In dulcedine societatis qurere veritatem

The Soul of Academic Life

As Im sure most of you here present know, the title of this paper is taken from
Albert the Greats Commentary on Aristotles Politics: to seek the truth in the
pleasure of companionship.1 As a friar and as a scholar Albert was very much
inclined to share his enthusiasm and his reflections with both his brethren as well
as with his students, whom he referred to as companions (socii).2 Seeking the
truth together is a quest which begins with the individuals thirst for truth, and it
finds one of its most sublime expressions in that community which is known as
the university. In the Address that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI intended to
deliver during a Visit to La Sapienza University in Rome on 17 January 2008 he
traced the origin of university life in the following manner:

I think one could say that at the most intimate level, the true origin of the
university lies in the thirst for knowledge that is proper to man. The human
being wants to know what everything around him is. He wants truth. In
this perspective, one can see Socratic questioning as the impulse that
gave birth to the western university.3

From this a few questions arise that need to be addressed: For what purpose
does one study? How does one prepare a lecture? What attitude should one
adopt during a debate?

Study is not undertaken for its own sake; the purpose of study is the search for
underlying truth. It is indeed an act of faith before the fear of error. It is through
error that we sift the wheat from the chaff. It is also an act of hope. There are
times of discouragement, when we might think that all our efforts are in vain
and that we have reached a dead end. It is precisely at that point that study
becomes truly a challenge to pursue the truth wherever that will take you. It is
an act of love toward God and toward our fellow human beings.4 It is through
such an act that study becomes, in the words of Thomas Aquinas which have

1 Albertus Magnus, In Politicorum Pars VIII.

2 Albert and Thomas: Selected Writings, translated, edited and introduced by Simon Tugwell,
O.P., preface by Leonard Boyle, O.P. (New York, Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1988), p. 30.
3 http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedict-
xvi/en/speeches/2008/january/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080117_la-sapienza.html
4 Timothy Radcliffe, The Wellspring of Hope: Study and the Annunciation of the Good News,

in To Praise, To Bless, to Preach: Words of Grace and Truth (Dublin: Dominican Publications,
2004), pp. 349-374.

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become a guiding principle of our Order, Contemplari et contemplata aliis
tradere.5

The Mediaeval perspective

I recall some years ago correcting an exam paper wherein the student referred
to the mediaeval period as mid-evil. It is obvious that this was a case where
the student spelled the word as he/she had heard it. However, it does
inadvertently reflect an attitude which is quite common in our times but which
dates back at least to the Enlightenment, which portrayed this period as one
of darkness, ignorance, superstition, and barbarity. And yet, as Charles Homer
Haskins stated almost a century ago, universities, like cathedrals and
parliaments, are a product of the Middle Ages.6

On the other hand, one should avoid portraying this period as if it were a
golden age of holiness and chivalry, unparalleled in history either before or
after, as depicted in novels such as Sir Walter Scotts Ivanhoe(1819), in master-
studies such as Henry Adams Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, or in paintings
such as Edmund Blair Leightons The Accolade (1901). It was, however, first and
foremost an age of discovery and wonder, in which scholars were also made
aware of how scant their knowledge was, and the need to seek it outside the
confines of Christendom, with all the problems and the risks that such an
endeavour carried. It could be succinctly described as that period wherein
scholars were, according to a phrase attributed to Bernard of Chartres, like
dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants7. It was precisely this intellectual
humility that led Gerbert of Aurillac (later Pope Sylvester II, d. 1003) to travel to
Cordoba in order to study mathematics and astronomy. The same could be
said of Adelard of Bath (c. 1080-c. 1152), who travelled to Spain and Sicily, as
well as to present-day Turkey, in order to learn Arabic and consequently to
translate works on science into Latin and bring them back to Europe, together
with an astrolabe.

One must also note, however, that mediaeval Western intellectuals and
institutions were able to encounter and adapt the Islamic legacy, because
they already possessed a sufficient scientific base (with of course the

5 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologi, IIa IIae, q. 188, art. 6.

