Anselm and Abelard

Anselm and Abelard offers a wide-ranging collection of papers on two of the most well-known medieval thinkers, Anselm of Canterbury and Peter Abelard. Drawn from a conference held in Stuttgart in 2004, the sixteen papers by leading scholars in the field focus on the lives and thought of these two thinkers. The majority of the contributions expore the intellectual world of the medieval west in the century between the mid-eleventh and the mid-twelfth, a period crucial in forming intellectual frameworks that would shape subsequent western thought.

The first eight papers focus on Anselm, the second eight on comparisons and contrasts with Abelard. All of Anselm's and most of Abelard's major works are examined in the course of the collection. Contributors explore key philosophical themes of thruth, original sin, logic, reason. Others tease out the often intricate networks between intellectual communities in the period to reveal fresh insights into the development of both Anselm and Abelard's thought. This includes consideration of the physical way in which Anselm's corpus was collected and preserved. Connections between literary artifice and theological observation are investigated, as are Anselm's notion of gift and western intellectual attitudes towards Jewish and Islamic thought. Outside the mid-twelfth century the use made of Anselm's thought and historical existence by thirteenth century scholars and by the post-reformation Church in england are also considered.

This is an important and thought-provoking collection, which shows the continuing inspiration to be drawn from both Anselm and Abelard as well as providing a thorough investigation of the contexts in which their thought developed, evolved, was expressed ans was understood by contemporaries and subsequent generations.