Aristotle and Christianity not so Simple

Submitted by Thomas (United States), Oct 10, 2006 at 11:13

Maggie4life & LeaNder,

For the sake of clarity, let me nuance this disagreement a little. Aristotle was in fact known to the Medieval West prior to the early 13^th century, but only through his writings on logic. The ‘Physics', ‘Metaphysics', ‘De Anima', & ‘Ethics' were "first" introduced through translations from Arabic along with extensive and influential commentaries by Muslim philosophers (Avicenna & Averroes). However, the Arabs ultimately received their knowledge of Aristotle from Greek Christian sources in the Middle East centuries earlier.

That said, there is certainly the case to be made that while Aristotle's "scientific" writings (those mentioned above) were controversial for several decades – even being prohibited among the faculty of arts at the University of Paris until the 1250's [they were also controversial in Islam (Al-Ghazali)], the Latin Christian synthesis (St. Thomas Aquinas) of Aristotle (reason) and the Bible (faith) was ultimately more successful than in Islam (Aristotle + Koran) where the reprehensible idea of "double-truth" originated.

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