6 Charles Homer Haskins, The Rise of Universities (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press,
1957), p. 1.
7 The first scholar to attribute this phrase to Bernard of Chartres was John of Salisbury. See Scott

D. Troyan, Medieval Rhetoric: A Casebook (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 10.

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contribution of translations of Greek together with Latin works) with which to
understand, absorb, and build upon this new knowledge that appeared from
the East.

A place of discovery

The concept of universitas does not have its roots in what we would refer to as
universal. In the mediaeval period the university was conceived as an
association of masters and scholars leading the common life of learning.8 But
it is also true to state and here perhaps the term universal may come into
play that, unlike the monastic school, the mediaeval university was not a
protected environment. And this was amply proven by the intellectual debates
that took place at the University of Paris throughout most of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries.

The twelfth century was a century of revival sparked by the appearance of

Peter Abelard on the academic scene. His lasting legacy lies in his two principal
contributions to mediaeval thought, namely his expansion of the concept of
theology, which far surpassed the efforts of his contemporaries, and that of his
articulation with marvellous subtlety of the issue of the relationship between
theology and the secular sciences.9 In the words of R. W Southern, he was the
brightest mirror of the light and thought of his time. 10 He embodied the
mediaeval scholarly ideal as being one who constantly struggles in his search
for the truth, refining and revising his thoughts, ever challenging his theological
convictions by way of philosophy.

The Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian,11 to name but

one instance, was penned by Abelard between the years 1136 and 1139. It is
a classic example of a cross-cultural dilemma and paved the way to future
works produced along the same line, such as Ramon Llulls Liber del Gentil e
los tres savis, written a century later (1277).

Abelards work introduces three men who appear to the author (namely Peter
Abelard) in a dream and allegedly request him to judge as to who among
them possesses the most persuasive arguments. All three are worshippers of

8 Haskins, The Rise of the Universities, p. 24.

9 See R. W. Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, II (Oxford: Blackwell,
2001), p. 112.
10 Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, II, 92.
11 The texts from this work which I will be quoting from throughout this essay are taken from

Peter Abelard, Ethical Writings and Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian,
Translated by Paul Vincent Spade, Introduction by Marilyn McCord Adams
(Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1995).

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the one God. One of them is a pagan,12 from among those they call
philosophers; he is satisfied with the natural law. But the other two have sacred
writings. One of them is called a Jew and the other a Christian (2). 13 The
Philosopher declares that his mission is to investigate the truth by means of
reason, and in all things to follow not peoples opinion but reasons lead (4).
Throughout the entire debate he challenges both to come up with a reason
as to why he should abandon an ethics that is only limited by natural law in
favour of either of their religions.

The Philosopher here represents natural reason as a method of debate. He is

directly engaged with a plurality of cultures and religions in which
methodology and discourse serve as instruments for bringing out a humanistic
synthesis with lofty moral and religious overtones.14

The thirteenth century, on the other hand, was one of intellectual upheaval,
following the introduction of Aristotle and, later on, the translations of Ibn Ruds
(Averres) commentaries on his works from Arabic into Latin. This event was
met within the ecclesiastical world with apprehension, if not outright fear. Even
the primitive Constitutions of our Order were very circumspect about the
prospect of students delving into such works. In fact, the Constitutions of 1220
stipulated the following:

[Students] may not study the books of the pagans and of the
philosophers, although they may examine them briefly. They may not
pursue the secular sciences, nor even the arts which they call liberal, but
both young friars and the others shall only read theological books.15

Here it must be pointed out that the proscriptions of the primitive Dominican
Constitutions were already in place. Both the provincial Synod of Sens held in
1210 and the Papal Legate Robert de Couron five years later had already
forbidden the study of Aristotles Metaphysics together with his works on natural
philosophy.16 However, in 1228 the Constitutions were amended in such a way
that now Dominican students were prohibited from studying the secular
sciences and the arts unless on occasion in some cases the master of the
order or the general chapter should wish to dispense otherwise17 This power
of dispensation entrusted to the Master and the General Chapter ultimately

12 The term pagan here refers to anybody who is neither a Jew nor a Christian.
13 The numbers in brackets refer to the numbering system in the text of the above-mentioned
work.
14 This process was to find its highest expression in Thomas Aquinas, but it was initiated by

Abelard who provided it with methodological and ethical underpinnings.

