throw light on the Hilde mystery. Doing so also gave her plenty

of opportunity to digest the classical philosophy.

On Friday, May 25, it was their regular Friday agreement. Sophie was fixing the dinner when

suddenly a postcard smacked against the window-pane, it was for Hilde Moller Knag, with c/o

Sophie Amundsen. This card was dated June 15.

(Full text letter on page___)

Sophie read the message, it was all so complicated that Sophie went back to fixing dinner. Then

the telephone rang, Sophie answered and it was Alberto.

Alberto told her that there will be no further letters, and Hilde’s father is closing in on us. And

Berkeley is a key figure. He insisted to meet together in person in St. Mary’s Church. So Sophie

slept over in her friend’s house so she can meet her teacher the next morning at eight o’clock.

Alberto suggested getting Hilde’s attention and getting her over to their side before her father

comes home.

Lesson: The next morning, she meets Alberto in old church where he speaks to her from the pulpit and

tells her about the ten hours of the Middle Ages. Although people in the Renaissance called this

time the Dark Ages, they ten centuries of the middle ages were also a period of light and

development. The Middle Ages began at four O’clock and it’s between two other epochs,

antiquity and the renaissance.

Timeline History: According to the hours of a clock.

Jesus, was born at midnight.(00:00)

Paul began his missionary journeys just before (0:30) in the morning and died in Rome a quarter

of an hour later.

Christian church was more or less banned around three in the morning the, but by A.D. 313 it

was an accepted religion in the Roman Empire. That was in the reign of the Emperor

Constantine. From 380 AD Christianity was the official religion throughout the entire Roman

Empire.”

Rome Empire was divided in 395 AD two a Western Empire (Rome) and Eastern Empire

(Constantinople).

Plato’s Academy was closed by the church at 529. Also that year became a symbol of the way

the Christian Church put the lid on Greek philosophy (5:30).

First Universities were founded around 1200 and the subjects to be studied were grouped into

various faculties.

The Roman Empire was divided into three different cultures: Latinized culture (Neo-Platonism,

Plotinus), Greek Christian (Plato) and Arabic-Speaking Muslim culture(Aristotle), during the

time of Middle Ages. Alberto (dressed as a monk) and taught about Augustine from the pulpit .

Philosophers:

(1) St. Augustine (354-430): He was Manichaean (a dualistic philosophy regarding the tension

between good and evil) before studying Plato’s definition of evil, namely, that it is what does

not exist. But it was in Christianity and specially St. Paul that he found in Jesus the truth of

salvation through self-sacrificing love. Plato led him to Paul and Paul led him to Jesus. In a sense

he Christianized Plato. Some basic positions of Augustine are:

1- Reason and religious question (faith and philosophy):

There are limits to how far reason can get us in religious questions. Faith in revelation takes

us farther into reality.

2- Creation and Platonic ideas:

Bible: God created the world out of the void.

Greeks: preferred the idea that the world had always existed (eternal idea).

St. Augustine: believed that before God created the world, the ‘ideas’ were in the Divine

mind. So he located the Platonic ideas in God and in that way preserved the Platonic view of

eternal ideas.

3- Good and Evil:

Evil is the ‘absence of God’, ‘the good will is God’s work; the evil will is the falling away

from God’s work.’

4- Everything is one:

Man is a spiritual being; he has a material body and a soul.

5- Saved or not saved:

The entire human race was lost after the fall of Man and God has chosen certain people to be

saved from damnation. There is no salvation outside the church.

6- Fate:

St. Augustine didn’t deny that we have free will, but he didn’t renounce man’s responsibility

for his own life.

7- Linear view of History:

St. Augustine was influenced by the linear view of History as it is in the Old Testament. As

he said in his own words ‘Divine foresight directs the history of mankind from Adam to the

end of time as if it were the story of one man who gradually develops from childhood to old

age.’

Alberto goes down to Sophie’s bench in church and teaches her about Aquinas.

(2) St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274):

He is more theologian than a philosopher. He tried to Christianize Aristotle so to make it

compatible with Christianity.

1- Faith and knowledge “reason”:

There is no conflict between what philosophy or reason teaches us and what Christian

Revelation or faith teaches us. They both often reach the same truths. But the truths of faith

go beyond the reach of reason. In other words reason is yearning to go beyond itself. Such

truths are only accessible through belief in Christian Revelation.

2- Truth:

There is only one truth and it can be reached by both faith and innate reason. When our

reason tells us that something is true, it doesn’t conflict with the Christianity teaching.

3- Existence of God:

St. Thomas believed he could prove God’s existence on the basis of Aristotle’s Philosophy

(Final cause and efficient cause). God has revealed Himself to mankind both through the

Bible and reason.

4- Right and wrong:

God gave us a conscience to distinguish between right and wrong on a natural basis. For

example, we know harming people is wrong even the less we haven’t read it in the Bible.

5- God’s autobiography:

God’s existence can be recognized by walking in the natural world. And through natural

world we can easily see that he loves his creation or otherwise he wouldn’t have created

them.

6- The Degrees of Existence:

According to Aquinas, there was a progressive degree of existence from minerals to plants to

animals to man, and then from man to angels, and from angels to God.

7- View of Women:

Aquinas harmonized Aristotle’s views about women , namely that a woman was more or less

an incomplete man, with the message of the Bible- which, tell us that God created woman

from Adam’s rib.

Alberto then takes Sophie outside the church were they set on a bench and teaches her about

Hildegard, who is the first woman philosopher (thinker, researcher mentioned in the book).

(3)Hildegard (1098 -1179):

She was a nun, who worked as preacher, author, physician, botanist, and naturalist. She had a

vision in which she saw Sophia, the female side of God. Of course, she is speaking symbolically

because God does not have a male or female side, but some attributes refer more to male

qualities like power and might, whereas other attributes refer more to female qualities like mercy

and wisdom (“Sophia” in Greek).

Sophie after: With that the strange monk rose and began to walk toward the church. Sophie stayed where she

was, thinking about Hildegard and Sophia, Hilde and Sophie. Was she named for Sophia? Was

Hilde named for Hildegard. Suddenly she jumped up and ran after the monk-robed philosopher,

calling: “Was there also an Alberto in the Middle Ages?” (Yes, he was Thomas Aquinas’

teacher!!)

With that he bowed his head and disappeared through the door of St. Mary’s Church.

Sophie was not satisfied with his answer. She followed him into the church. But now it was

completely empty. Did he go through the floor?Just as she was leaving the church she noticed a

picture of the Madonna. She went up to it and studied it closely. Suddenly she discovered a little

drop of water under one of the Madonna’s eyes. Was it a tear?

Sophie rushed out of the church and hurried back to Joanna’s.

St. Augustine

Theory of Time

Why was the world not created sooner? Because there was no sooner, time was created when the

world was created. God is eternal in the sense of being timeless. In God there is no before and

after, but only an eternal present. God’s eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is

present to him at once. He did not precede his creation own creation of time, for that would

imply he was in time.

What is time?

Neither past nor future, but only the present really is. The present is only a moment and time can

only be measured while it is passing nevertheless there really is time past, and future. But we

have reached for contradiction. The only way to avoid this contradiction is to say that past and

future can only be thought of as present. Past must be identified by memory and future with

expectations, memory and expectation being present facts. There are three times present of

things’ past, present of things’ present and present of things’ future. Present of things’ past is

memory, present of things’ present is sight and present of things’ future is expectations. To say

these are three times- past, present and future – is a loose way of speaking.