Aristotle'S Children Pa Paperback – September 20, 2004

I believe this book can be appreciated by anyone interested in the history of ideas. The more you know about the subject matter of ancient/medieval philosophy the more you can appreciate the author's subtlety and depth. His forte is revealing the vibrant interactions of these ideas and the societies that shunned or accepted them. The Byzantine empire closed the Academy in Athens--Islam embraced and transmitted philosophy back to the Western world. Then, Islam shunned philosophy in the 12th century. Back in the Christian World, they sparked a creative tension, a project called the "unity of faith and reason". It blossomed into the Medieval Renaissance of the 13th century. It laid a foundation for scientific inquiry inspired by cosmic order. The Church poured vast resources into the project as a demonstration of natural theology, how God does reveal His purpose through the order of the natural world. Without the confidence of faith, these ideas may have remained "stillborn". Yet they grew to fruition within the social fabric of the Church and its universities. The 14th century saw the dissolution of the "faith and reason" project. This coincided with economic upheavals and the Black Death. By this time both faith and reason could hold forth independently. Much can be gained by revisiting and re-evaluating this fruitful tension in our world today.

I am puzzled about the author's preface. He poses a peculiar naïveté regarding his subject matter, which he obviously doesn't really have?

This is a satisfying study of how the lost ancient teachings of the Greeks came back to the surface in medieval scholastic philosophy. Interestingly, the old conflict between Plato and Aristotle, "The Ideal" versus "The Real" surfaced all over again, this time in schools of Christian theology. The incredible, nimble minds of Aquinas, Duns Scotus, Albertus Magnus, and others carried on their high wire duels over the looming threat of heresy, with the accompanying threat of unpleasant death if you got it wrong. A lot of it had to with bridging the gap between faith and reason,a struggle that continues to this day. Lately the know-nothings seem to be winning, but history shows th u s is a continuing see-saw.
The great rhetorical arguments limned here paved the way for modern philosophical thinking, clear through the existentialists. They owe many of their techniques to arguments in great stone cathedrals lit only by sunlight or torches nearly a thousand years ago. The book is an entrancing read that takes us back to those fraught times, and reminds us how we got here, and helps us hear the echoes of those conflicts in the world we live in presen rtf ly.

For those of us interested in the history of ideas, you will be up all night as this book traces the works of Aristotle re-entering thinking is Europe. Delightful, interesting and a favorite.

GNPR XXVIII: "Aristotle's Children."

A good book review should accomplish two things: it should accurately summarize the basic themes of the book, and it should help the reader determine if they need to read the book. Richard E. Rubenstein's Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Ages is a great book, which will richly reward all those who read it. The last chapter, "Aristotle and the Modern World," is alone worth the price of admission, being a brilliant statement of how a balance between faith and reason, so critical to today's global problems, might be restored, if only we could re-awaken the great Aristotelian vision.

The book is a superb study of how Aristotelian wisdom developed, was lost, and then rediscovered in the Middle Ages, initially by Moslem scholars, then by Jews, and finally by Christians. The book's principal weakness is that while it is long on medieval Christian philosophy, it skips too lightly over the Moslem sages, from Al-Farabi to Al-Ghazzal, and does not give Moses Maimonides, the greatest of medieval Jewish sages, nearly the attention he deserves.

There are, however, good reasons for the selections Rubenstein has made. The Christian writers had the advantage of the Herculean labors of their predecessors, and not only did Christian teaching benefit from seeing how a variety of philosophical and theological problems had been formulated by Moslems and Jews, they also had the benefit of seeing how proposed solutions had fared in the various marketplaces of ideas.

Rubenstein also wishes to focus on how the medieval synthesis of religion and science, faith and reason, fell apart, and this happened most visibly in the hands of Christian philosophers like William of Ockham. William epitomizes the ills that befell Moslem and Jewish philosophy. Here is Rubenstein's summary: "(Ockham) liked to argue that God could, if he wished, condemn the innocent and reward the guilty, or make two solid objects occupy the same place at the same time. The point was to demonstrate that God's absolute freedom and power are not limited by our notions of justice or common sense." (p. 260).

The point of Rubenstein's book is that it is always a mistake to give up on the power of human reason. Does this put him in the camp of those who say faith has had its day, and scientific rationalism precludes all religious views? Hardly. Without being nostalgic for the Middle Ages, Rubenstein suggests that it is once again time for rationalist thinkers and people of faith to engage each other in a "continuous dialogue productive of new insights for both sides."

Far from the pessimism that has prevailed in the aftermath of Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations, Rubenstein asserts that a return to the healthy Aristotelian vision offers a favorable pathway into a much better future. "The West's destiny, it seems clear, is to become part of a diverse, yet integrated global civilization." (p. 291). Other books may do a better job of illuminating certain parts of the medieval heritage, but no other book is as good at pointing to the current relevance of the Medieval Synthesis to our current dilemmas. Rubenstein is professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, and this book is a superb expression of how Conflict Resolution might be applied to our most current and pressing problems. This is a brilliant book. If you choose to read it, do not be put off by the lengthy analysis of the development and decline of Christian theology in the Middle Ages. Every single fact fits into the crossword puzzle of the solution proposed in the final chapter. This is a brilliant book, and you should read it.

Amazing in scope and detail, the book was a challenge and perhaps too much so for the casual reader. Unfortunately, that's my level. I just could not give it the time it deserved to be fully understood and appreciated. It would also help if were I more familiar with the middle ages before starting this book. I greatly admire the author and his extensive knowledge. His writing style attempts to make the complex easier to understand, but I just could not get very much satisfaction from the book. Honestly, it was more of an awareness for me of just how uninformed I am on so many levels. It definitely raised the bar for me going forward. Don Cuthrell