15 Quoted in M. Michle Mulchahey, First the Bow is Bent in Study: Dominican Education

before 1350 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1998), pp. 55-56.
16 See Mulchahey, First the Bow is Bent in Study, p. 56.
17 See Mulchahey, First the Bow is Bent in Study, p. 60.

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gave both greater latitude in allowing the reading of these works in the interest
of study.

One has to keep in mind that during this period many candidates seeking
admission to the Order belonged to faculties of Arts rather than those of
Theology or of Canon Law. There is an interesting anecdote concerning this
phenomenon attributed to the second Master of the Order of Preachers,
Jordan of Saxony (d. 1237), which is worth quoting here:

On being asked to give a reason why students in the arts more frequently
joined the Order than theologians or canonists, he very ingeniously
made this reply: You know that country clowns who have only been in
the habit of drinking water become more quickly drunken with good
wine than noblemen or gentlemen who from habit are but little moved
by the best wine. Even so also students in the arts are refreshed only with
the water of Aristotle and the philosophers, whereas in the Sunday or
holiday sermon the preacher gives them a deep draught of Christ's
words, and when thus filled with the new wine of the Holy Ghost they are
easily moved by it, and readily give themselves and all they have to
God. On the other hand, theologians being used to read the Word of
God are not in like manner carried away by it; just as the slothful
sacristan from much passing before the altar becomes careless in his
genuflections, and oftentimes hardly notices it, while others are bowing
down before it.18

Thomas Aquinas found himself in the thick of the controversies that raged
during this period concerning the acceptance or otherwise of Aristotelian
thought and its most illustrious commentator. He shared with his
contemporaries a passionate desire for truth, which is why he dedicated his
entire academic career to teaching, arguing ideas, debating with his peers,
accepting or rejecting philosophical or theological statements made by both
Christian and non-Christian authorities. This was aided in no small way by the
mediaeval practice of the quaestiones disputat through which two masters
would debate, or the disputatio de quolibet in which a master would debate
any question with any person.

His was also in many ways a dialogue across temporal, geographical, cultural
and religious divides. In his Summa contra Gentiles and in his De rationibus fidei
Thomas was capable of addressing the interreligious and intercultural
challenges of his time. This was due to his research of sources that went beyond
those of the Christian tradition in order to broaden his philosophical and
theological horizons. It was precisely this dialogue that led Thomas to affirm

18Gerard de Frachet, Lives of the Brethren of the Order of Preachers (1206-1259), translated by
Placid Conway O.P., edited with Notes and Introduction by Bede Jarrett O.P. (London:
Blackfriars Publications, 1955), Part IV, Chapter XXXIII, pp. 178-179.
http://www.holyrosaryprovince.org/2011/media/essencial/lives_of_the%20brethren.pdf

5
that there was no contradiction between the auctoritas of Sacred Scripture
and the ratio of philosophy.

As David Burrell has so judiciously observed, one need only glance at the
careful choices that he made when quoting such authorities as Ms b.
Maymn (Moses Maimonides), Ibn Sn (Avicenna) and the Commentator
Ibn Rud (Averres) in order to see that his classical synthesis of Christian
thought could already be considered a triumph in the area of interreligious
dialogue. His intellectual investigations allowed him to bridge the divide that
arose in encounters with alien religions. In this manner he succeeded in
discovering analogous methods intended toward developing common
perspectives concerning creation and divine providence as well as parallel
approaches to the subject of attaining human perfection. The work of Thomas
is a living testimony to the encounter between Christian thought and
Hellenistically-inspired Islamic thought, with some added investigations, albeit
indirectly, into the field of Islamic theology.19

It is common knowledge that Thomas was deeply indebted to these great

sages. In the first place they succeeded in preserving the works of Aristotle in
Arabic, in which they remained for a long time unknown in Western Europe
until they were translated into Latin. Having reached the universities of Europe,
particularly Paris, and subsequently commented upon by no less a Master than
Aquinas, they altered the direction of academic studies throughout the
subsequent centuries.

