Scholasticism: Personalities and Problems of Medieval Philosophy

More an existential plea on behalf of its subject (and the general value of school in dark times) than a history per se. I know nil about the author or the subject, but he gets five stars after 50 pages for his conviction alone. Soon I, too, was weeping over the death of Boethius, cheering for "the great schoolmasters Alcuin and Hrabanus Maurus," and genuinely perplexed by "one of the weirdest events in the history of culture," namely, the gullible reception of Pseudo-Dionysius. This is not a comprehensive history and does not pretend to be. It entirely omits, for example, Aquinas. Who cares? It is the nature of school that the persons matter less than the enterprise, and this book lucidly conveys why that enterprise as a whole show more (translation, analysis, argumentation) matters, even if it is in a certain sense doomed. show less

This an elegantly written book that in short space gives insightful introductions to several major players in Medieval, Christian philosophy. The central thesis is that these philosophers set out to join in a synoptic vision the "truth" of Christian revelation and the "truth" of reason. Pieper sees this project as necessary whenever an individual accepts the "revelation". Personally, I think this project was doomed then and doomed now. And Pieper would not totally disagree that there is and was and inevitable tension. I see hints in his exposition of a polemic against some form of pragmatism/neo-pragmatism and he see dark threats of totalitarianism in abandoning the project.