Abelard's Christian Theology 0915172070

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ABELARD'S CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

ABELARD'S CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY J.

BY

RAMSAY McCALLUM

RP(

RICHWOOI> PUBLISHl�C CO. . \IERRICK. \JEW YORK

Published by Richwood Publishing Company P.O. Box 17, Merrick, N.Y. 11566 Reprinted: 1976 Reprinted from the original edition in the Union Theological Seminary, N.Y., Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Abailard, Pierre, 1079-1142. Abelard's Christian theology. Reprint of the 1948 ed. published by Blackwell, Oxford. Translation of a substantial portion of Theologiae christianae. Bibliography: p. Includes index. l. Theology, Doctrinal. I. McCallum, James Ramsay. II. Title. 76-1128 BT70.A2313 1976 230 ISBN 0-915172-07-0

PREFA CE SOME years have now elapsed since, at the suggestion of Dr. Kirk, Bishop of Oxford, I undertook the translation of Abelard's Ethics. From that study I realized the constructive clarity of this mediaeval thinker. An English scholar in an informative volume has adopted the view that Abelard was a mediaeval theologi4n who defended Catholic truth by intellectualism, by intellectual arguments. 1 He points out, however, that our author was essentially a Christian philosopher. It is in this character that the present work approaches him. A philosopher belongs to other ages than his own. The evidence of the treatises points to a mind of exceptional originality, learning and range. Such a mind is requisite if any Christian philosophy is to be forthcoming. A Christian philosophy is needed to present Christianity as an intelligible interpretation of the universe and of human nature. The ground which Abelard opened up may well be re-explored. To set religion and philosophy into a forum of discussion and analysis was his avowed method. He endeavoured to compose a harmony of rational understanding and belief that should be generally acceptable to men of reason and conscience. The ancient philosophers, their Roman and mediaeval successors, the prophets and seers of Israel, the Scriptures, and the Christian Fathers, all these he introduced to one another and found in their speech a common note. This he recorded as a formula of philosophy implicit in all human approach to reality. God as Power, Wisdom and Love was, he urged, the object of universal conception. No one would claim that a Christian philosophy exists. As Dr. Matthews remarks, religion and philosophy have between them strains and antagonisms that may last for centuries, though their fundamental purpose is 1 J. G. Sikes, Peter Abailard, 1932. V

Preface

Vl

one and the same, an understanding of life and reality . 1 It is as a Christian philosopher with a system of some significance that I present Abelard in his Christian Theology. He has the comprehensive and charitabl� mind: he has width of learning and extensive vision: his work is vigorous and animated. I suggest, too, that this mediaeval figure should have a more conspicuous place in the gallery of the philosophers of the ages. His many features of greatness have been dimmed by the odium theologicum and by lack of interest, which has already been somewhat remedied and which I trust the present work may do something to rectify in the future. My indebtedness to the volume of Sikes above mentioned will be evident. It is the one gen�ral description of our author and his life and times available in English. We could benefit from an English trans­ lation of Remusat' s classical treatise. The portrait of Abelard in the popular mind in English-speaking countries tends to be an impressionistic study of the rationalist and the mediaeval minstrel. Continental students come nearer to the real features, and it will be obvious that it is from them that much of the illuminative material for this present work has been taken. I am grateful to T. Hope Floyd, of Manchester; for that help in revision which checks error from raising its head, and also to C. G. Challenger, M.A., former Scholar of Peterhouse and author of The Excellence of Revealed Religion, for technical assistance and advice. 1

Studies in Christian Philosophy, chap. i.

CONTENTS PAGE

PREFACE

V

INTRODUCTION

l

PURPOSE, CHARACTER AND DATE

13

BACKGROUND OF COMPOSITION

27

THE CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY

45

,

THE ' SIC ET NON AND THE ' CHRISTiAN THEOLOGY '

98

APPENDICES, A, B, C, D, B

!07

BIBLIOGRAPHY

II 5

INDEX

117

/

Vil

ABELARD'S CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY INTRODUCTION CERTAIN factors converge to give a distinct impression that in Abelard's thought we have a contribution of originality to religious and philosophical debate. The most prominent factor appears to be the direction taken in his Ethics or Scite Teipsum. This treatise, 'more valuable and interesting than anything \vhich the Middle Ages produced before the recovery of the Ethics of Aristotle,' to quote Rashdall' s description, bears the stamp of a speculative and rational investigator unwilling to be hampered by the terms of convention. There is a style and strength about � the thought of this work which give it a certain Greek character, and distinguish it from contemporary approaches to ethics along doctrinal lines. One who could so launch into deep waters is not to be considered merely as a child of his day. The 'signs of a tendency to purely rational solutions' which M. de Wulf notes as a feature of the Scite Teipsum indicate a mind alert to the possibilities of reasoned thinking in a realm previously relegated by mediaeval exponents to church doctrine and discipline. To the speculative aspects of the Ethics may be ., added the fact that Abelard's works as a whole suggest a , ,,,/ peremptory tone and inctefei1aencethat-_--t;clong to the man wii�� a-_ mes-sage_ ratlier--than to the servant of authority. This temper of writing may be due to his having become an ecclesiastic somewhat late in his career. He already possessed much information of a secular kind, and this must have affected his relations with ecclesiastical thinkers. A ware that there existed a vast accumulation of knowledge outside or not closely linked with the dogma of his day he must have felt some

