Favorite Medieval Author and Writing from Church History?

[Casey]

I'm in a medieval church history course and enjoying the various assigned readings. All this material is new to me, I've not really covered the history of this period very much nor the writings. I'd be interested to hear about your favorites.

Two questions:

1. Who is your favorite medieval author/theologian (in general), and why?

2. What is your favorite medieval writing/book/treatise, and why? (Not necessarily written by who you answered for #1, though it may be.)

Two more optional questions I've been thinking about -- perhaps those "in the know" can offer their opinion:

3. What were the strengths of this period regarding the church and her teaching?

4. What were the weaknesses of this period regarding the church and her teaching?

 

[RamistThomist]

1. Aquinas

2. Dante

3. They attempted (somewhat unsuccessfully) a Christian worldview. They did not need the State for a "Christian discourse" and a "Christian consensus." It just flowed out of Christendom.

4. Definitionally, they hadn't read Calvin. Okay seriously, Pope Gregory's Reforms, while somewhat justified, introduced Marcionite and secular tendencies into the church.

 

[ModernPuritan?]

1) Justin martyr probably

2) 1100 AD arturian poems or sagas of the warlord poets (norseman- 80% of my blood ancestry )

 

[MW]

Cur Deus Homo.

 

[DMcFadden]

1. Compound Answer:

Gottschalk (804-69) -a missionary who understood predestination (even anticipating Calvin's double predestination)

Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) - greatest theologian of the medieval period who brought together faith and reason, applied Aristotle, and advanced what we know as classical apologetics (even though I'm a presuppositionalist)

John Wycliff (1330-84) - "morning star" of the Reformation because of his writings against the pope and against the unbiblical view of the Lord's Supper

2. Dante - vivid, powerful, "father of the Italian language" (even though I can only read him in English).

3. The strength of this period is seen in the masterful scholarship of Aquinas and the pre-saging of the Reformation in Wycliffe.

4. The weakness of the period is seen in the failure to learn from Gottschalk and Wycliffe. The church, particularly during the period of the six Renaissance popes (just after the end of the medieval period) show how far the church had sunk.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

1) Dante, no question...

 

[ADKing]

I absolutely love Bernard of Clairvaux. His sermons on the Song of Solomon (though perhaps not the best exegesis) are nevertheless profound specimens of a heart which knew its savior. A must read!

As Rev. Winzer noted, Anselm is also indespensable when studying the era.

 

[RamistThomist]

More on #3. Let's take the three transcendentals: Truth, goodness, and beuaty. The medievals succeeded on #3, at least. They were able to express beuaty in concrete terms. Reformed folks could learn from this. For us, beuaty is writing a sentence with 10 theological terms and fifteen commas.

 

[JohnOwen007]

My favourite medieval authors are:

Robert Grossesteste because he studied the Bible in the original languages, believed the job of the priest was to preach and teach, and gave trenchant criticisms of the papacy.

Thomas Bradwardine because he powerfully understood the grace of God.

John Wyclif because his theology anticipated many reformation themes.

Positives : the developments within the doctrine of God particularly Duns Scotus, who presented a more personal understanding of reality (which paved the way for Luther).

Negatives :

[1] The new claims made by the papacy under the influence of Gregory VII (seeing a high point in Innocent III).

[2] Salvation was obscured by the rise of the doctrine of the works of satisfaction.

Luther and Calvin believed if there was a point when the Western Church fell, it wasn't with Constantine it was with the rise of the papacy in the 11th century under Hildebrand's (Gregory VII) influence. This was (to them) the rise of Anti-Christ.

Blessings.

 

[Reformed Covenanter]

Marty is that actually you in your avatar?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Can we include Augustine? If so, Confessions and City of God for me. It's hard to pick just one, so please pardon me for adding more:

Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ
Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Canticle of Canticles
Anselm, Cur Deus homo
Letters of John Huss
John Wycliffe, Sermons, Select English Works
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Bede's Eccleastical History of the English People
Sir Thomas Mallory, Le Morte d'Arthur
The Song of Roland

 

[JohnOwen007]

Marty is that actually you in your avatar?

Yes, it was taken while I was recently giving a lecture. So I thought, "what the heck, the John Owen avatar was getting boring ...".

 

[caddy]

Gottschalk (804-69) -a missionary who understood predestination (even anticipating Calvin's double predestination)


2. Dante - vivid, powerful, "father of the Italian language" (even though I can only read him in English).

Ditto for this duo...