Customer Reviews

Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions

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This book was in its fifth edition in 1980 (my copy), and obviously has been reprinted since then. There are more recent treatments of the subject, no doubt, and a lot of scholarship has taken place in medieval thought since that time. Nevertheless, I recommend that you buy this book (find a used copy if you can) because it is still one of the best places to get so many primary sources between the covers of one book. The introductory essays are very well done, but the value of this tome (761 pages) is the selection and depth of primary texts. This in no mere medieval cafeteria--the texts here are all selected for their importance to the overall content of each thinker's work. The selections are generous, too. With this book, you get Augustine, Boethius, Erigena, Anselm (with Gaunilo), Abelard, John of Salisbury, al-Farabi, Avicenna, al-Gazali, Averroes, Sa'adia, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Grosseteste, Bacon, Siger of Brabant, Aquinas (Spiritual Creatures, Summa Part I, II [first part], and the text of the 1277 condemnation), Scotus, William of Ockham, Nicholas of Autrecourt, Marsilius of Padua, and John Buridan (on Aristotle).

If you are concerned that there is no way you could get good information on so many writers in one book, let me assure you that you can. For example, you may not read all of Aquinas, but you ought to be familiar with the first part of the Summa. Similarly, you may not read all of Augustine, but some of the best of his work is here (good sections from The Teacher, Retractions, Confessions, City of God, The Trinity, and On Free Will). The important additions of Islamic and Jewish philosophy (Christian medieval thought depends upon the Aristotelian work of Muslim thinkers to a great extent) to this work make it a very nice one to have.

Here is an exhaustive and authoritative, Medieval philosophical sourcebook which contains excerpts of primary importance from key thinkers within the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions. This enormous volume covers nine-hundred years of intellectual history [beginning with St. Augustine in the 5th century and ending with John Buridan 14th century AD], making this the finest single-volume anthology concerning Middle Age philosophy available. Preceding the writings of each author are informative biographical sketches and introductory material that will be of great assistance to the reader while tackling these texts. The only drawback to this volume is the fact that there are very few annotations; but this slight discrepancy cannot negate from the general value of this book.

This work contains selections from the most important Medieval scholars, including Maimonides, Avicenna, and St. Augustine. The selections are reasonably brief, so one may have to go read more works of some authors. However, that is the best one can expect from a book of this sort, and the selections are the best available.

Additionally, the translations are accessible to the modern reader. I had no trouble getting into the translations here at all.

On the whole, I think this is one of the best anthologies of the subject and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the subject. Well done!

This book covers phisophy in the middle ages. I recommend the whole series from the same author.