2

Abelard's Christian Theology

impatience when called upon to confine all his thinking within the prevalent dogmatic system. Moreover, we cannot claim for the mediaeval twelfth-century ecclesiastic in general a very w_ide range of knowledge,. and this may well have been a cause of Abelard's fairly obvious sense of learning, since he easily outstripped many in this respect. It cannot be said, therefore, that his personality was one to attune itself to custom and we may infer that if he had new ideas to explain he would take .. pride and satisfaction in giving voice to them. Here are the marks of one who felt himself to be original even though they may have the appearance of aggressiveness or pique.. A third factor that leads one to the opinion of the essential novelty and importance of his work consists in the actual contents of the various treatises. We have in them the evident traces of original thinking alongside of deep religious belief. There is to be noted, also, a persis•tency of affirmation over a considerable period. The position of the Christia,i Theology, original enough in its circumstances, is stated in his earliest theological work, the de Unitate et Trinitate Divina; it is elaborated in the Christian Theology and further expounded in the Introductio; while echoes of it are to be heard in the Sic et Non and the Expositio in Epist. ad Romanos. As regards the Ethics, we have already noticed its unique quality. His last work the Dialogue, a dialogue between a philosopher, a Jew and a Christian, strikes a note of research and exhibits a penchant for religious reconciliation that must have been as unusual in the Middle Ages as it has been until very recent years. A further point is the interest evoked by Abelard at succeed­ ing periods in those who felt that they discovered in him a mediaeval thinker who was more than mediaeval, who belonged rather to the ranks of the great thinkers of time. From the late eighteenth century onwards a number of enquirers have turned to this master of rational thinking and religious inspiration, and this despite, or perhaps because of, the ecclesiastical defamation that has been forthcoming from conservative advocates. In the mid-nineteenth century, Remusat's study, referred to by

Introduction

3

Saint-Beuve as 'a masterpiece,' gave strong impetus to this interest._ Wherein lies the fascination of this twelfth-century Christian thinker? I have sought to maintain the view, based primarily upon the Christian Theology, that it resides in his adventure into two territories of experience in which every thinker must somehow or other find his position and bearings, namely, religion and philosophy. Whatever meaning we may assign to reason (ratio), however we may explain his plea for the 'true dialectic' as opposed to the false, there is little doubt that these terms cover a philosophical intellect. Whether or not we approve the line of Christian teaching enunciated, there is also little ground for supposing that the author was not a sincere Christian believer. From the standpoint of a rational thinking person, and from that of a Christian, he offers the fruits of his intellectual labour in the religious and philosophical .. fields. In the Christian Theology we are presented with an ordered system of Christian thought. But associated with this system we find not the desire to assert a set of dogmas that will guarafttee salvation. We discover rather the underlying faith of the philosopher, the persuasion of the limited usefulness of a system unless it is related to the mature experience and comprehension of mankind. That this faith gave impetus to composition we cannot doubt. It is the peak of interest to which the treatise leads us up, in its fourth book. 'Superest autem novissima quaestio, quomodo scilicet hanc fidem Trinitatis soli Christiani teneant et non etiam vel Judaei vel Gentiles.' How can the trinitarian philosophy be held by Christians alone if it is com­ prehensible to all men? And the answer is precise: 'Hine autem facile occasionem sumi arbitror convertendi ad fidem nostram -quoslibet alienos si huiusmodi inductionibus eos jam com­ munem nobiscum fidei sensum habere convincerimus.' There is a common ground of experience and understanding in all men which should bring them to the trinitarian faith if they see this faith aright and in the rational meaning of the terms employed in it.

