Iohannes Scottus Eriugena

This volume contains essays which shed light on numerous aspects of Eriugena's hermeneutics of Scripture.

This book deals with Eriugena's view of man in the context of his thinking on universal nature. Although man is seen as possessing a sinful created state, this does not prevent him from entertaining a free and direct relationship with God and the surrounding universe. It is shown that, while man is governed by nature's unfolding, he can also exercise significant control over it.

Johannes Scotus (c. 800-c. 877), who signed himself as "Eriugena" in one manuscript, and who was referred to by his contemporaries as "the Irishman" is the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the outstanding philosopher of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm. Since the seventeenth century, it has become usual to refer to this Irish philosopher as John Scottus (or 'Scotus') Eriugena to distinguish him from the thirteenth-century John Duns Scotus. Myra Uhlfelder (Bryn Mawr PhD 1952) taught classical and medieval Latin at Bryn Mawr.

An overview of the context, thought, writings and legacy of John Scottus Eriugena, the most important philosopher and theologian in the Latin West from the death of Boethius until the thirteenth century.

Hilary Anne-Marie Mooney investigates the notion of theophany in the writings of the early medieval thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena. She focuses on the creative impulses which he draws from the Scripture and she investigates the influence of theological and philosophical thinkers of the first six Christian centuries on Eriugena. The author considers those passages of Eriugena's writings in which the precise term 'theophany' is used as well as other passages in which the term does not occur but which are nonetheless imbued with the 'notion' of a theophanic appearing of God. These traces of theophanic understanding of the revealing of God are considered within Eriugena's oeuvre as a whole, including his biblical commentaries. In her study, the author maintains that a theophanic structure characterized by four recurring facets may be unearthed in Eriugena's theology of the revealing of God. In the various contexts within which he writes about this divine revealing (in his theology of creation, his anthropology, his account of the relationship between human beings and God as seen from the perspective of a Christian spirituality), it is the notion of theophany which he uses to illuminate the relationship between that which is created and its creator. In doing so, he bequeaths a rich theological analysis of the appearing of God to subsequent generations of theologians and shows himself to be both a coherent and creative thinker.

John Scottus Eriugena, the ninth-century Irish philosopher and theologian, is known as the interpreter of Greek thought to the Latin West. He was perhaps the most important philosophical thinker to appear in Latin Christendom between Augustine in the fifth century and Anselm in the eleventh. In this volume, Deirdre Carabine provides a clear and accessible introduction--the only one available in the English language--to the thought of this important figure. In part I, Carabine describes the intellectual revival of the ninth century and situates Eriugena's role within that movement. She looks closely at Eriugena's life and intellectual achievements, including his contribution to the theological controversy on predestination and his roles as teacher and translator of Greek thought. She also examines the Periphyson, undoubtedly Eriugena's most original and important work. In part II, Carabine discusses Eriugena's metaphysics, the structure of reality, the theocentric character of creation, and the role of the trinity and the primordial causes. In particular, she explores Eriugena's employment of negative theology and his understanding of human nature. In conclusion, part III looks at Eriugena's interpretation of the return of all things to their source, including his belief that all people, saints and sinners alike, will return to paradise to the "vision" of a transcendent God. Revealing the unique and compelling nature of Eriugena's thought, and showing why his work continues to appeal to a modern audience, this volume is required reading for students and scholars of medieval philosophy and theology.