Oxonian Theologians between Humanism and Scholasticism

• In Event: Humanism, Scholasticism, Pedagogy, and Language in Late Medieval England and Early Modern Germany

Abstract

The historiography viewed Humanism as an autonomous cultural movement and still as a break with medieval Scholasticism. The analysis of the unpublished commentaries of the City of God produced at the first half of the 14th century shows us already many of the “humanist” attributes in the scholastic world. At the University of Oxford, mendicant friars (Nicolas Trevet, Thomas Waleys, John Ridevall) developed erudite approaches to the Augustinian text. Their works, focused on classic knowledge to be explained, demonstrated the construction of a knowledge specifically dedicated to pagan classic cultures. These theologians were an unknown and deciding step to understand the humanist culture as part of the scholastic movement

Author

• Blaise Dufal, École des hautes études en sciences sociales