4

Abelard's Christian Theology

To make our point more evident we may liken Abelard to a mediaeval Spinoza, and, indeed, he has points of affinity with this philosopher. He had, with severe thinking and careful employment of terminology, devised a system of human under­ standing of the Christian faith. It was necessary if this system - was to be put into effect for there to be a certain rectification of man's outlook, what Spinoza called a 'correction of the understanding.' This aspect of Abelardian thought has not been given the prominence it deserves, possibly because it accords with his rationalistic method of approaching religion. Yet it is undoubtedly present in his work: and it opens our eyes to possibilities which often seem obscure when we look at the religious situation in a more conventional perspective. It is one thing to endeavour to propagate a religion in dogmatic terms: it is another thing to ask men to look into themselves and to find there and in the history of mankind the data of a system of belief. Persuasion may succeed with dogmatism: but in the thought before us persuasion is replaced by the logic of events and the proofs of human experience. It is necessary ,· for men to correct their prejudices and ignorances and to align their vision to what they are meant to see. This vein of thinking lies beneath our author's productions and inspired their contents. It separates him from the class of mystical theologians. His descent is not from Dionysius Areopagiticus and his celestial hierarchy so much as from the Greeks, and perhaps John Scotus Erigena and his rational theorizing. But, as we endeavour to show, the question of the links between religion and philosophy is a perennial one: .and Abelard does not come before us either as a pure philosopher or as a strictly dogmatic writer on the Christian religion. His work and his achievement is to have related the two in so far as the conditions of his period permitted. His contribution is that of a tentative Christian philosophy. It should be estimated as such. To decry him on the plea that he trans­ gressed in regard to traditional doctrinal positions is easy. But he was not writing as a traditional dogmatist. Had he done so

Introduction

5

his efforts would have comforted those whom they were meant to console but would not have awakened response in the wider world. No less. to affirm that he was a rationalist and a speculative philosopher is beside the point. His productions are rational, speculative, philosophical: but this was ground he had to cover in order to carry out what he intended, a correlation of the data of religion on the one hand and of · philosophy on the other. Any one who undertakes the task of bringing into focus these two great domains of religion and philosophy lays himself open to these criticisms, as has been evident in the process of applying, for instance, historical research to doctrinal Christianity. How, in an age that was predominantly religious, did Abelard succeed in revealing common factors between religion and philosophy so that he could claim a system with a universal appeal to which those might respond who were outside the church? The answer will be found in these pages. In effect, he urged that neither Jewish religious insight nor Greek in­ tellect had been lacking in perception of essential reality and truth. In both of them he traces a knowledge of God and a sense of the need for a differentiation of the divine nature in ., order that the world we know might come into being. He sees also that unless evil is to be given a place of privilege some highest good must underlie both good and evil alike. This fact, he insists, was seen by the ancient philosophers when they spoke of the 'soul of the world,' a power of the divine that works for righteousness which he equates with the Holy Spirit. Along with Jews and Greeks, Abelard marshalls evidence that comes from Roman and early mediaeval thinkers. Indeed, he assembles all his evidence drawn from Gentile sources under the head of 'the philosophers.' He thus reaches the position that something very like the trinitarian philosophy was held by Jews and Gentiles: and he takes the further step of saying that they did in fact believe in the Trinity, that is, in God as the power of creation, as the creative reason of things, and as the goodness implicit in creation despite evil. He suggests three

6

Abe)ard's Christian Theology

terms to name these things: power, wisdom and love. Two basic questions need to be answered to justify these statements. How, first, could the Jews and Gentiles believe in the Trinity if they did not affirm it in the Catholic dogmatic formula ? Abelard answers this by reference to the fact that in thought and speech we do not always specify exactly by the terms we employ. We speak in a general way, and so cover what is particular or has more special meaning. We talk of 'clerks' and include in the term both clergy and also 'monks.' It is therefore possible for passages in the Old 1'estament and in the philosophers' writings to refer to the dogmatic position even though not in so many words. But the similarity of thought enables us to detect the identification of meaning.1 Secondly, how can these non-Catholic thinkers have affirmed belief in Christ if they lived before His day ? The answer is that Christ confirmed belief in the eternal Wisdom, the Second Person of the Trinity, belief which had already been perceived through the use of the Greek term 'logos,' or Latin 'mens,' and which is also to be found implied in the use of singular and plural modes of expression in the Old Testament. 2 • A con­ ception of the 'Word' or 'Wisdom of God' was attained by Gentile thinkers and by the Jews. The 'tenor' of belief in a Second Person, therefore, existed before Christ, Who coming Himself as the 'Word' in flesh strengthened a faith which was in being in thought. 3 In arguments such as these we have presented to . us what amounts to a Christian philosophy. We are asked to consider not simply the dogmas of tradition as they existed in scriptural, patristic, and credal sources, but a Christian view of the universe in which the methods of 'the philosophers' are found to merge with the material of revelation : and together, like the various · colours of the spectrum, they become one light of truth. It must be stressed, however, that Abelard in the Christian Theology maintains a position which received a good deal of its stability 1

