What Does the Middle Ages Teach Us for Today?
What Does the Middle Ages Teach Us for Today?
Author(s): Dominique PoirelSubject(s): History, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Middle Ages, Culture and social structure , 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: Middle Ages; Europe; Christianity; pluralism; medieval universities; medieval renaissances; Bernard of Chartres; John of Salisbury; Hugh of St. Victor; Augustine of Hippo
Summary/Abstract: Insofar as it is possible to use history to understand one’s time, three main lessons can be drawn from the study of the Middle Ages. First, repeated confrontation with new populations did not prevent the foundation of a single cultural community. Then, among the causes that allowed this assimilation, there is what could be called an “inferiority complex,” which paradoxically pushed the men of the Middle Ages to constantly innovate out of admiration for their prestigious predecessors. Finally, the desire for unity was allied with numerous tensions and a de facto pluralism, since the poles around which to unify were themselves several: philosophical wisdom inherited from Athens, civil law transmitted from Rome, the Christian faith received from Jerusalem.
Journal: Roczniki Kulturoznawcze
- Issue Year: 11/2020
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 7-19
- Page Count: 13
- Language: English