Fr Joseph Pallattil

When we think about the word scholasticism, first comes to our mind is Christian philosophy, as if scholasticism were an exclusively a Christian phenomenon. Historically, in the beginning, prior to Christian scholasticism, there was an Islamic Scholasticism, then Jewish Scholasticism. But the culmination of this scholastic philosophical stream can be seen in the Christian scholastic system of philosophy.

Etymologically, the terms “scholastic” and “scholasticism” derived from the Latin word scholasticus, which means “of or pertaining to schools.” Scholastics simply means schoolmen. Therefore we can say that this system of philosophy was developed in different schools of that age. In the middle ages there were mainly three types of schools: 1. Palatine Schools connected with the royal court, 2. the Episcopal or Cathedral Schools for priestly class, and 3. the Monastic Schools for the members of the monastic community. These schools had a vital role to mould up the educational systems during the middle ages, from which the scholasticism was originated.

In general we can say that scholasticism is a rational reflection of faith. It is the system of theological and philosophical teaching predominant in the middle ages. This teaching is based upon the authority of the religion and of Aristotle and his commentators. The scholastic school had two methods of teaching: 1. “lectio”: the simple reading of a text, without any questions; 2. “disputatio”: back and forth arguments. They differed from the Greek philosophers in their attitude towards religious doctrines and system in such a way that the Greek attempted to give a rational explanation of the reality without depending upon any religion, whereas the scholastic system rely upon religious ideas and they made use of philosophy to explain them.

Christian scholasticism gave explanations of the reality based on the Christian doctrines with the aid of Greek philosophy. They tried to combine both philosophy and theology. They sought Greek philosophy as best suited to explain Christian doctrines. With Christian scholasticism philosophy was placed in the service of religion. The philosophy became the handmaid of theology.

This methodological strategy of scholastic philosophy, bringing faith and reason under one umbrella, is to be imitated so that we can have a rational basis for what we believe. It is rightly pointed out by the famous scientist Albert Einstein, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” In one way or another, religious people are being criticised or laughed at by others because of lacking sparks of rational elements in their beliefs systems, principles and in their preaching. They become inclined to be superstitious at least in other people’s perspective when they are not examined by the sharp lenses of reason. Scholastic philosophical period teaches us to live a rational living of our faith; that is make use of both reason and faith as either side of a same coin in every aspect of our life.