2 Theo!. Christ. I, col. 1 126. Theol. Christ. I, col. 1 134. 8 Theo/. Christ. IV, col. 1 3 1 4.

Introduction

7 from his own original contentions. He stated the 'logos' theology with confidence because there existed in his mind the atonement doctrine afterwards more fully treated in the Expositio to the Epistle to the Romans. This view is referred to in, .and it bears closely upon the main tenets of, the Christian Theology. 1 Since the Incarnation was the means of attracting mankind by the word and example of Christ persisted in unto death to a loving response of conduct in life, it had the effect of doing more thoroughly what had already been done through the Second Person or divine wisdom in the period of the Jews and Gentile philosophers. Abelard's doctrine of the atonement as responsive human love offered because of the divine grace in manifesting the Second Person in Christ, assisted him to hold the ground he claimed for the Gentile and Jewish perception of the Wisdom or Second Person of the Trinity. For the Jews and Greeks to have a belief in this Second Person is not a difficult conception if we suppose that they could give a response of conduct which may not have been as precise as that which the Incarnation made possible but was none the less satisfactory so far as it went. It would have been much more exacting if Abelard had had to show that the Jews and Greeks possessed an understanding of the Trinity allied to a propitiatory view of the Incarnation. It would scarcely have been a feasible undertaking. The arguments which would have been involved all point away from any co-ordination between Jewish and pagan belief and Christian ideas. As it is, our author is aware that conduct accompanies belief and that the type of conduct mirrors the belie£ He is therefore at great pains in the second book of the treatise to describe the high moral tone of the pagan philosophers which bears and even challenges comparison with the Christian morality of Abelard's day. From this level of conduct we are to infer that the trinitarian understanding had good results among the pagans such as to justify the assertion that they were under the illumination of the Second Person, divine Wisdom and, under the influence of the Third Person, 1

Theo/. Christ.,

P.L. 178, col. 1278.

Expositio, col.

836 A.B.C.

8

Abelard's Christian Theology

the 'world-soul' or 'loving kindness,' victor over evil. But we must note how essential is the Abelardian atonement doctrine to the point of view : how it makes it possible to say that pr�­ Christian mankind could respond to divine wisdom and love as they knew it. This response is of the same kind under the Christian dispensation as it was in a pagan and Jewish environ­ ment but has been better focussed into clarity by the Incarnation. Another hidden buttress to the structure of the Christian Theology consists of the ethical position of the Ethics or Scite Teipsum. In this work Abelard developed the notion of inten­ tion as the subjective guarantee of moral conduct. He does so in contrast to the objective doctrine which held sway since Augustine, and on which morality was conditioned by its conformity or otherwise to standards set by authority. It would not have been easy to bring pagan philosophers within the scope of conduct based on trinitarian beliefs if that conduct was regulated by its agreement with ecclesiastical dogmatic direc­ tion. To speak of Gentile conduct being in any sense Christian would have been an ethical anachronism. But the situation is altered if the basis of conduct is not dogmatic conformity but subjective intention. This is a test of behaviour which depends upon the individual moral consciousness. As Abelard was concerned to show that the Gentile philosophers' consciousness was illuminated by wisdom and the 'world-soul,' he did not find any obstacle when he came to affirm that their intention in conduct was equivalent to that of Christians who phrase their faith in the Second and Third Persons of the Trinity. The form in which he sees divine wisdom at work in Gentile circum­ stances is the natural law : but in aligning themselves with this the Gentile peoples and philosophers acted with the same kind of good intention as Christians can act. It is therefore deducible that the deeds of the philosophers, based on their trinitarian views, are of the same quality as those of Christians with their dogmatic formula, both being grounded in ethical intention. This connection between Gentile and Christian morality would, however, not have held if Abelard had stood

Introduction

9

by the traditional code of ethics according to which conduct was estimated by dogmatic considerations and penalties.1 Similarly, in his treatment of the Trinity in the third book of the treatise, Abelard refers to Augustine's distinction within the Godhead of ingenitus, genitus and procedens to designate the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. But his logical con­ sideration of the problem of the Trinity, namely, how there can be both identity and difference, produces an analysis in which it is shown that difference may exist in respect of special personal attributes. These have already been called in the first book 'Power,' 'Wisdom' and 'Love.' The distinctions of Augustine are still retained, but an extension of content is made in the use of these three specific terms of description. This enables our author to cover the experience of the philoso­ phers before the birth of Christ. With these necessary personal attributes of God the philosophers could become familiar by the lights of reason and nature. Had Abelard's range of .,, definition been restricted to the purely revelational experience of the Only-Begotten (genitus) and the Spirit proceeding (procedens) he could not have maintained with success the philosophers' faith in a triune Godhead. Leaving the reader to gather for himself an impression of the merits of this treatise and of the Christian thought with which it is associated, we will here mention a feature which appears to us. to give its originality character and value. Wc should note the range of _