Whereas the passion of Thomas for the truth could in no way have been
squelched or compromised, the methodology that he adopted was one of
dialogue. His abiding principle was that one must consider not who said what
but what was being said.20 Such a maxim spurred him on to confront and refute

19 See David B. Burrell C.S.C., Thomas Aquinas and Islam, in Jim Fodor and Frederick Christian
Bauerschmidt (eds.), Aquinas in Dialogue: Thomas for the Twenty-First Century (Malden, MN:
Blackwell Publishing), 2004, p. 69. In this connection the author of the article also refers to the
pioneering work undertaken by Louis Gardet in this area, especially his article La conaissance
que Thomas dAquin put avoir du monde islamique, in G. Verbeke and D. Verhelst, eds,
Aquinas and the Problems of His Time (Leuven: Leuven University Press/The Hague: Martinus
Nijhoff, 1976), pp. 139-149.
20 It is truly instructive to compare this principle with what the renowned Mediaeval Muslim

theologian Ab Hmid al- Ghazl (d. 1111) wrote in his autobiographical work Al-Munqidh min
al-Dall. In a section of this book he criticizes those who reject the ethical conceptions of the
prophets and mystics incorporated in the works of the philosophers simply because they are
mentioned by the latter. He rejects this attitude with the following statement:
This is like a man who hears a Christian assert, There is no god but God, and
Jesus is the Messenger of God. The man rejects this, saying, This is a Christian
conception, and does not pause to ask himself whether the Christian is an
infidel in respect of this assertion or in respect of his denial of the prophethood
of Muhammad (peace be upon him). If he is an infidel only in respect of his

6
all opposition against the use of pagan and non-Christian authors. He was
open to the truth from wherever it originated, precisely because, following the
glossa of Ambrosiaster,21 he was convinced that every truth, by whomever it
may be said, is from the Holy Spirit in the sense that he imparts the natural light
and that he moves the mind to understand and utter the truth.22 Such an
innovative and courageous attitude was highlighted by his biographer and
secretary William of Tocco when he wrote:

For he was making new divisions in his text, finding a new and clear
manner of drawing conclusions, and adducing new reasons for his
conclusions, such that no one who heard him teach new things, or
define doubtful things by new arguments, could doubt that God had
illuminated him.23

In this he followed in the footsteps of his master Albert the Great (d. 1280) who
had written that in matters of doctrine regarding the intellect, he preferred to
consult the Hellenistically-inspired Islamic Peripatetic philosophers than the
Latin ones, whose views he sometimes rejected.24

denial of Muhammad, then he need not be contradicted in other assertions,

true in themselves and not connected with his unbelief, even though these are
also true in his eyes.
It is customary with weaker intellects thus to take the men as criterion of the
truth and not the truth as criterion of the men.
Al-Ghazl, Al-Munqidh min al-Dall, trans. By W. Montgomery Watt as The Faith and Practice
of al-Ghazali, http://www.ghazali.org/works/watt3.htm (Accessed 7 December 2010).
21 See PL 17, 245.
22 Summa Theologiae, Ia IIae, q. 109, art. 1. Aquinas reiterates this same concept when he

stated that no spirit can be so darkened as not to participate in some way in the divine light.
In fact, every known truth from any source is totally due to this 'light which shines in the
darkness', since every truth, no matter who utters it, comes from the Holy Spirit (Super
Ioannem, 1, 5 lect. 3, n. 103).
23 This text refers to Chapter XIV of the Vita Sancti Thomae Aquinatis written by William of

