The Mind of the Middle Ages


Book Description

"This is the third edition of a near standard survey of the intellectual life of the age of faith. Artz on the arts, as on philosophy, politics and other aspects of culture, makes lively and informative reading."—The Washington Post




History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages


Book Description

"A comprehensive analysis of philosophical thought from the second century to the fifteenth century, from the Greek apologists through Nicholas of Cusa. This work is Gilson's magnum opus." - Journal of the History of Ideas




Sun Dancing


Book Description

A fictionalized history of fourth-century Irish monks describes their spirituality and their influence on other areas of the world.




Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature, Volume 2 Jewish Historiography and Iconography in Early and Medieval Christianity


Book Description

Series: Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum Section 1 - The Jewish people in the first century Historical geography, political history, social, cultural and religious life and institutions Edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern in cooperation with D. Flusser and W.C. van Unnik Section 2 - The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud Section 3 - Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature




The Vanquished Gods


Book Description

The greatest influence on Western civilization during the past two millennia has been the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. Besides its influence on religious beliefs, it has also shaped Western values, conceptions of origins, customs, political systems, and overall worldview. But today, owing to the unprecedented scientific and technological advances in the 20th century, this influence has greatly diminished. Developments in the natural sciences have radically altered our understanding of human existence and the universe; biblical scholarship has demystified the Bible; and scientific inquiry has superseded biblical and church authority. Despite this dramatic shift in our frame of reference, the public seems largely unaware of the radical conceptual implications of scientific discoveries and explanations.The aim of this clearly written, engaging work by philosopher Richard Schlagel is to provide the open-minded reader with the necessary historical, biblical, and scientific background for understanding and evaluating this crucial development. Reviewing both the history of science and the history of Judaism and Christianity as uncovered by modern scholarship, Schlagel comes to the conclusion that the religious viewpoint has been rendered obsolete by the scientific method. Following Socrates' dictum that "the unexamined life is not worth living," Schlagel exhorts us all to leave outmoded tradition behind and accept the rationally compelling evidence of the scientific worldview.




The Sacred Pool


Book Description

A MILLENNIUM IN PROVENCE A lost little girl weeps in the high wilderness, and her cries are heard ... Is her rescuer a crazy, lonely woodsman, or a timeworn Celtic god, and she his only believer Does an ancient female deity live beside the ool, among the ancient trees of the cool beeS grove, or is she little Pierrette's "imaginary friend", a poor substitute for a murdered mother Will the Black Time come, when dark, evil machines tower over the sunny little harbor of Citharista and all the goodness of the world is locked in an ebon box, or will young Pierrette indeed become the great sorceress of her dreams, with fire at her fingertips to stem the evil tide Journey with her across the ancient landscape, wander among the bleaching limestone bones of dragons that lie still atop the hills, and see for yourself whether the old gods yet endure.... The Sacred Pool stands at the midpoint of a vast historic tapestry try, looking both forward and back: From the sea-girt Paleolithic caves of Sormiou and enchanted forests of ancient Gaul, to the steamy swamps of Midicor IV, a million years hence; from old Polybius in his leather tent at the siege of Numantia, to Achibol the Charlatan in a cybernetic fortress buried beneath the Columbia Icefields of Alberta, L. Warren Douglas is there-and he takes his readers with him. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).




The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya


Book Description

Traces implications of a previously unrecognized image of the solar year in the Madrid Codex to find new meanings in the Dresden Codex and the Maya calendar system and a regional settlement organization in Yucatan.




Aristotle's Children


Book Description

A true account of a turning point in medieval history that shaped the modern world, from “a superb storyteller” and the author of When Jesus Became God (Los Angeles Times). Europe was in the long slumber of the Middle Ages, the Roman Empire was in tatters, and the Greek language was all but forgotten—until a group of twelfth-century scholars rediscovered and translated the works of Aristotle. The philosopher’s ideas spread like wildfire across Europe, offering the scientific view that the natural world, including the soul of man, was a proper subject of study. The rediscovery of these ancient ideas would spark riots and heresy trials, cause major upheavals in the Catholic Church—and also set the stage for today’s rift between reason and religion. Aristotle’s Children transports us back to this pivotal moment in world history, rendering the controversies of the Middle Ages lively and accessible, and allowing us to understand the philosophical ideas that are fundamental to modern thought. “A superb storyteller who breathes new life into such fascinating figures as Peter Abelard, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon, William of Ockham and Aristotle himself.” —Los Angeles Times “Rubenstein’s lively prose, his lucid insights and his crystal-clear historical analyses make this a first-rate study in the history of ideas.” —Publishers Weekly




The Mimetic Tradition of Reform in the West


Book Description

Ancient writers distinguished between art and style, arguing that free imitation was a critical strategy that freed artists from servile copying of objects and blind submission to rules of style. In this study Karl F. Morrison explores the far-reaching consequences of this distinction. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.




The Depravity of Wisdom


Book Description

First published in 1999, the primary operative thesis of the book is that the Protestant Reformation cemented into Western consciousness a conception of humanity as fundamentally depraved and thus ushered in a conception of human reason far more restricted in scope than that known to pre-reformation philosophy. Though this study is essentially a work in the history of philosophy, it lays the groundwork for an original philosophy of language as well as offering a suggestion for a re-evaluation of Hegel in the light of this approach to language. The book concludes that what was in fact lost in the secular appropriation of the total depravity of man was a conception of reason intimately linked to the assumption that language and the general principles that govern it stand in some way as the guarantors of the correspondence of human thought and institutions and the world at large. At the bottom of this is the loss of the classical understanding of the faculty of practical reason.