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BY-NC-ND 4.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter 2021

The Summa Halensis on Theology and the Sciences: The Influence of Aristotle and Avicenna

From the book The Legacy of Early Franciscan Thought

  • Anna-Katharina Strohschneider

Abstract

This chapter investigates the conception of theology as a science in the Summa Halensis, and shows how the author of book I utilizes the theories of Aristotle and Avicenna. The Summist introduces his own innovative system of the sciences, into which theology is integrated. I argue that in justifying the claim that theology is a science and in explaining how both metaphysics and theology are wisdom, the author takes over Aristotle’s theory of what constitutes a science and his definition of wisdom and uses Avicenna’s terminology for the first cause. In his solution to the problem of the subject-matter of theology, he adopts Avicenna’s influential distinction between the proper subject-matter of a science and that which it seeks. Instead of Avicenna’s own expressions, however, he uses the vocabulary of Augustine and Peter Lombard. The chapter thus shows how the author reacts to the newly available sources translated from the Arabic and incorporates them into his own framework. Under their influence, the Summa suggests a solution to the novel problem of theology as a science by creating a theory of theology which combines the requirements of ‘sacred doctrine’ with a philosophical, rational concept of science

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston
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