Western Civilization: Scholasticism and its Development

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Western Civilization
Scholasticism is understood as a medieval method of teaching/learning or school of philosophy that was taught by academics of medieval cathedrals and universities during the epoch from twelfth to sixteenth century – 1100 until roughly 1600. Scholasticism combined semantics, metaphysics and logic into a discipline. Scholasticism is basically a learning method and tool that emphasizes on dialectical reasoning directed at resolving contradictions or answering questions (Stacey & Lerner 12).
Peter Abelard, 1079 – 1142, contributed greatly to the method and discipline of scholasticism. In terms of its method, Peter Abelard’s most well known work, Sic et Non – Yes and No – developed the dialectical technique of providing arguments both con and pro for a particular position. In terms of scholastic theological development, he differed with the conventional ransom theory of the atonement, which hypothesized that Jesus’s death was a payment to Satan to liberate sinners. In its place, he formulated the moral influence theory of atonement (Stacey & Lerner 18). Peter Lombard assembled the Book of Sentences during the early 12th century which became the classical source book for medieval thinkers. The book compiled sources from the church fathers, particularly St. Augustine, and in the succeeding years almost all great thinkers wrote a commentary on the Sentences. Thomas Aquinas was a promin...