14.4.09

Part 4 - Augustine and Aquinas: Differences and Similarities


The death of Saint Augustine and the fall of the Roman Empire were followed by the period of the Dark Ages. During this time of the Dark Ages, it was all the entire literate and the learned world could do to hold onto the remnants of civilization.

In short, individuals were simply trying to survive.

From Saint Augustine to the life of Saint Anselm who another of the philosophers/theologians of the age, a period of 700 years passed. The period includes the other Philosophers such as John the Scot, Saint Anselm, Saint Abelard, Francis Bacon, Dons Scotus, and William of Occam.

These two great philosophers, Augustine and Aquinas, were very different from one another, however.

On the one hand, Augustine was a solitary and isolated figure. As we shall see, Aquinas was much to the contrary. Augustine wrote his Confessions as a reflection upon his own inner life. It is characterized by an amazing and compelling reflective ness.

Aquinas wrote in a much later period and unlike Augustine, he was anything but a solitary figure. He lived, thought and wrote in the middle of a religious and academic tradition.

He lived among the monks of Catholicism and worked as a University teacher, and as previously indicated, produced two great works that are very difficult to read primarily due to the reality that he was writing in an academic context and for an academic audience.