Tocco. The Latin original reads:

Erat enim novos in sua lectione movens articulos, novum modum et clarum
determinandi inveniens, et novas adducens in determinationibus rationes: ut
nemo, qui ipsum audisset nova docere, et novis rationibus dubia diffinire,
dubitaret, quod eum Deus novi luminis radiis illustrasset.
Vita Sancti Thomae Aquinatis, auctore Guillelmo de Tocco, in Fontes Vitae S. Thomae Aquinatis
(notis historicis et criticis illustrati), curis et labore D. Prmmer O.Pr., Fasciculus II, Tolosa s.d., p.
81.
The context of this quotation refers to the preparatory studies undertaken by Thomas in order
to accede to the Baccalaureate. At one time he was hesitating whether to continue,
considering himself unworthy of such an academic position. He was then persuaded to
continue thanks to the intervention of St. Albert the Great.
24 Albert the Great, De anima, Tract. III, Cap. 1, col. 2 (59-60), in his Opera omnia, vol. VII, Pars.

I, ed. Clemens Stroick O.M.I (Mnster: Aschendorff, 1968), p. 177. See Rmi Brague, The Legend
of the Middle Ages, translated by Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago, London: University of Chicago
Press), p. 63.

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Aquinas also teaches us professors and students alike who belong to an
ecclesiastical academic institution a fundamental maxim: the one who
studies well prays well, and the one who prays well studies well. True scholarly
dialogue requires dialogue with God as its point of departure; what Augustine
referred to as orent ut intelligant.25

The challenges of modern academic life

All the above has not been stated with the intention of portraying the
mediaeval period as if it were a Golden Age, thereby disparaging academic
life in our times, but rather to express the need for our universities today to reflect
upon their roots in order to rediscover their purpose. Academic life in our times
faces many challenges and quite a few threats to its identity as well as to its
ideals. Our horizons of research and investigation have indeed come a long
way since mediaeval times; but with this we have also had to enter into
unchartered waters of another type. No university can survive today without
some form of outside assistance; but it will be indeed a tragedy if such aid were
to carry with it the price-tag of political correctness or political and secularist
agendas. It would be equally tragic if it were reduced to a production line for
future careers or a glorified employment agency. Here one has to admit that
some mediaeval universities did succumb to such a temptation.

We should also be reminded of what John Henry Newman had once stated,
namely that, Education is a high word; it is the preparation for knowledge, and
it is the imparting of knowledge in proportion to that preparation. 26 One
sometimes wonders whether this is still the case.

A university is not meant to be a comfort zone either for students or for

professors; quite the contrary, it is a place where uncomfortable questions are
posed and uncomfortable answers are provided.

A university worthy of the name is that place where professors and students
alike learn from the time they spend in the canteen or in the refectory as much
as they learn from the time they spend in the lecture room or in the library.

A university is not a stepping-stone toward a lucrative career. It is not a

company; it is a community. Again, in the words of John Henry Newman, a
University is, according to the usual designation, an Alma Mater, knowing her

25Augustine, De doctrina christiana, III, 37.56.

26John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, Frank M. Turner, Editor (New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 104.

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children one by one, not a foundry, or a mint, or a treadmill.27 It is an institution
that strives for the formation of mind and character. It is not a market but a
laboratory of thought where ones ideas are challenged and ones convictions
are put to the test. It is not only a forum that provides us with the necessary
space to speak our own minds, it is also an environment that enhances creative
thinking, attentive listening, and sober evaluation. The best teacher is not the
one who fills students minds with data, but the one who instils in students a
passion to seek. It is indeed a pity that verbs of such fundamental importance
as to think and to understand are today being barred from course
descriptions in many universities because they are deemed non-quantifiable.
We no longer speak of ideas, we talk about strategies. The how has overruled
the why. It calls to mind the cynical definition of academic freedom recalled
by Haskins as the right to say what one thinks without thinking what one says!28

