Doing Theology at the Medieval University Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and Peter Auriol in Discussion

Abstract

In this paper, I dwell on a thirteenth and fourteenth-century debate on what it meant to do theology in the Middle Ages. The paper stresses the plurality of approaches to theology, as they evolved in the setting of the medieval university. The first section presents this setting by considering the most important institutional and intellectual framework, viz., the medieval course of studies, the offices at the university, and the Aristotelian theory of science. As I argue in the second and third sections, the debate on what it meant to do theology in the later Middle Ages was heavily indebted to both the university setting and to Aristotle’s ideas on science. By presenting the accounts of Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, and Peter Auriol, I would like to suggest that even within its rather rigid boundaries late medieval theology came to a theory of theology that was potentially pluralistic. This debate and its preliminary outcome, therefore, might serve as a reflection of a cross-cultural exchange.