NEW TOPIC! "Great Books for the SCA Tradition"

Cecily Garland/Deborah Raney cecily at eden.com
Tue Jun 10 16:10:57 PDT 1997


>
>So, pick a book (or several) and defend your choice.
>
>Frantically trying to narrow down her list,
>
>Siobhan 
>

My choice, as will be shown in next months 'It Cometh in the Mail,' Bryn
Gwlad's newsletter, is books on ancient and medieval philosophy. I have a
modest collection of books on the subject which include: Copleston's 'A
History of Medieval Philosophy' & his first three volumes 'A History of
Philosophy' (volume 1 is ancient philosophy, vol 2 early medieval
philosophy, and 3 on late medieval philosophy).

There are many reasons why I read such books: one of my majors in college
was philosophy; I consider myself a medievalist when it comes to philosophy
(as well as other field :); but the most important reason is because the
way of thought during the middle ages was due in part to these philosophers
and theologians. 

For instance, one of the reasons that Constantinople (sp?) created the Holy
Roman Empire was due to the works of St. Augustine of Hippo, the 'City of
God' in particular. It was Constantinople's believe that the Holy Roman
Empire was a worldly City of God: the best that man could achieve on this
world. It is St. Augustine you can thank, for weal or woe, for the forms of
expansionistic government that the western world (especially Europe) has
developed.

St. Thomas Aquinas reformed the Aristolelian works to fit closer to what
the Church believed in the 13th century. Through his works on Aristotle and
the many other writing he had done, St. Thomas change forever the Catholic
Church. St. Thomas is known as the Medieval Philosopher, among other
titles. St. Thomas view of The Philosopher, the name that St. Thomas gave
to Aristotle, cleared the works by this great man of the herecy that many
of the Church were about to place on them.

That is but a couple of the major influences that the philosophers of yore
had on the socialogical, political and religious attitudes that made up the
middle ages and beyond.

Focused on just a small portion of his library,

Angus





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