All this reminds me of a scene from the film The Iron Lady, which portrays the
career and the personal life of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher,
a role brilliantly played by Meryl Streep. The scene is set in a doctors clinic in
Harley Street, London. The now visibly aged and ailing former prime minister is
undergoing a medical examination. After being asked by her doctor about her
sleeping habits, whether she was suffering from loss of memory, and whether
she was experiencing hallucinations, the following dialogue ensues:

Doctor: You are bound to be feeling

Thatcher: What? What am I bound to be feeling? People dont think
anymore. They feel. How are you feeling? Oh! I dont feel
comfortable with that.; Im so sorry but we, the group, were feeling
Dyou know, one of the great problems of our age is that we are
governed by people who care more about feelings than they care
about thoughts and ideas. Now. Thoughts and ideas. That interests me.
Ask me what Im thinking.
Doctor: What are you thinking, Margaret?
Thatcher: Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your
words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become
habits. Watch your habits, for they become character. And watch your
character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My
father always said that. And I think I am fine.29

Scholars, both secular and religious, should not shy away from impassioned yet
unbiased debate, especially within an academic environment. Alas! Todays
society has all but lost sight of this virtue. What we nowadays encounter is a
continual preying upon popular emotion, gullibility and paranoia, not to

27 John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, pp. 104-105.

28 Haskins, The Rise of Universities, p. 55.
29 http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Iron-Lady,-The.html p. 54.

9
mention ignorance of historical facts. In this sense, academic life is facing a
serious challenge especially from vast sections of the media who operate
under the assumption that one must not let the truth get in the way of a good
story. As academics we are concerned with telling people what they need to
know rather than what they want to hear.

Furthermore, within the context of ecclesiastical universities, the theological

controversies of the past bring to the fore that delicate balance that needs to
be maintained between what Benedict XVI refers to as the architectural
principles given to us by Revelation, which therefore always retain their prime
importance, and the principles for interpretation suggested by philosophy, that
is, by reason, which have an important but exclusively practical role.30 Thomas
Aquinas would state that the human reason is related to the knowledge of
the truth of faith (a truth which can be most evident only to those who see the
divine substance) in such a way that it can gather certain likenesses of it, which
are yet not sufficient so that the truth of faith may be comprehended as being
understood demonstratively or through itself.31

The problem of God, like the problem of man, places us in front of what Rudolf
Otto referred to as the fascinosum and the tremendum.32 God, like Man,
remains a mystery. But instead of falling into agnosticism the human being of
the third millennium may be gradually beginning to realize that there is no
understanding without a constant searching for truth. Thomas Aquinas paves
the way for our journey when he affirms that, the good for man lies in knowing
the truth, and his sovereign good lies, not in knowing any sort of truth, but the
perfect knowledge of the supreme truth, as Aristotle shows. 33 This leads us to
a further reflection: Today we also happen to live in a multi-religious society
that is constantly confronting and challenging the hitherto uncontested
dogmas of secularist culture.

Philosophical and theological investigation is an ongoing lesson in humility born

out of love for the truth, which is always greater than our own human
limitations. When we believe that all reality can be explained away and that
all Revelation is nothing but a mere human construct, we will be closing the

30 Benedict XVI, General Audience, Wednesday, 4 November 2009, in Pope BENEDICT XVI,
Church Fathers and Teachers: From Saint Leo the Great to Peter Lombard (San Francisco:
Ignatius Press, 2010), pp. 172-173.
31 Thomas Aquinas, Summa contra Gentiles, Book I, ch. 8[1].
32 Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the

Divine and Its Relation to the Rational, translated by John W. Harvey (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1966).
33 Summa Theologiae, IIa IIae, q. 167, art. 1, ad 1. Cf. Aristotle, Ethics, X, 7 and 8. 1177a13 and

1178b27.

10
door on the sense of mystery to which creation can merely point; we would be
losing that sense of transcendence which is the fulfilment of our human journey.

Joseph Ellul, O.P.

Pontificia Universit San Tommaso DAquino

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