Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition (Yale Intellectual History of the West Series)

Excellent overview of the cultural history of the Middle Ages

As an undergraduate, I wanted to read some introductory book about Medieval culture before taking a Medieval Philosophy course. And, wow! I loved this book. By no means exhaustive, it basically tells about every important feature of it's intellectual history up till the 14th century.I do recommend having some basic notions of medieval history before taking up this book, for it doesn't touch it's concrete political events. A delicious read, for most of the text it goes right to the essential points, commenting about the different expressions and how they interacted between them. I did miss more quotations about the discussed topics instead of summaries, but, again, I expected this book to be an introductory and not exhaustive one.

I found this book to be of great help in my understanding of this topic. It covers the full period from begining to end, it outlines all the main players in this field and allows the reader through the biblography to read futher if need be. I would suggest this book be on any reading list for this topic.

My interest in obscure and esoteric subjects frequently leads me to read books written by academics, with whom I am sympathetic, since I am one myself. So it is unpleasant for me to concede that most academics can't write for beans. The current author's work is a nearly perfect example of this very sad fact, which says so much about the waning intellectual vigor of our age. The title provides a sufficient clue that this is a dry and plodding tome, and this impression is confirmed by each and every page, on which lengthy and opaque sentences coil about one another in pointless complexity without ever giving birth to a new idea or an important insight. The most challenging aspect of this book is not the subtle but intriguing new ideas its author places before us - since there are none of these to think about. Rather, the difficulty arises from the fact that the author's style is as unappealing as a cardboard sandwich.Instead of new insights, she gives us only an exhaustive (and exhausting!) summary of the major books and intellectual traditions of the Middle Ages. And although she provides a slim but marginally satisfactory historical context, she never places medieval influences in new relationships that clarify their importance. Instead, this book grinds on like some college term paper on steroids. It is full of citations, paraphrases and summaries, but it is completely unstained by original thought. This underscores the dark side of academia's culture: "publish or perish".Among its flaws, the book reflects a surprisingly poor understanding of the world that preceded 500AD, and the author's grasp of Christianity -- an omnipresent medieval theme -- is brittle and impoverished. Oh, the facts are there, all right, but there is no deep understanding of them. Also, the visual arts are not discussed at all -- a major flaw that must reflect the author's failure to recognize their relevance. And although science is mentioned, the author does not understand it well, so she can not fully appreciate its effects. This is an extremely serious shortcoming.Still, the book has value. Having read it, I feel much better prepared to delve into the source material, whose scope I now better understand. And the author's summaries of medieval literature are among her best. She has an authentic gift for appreciating literature and for sharing her enthusiasm with her readers. As a result, I look forward to reading these works, which would not otherwise have interested me.Finally, do not be deceived by the fact that a few commercial "reviewers" have said that this book is an "important intellectual achievement". These claims tell us more about the publishers' need to recoup their costs than about the book's merits. There is absolutely nothing in this book that will noticeably alter the world of ideas. And the alleged "central thesis" -- that our modern age stands upon the Middle Ages more than on the preceding Roman world -- must surely be a joke. To her credit, the author devotes almost no attention to this preposterous claim, and so I doubt that the reviewers actually read the book. After all, no thoughtful person can fail to see that the ancient world profoundly influenced the Middle Ages, which in turn influenced the Europe that emerged from them. As a result, these influences are intermingled, and there is no conceivable method by which the modern influence of Cicero, for example, can be separated from that of Ockham. In fact, the metaphor underlying this "thesis" is broken. Intellectual traditions do not stand upon a foundation as a building does. Instead, they are a river whose water inseparably mixes the contribution of its many enriching tributaries. We can appreciate them all, without pretending that one is the "foundation" and the others are not.

Very good work. You must find this time period interesting for it to hold your interest.

So far I find it to be a summary, of just what I am still not sure, as I set out to read the Intro., Conclusion, and select parts. Where Jews are presented as "people of the book," I feel I am reading a scholar not well versed in Hebrew or Judaism, but instead somebody reaching after a tertium comparationis. While I can see there are medieval foundations of "The Western Intellectual Tradition," I fail to grasp why Greece and Rome fail to measure up--an negative claim the author is really in no position to argue. I will keep hoping.

An excellent book

This is a fine survey of a very difficult topic. Colish's essential theme is that Medieval Europe is the true origin of the western intellectual tradition. In this moderate sized book, Colish covers several centuries and a diverse array of topics, including theology, philosophy, science, literature, and educational trends. This book opens with a survey of the founding figures of European Christianity, the Latin Patristic fathers, discusses their work and in particular, how they responded to the challenges of melding Christianity and the powerful Classical traditions in which they were educated. Colish discusses as well what major texts and traditions survived the fall of the western Empire. This is followed by coverage of early medieval Europe, which is largely though not entirely a history of education and efforts to preserve and understand the received tradition. Paralleling these sections are very interesting discussions of intellectual developments in other important contemporary societies, Byzantium and the Islamin world, the latter including a very useful discussion of both Muslim and Jewish thinkers. The importance of Muslim and Jewish thinkers in preserving and responding to the Classical heritage, especially Aristotle, is a particular emphasis.Colish follows with the emergence of Latin and vernacular literatures as Medieval societies developed and interesting discussions of the articulation of formal educational institutions. Colish really shines, however, with her discussions of the development of Medieval theology and philosophy. Persistent themes are the evolution of rhetoric into more critical evaluations of semantics and grammer, the development of formal logic, the search for critical justifications of religious belief, and the increasingly sophisticated theology-philosophy that emerges with the flowering of scholastic thought. Major figures, trends, and dissidents are covered very well. The impact of the relatively late transmission of much of Aristotle's work and the work of important Muslim and Jewish thinker is another important theme.Colish concludes with a nice concise set of chapters discussing three major aspects of the Medieval heritage; the natural sciences, economic theory, and political theory. Throughout her discussion of high and late Medieval thought, Colish emphasizes the creative aspects of scholasticism; the diversity of thought, the critical stance towards received texts and positioins, and the importance of rigorous and publicly defended position. The quality of writing is very good, particularly considering the technical difficulties of some of the topics. There is a nice bioliography. I would personally prefer a bit more emphasis on history of science and philosophy, but in a book this length, its hard to argue with Colish's choices.

Para tener un co nocimiento adecuado de la tradición intelectual en Europatoca muchísimo el tema de la teología y la filosofía pero tambien literatura ciencias medicina...muy buen libro y muy recomendado. Muy técnico pero muy bien escrito.