This is a unique volume in which a critical introduction and multiple chapters offer a wide-ranging discussion of medieval conceptions of the nature of humankind, its relationship with the universe, and the processes of thinking by which both are conceptualized. Concentrating on the centuries spanning the High Middle Ages, chapters include in-depth analyses of such ideas as the habit as the ultimate dwelling place of the soul, the Soul of the Universe and its relation to humanity, and the Agent Intellect's part in the functions of the mind regarding abstraction and intuition. This book explores how metaphysical Intelligences interact with our movements, how the desires of our minds affect the acquisition of knowledge, as well as asking how and why analysis of the makeup of animal souls took place.

The High Middle Ages was a crucially important epoch in the history of intellectual endeavor. This volume appeals to students and researchers; it discusses and evaluates the contributions on the subjects of mind, soul, and the cosmos of some of the finest Christian, Jewish, and Moslem intellects in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Theologians, philosophers, and cosmologists include Aquinas, Grosseteste, Avicenna, Gersonides, Buridan, the School of Chartres, as well as many others. The overarching theme of this collection of essays is that vitally new conceptions of what it meant to be a rational Human, the purpose of thought in relation to the journey of the soul, and the metaphysical character of our universe contributed enormously to the paradigm-shifting nature of this age.

Autorentext

Jack P. Cunningham is a Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK. He has a special interest in philosophy and theology in the high Middle Ages. He is director of the International Robert Grosseteste Study Centre at BGU and he is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Previous publications include Robert Grosseteste: his thought and its Impact, Ed. Jack P Cunningham. Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies, 2012; Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific Learning in the Middle-Ages, Eds. J. P. Cunningham & M. Hocknull. Springer, 2016 and Robert Grosseteste and Theories of Education: the Ordered Human. Eds. Jack P. Cunningham and Steven Puttick. Routledge, 2020.

Adam Foxon is a senior lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University on the Foundation Year program. He also lectures on Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics. He completed his PhD in 2022 entitled, Quod Homo sit Minor Mundus: Robert Grosseteste and the Potentiality of the Material World: Microcosmism and Deification in the Development of a Didactic Weltanschauung. He has worked in schools and colleges around his work at BGU and actively encourages public exposure to the academic world. He is open to conversations surrounding academic outreach, particularly in areas concerning history, philosophy, and religion.

His academic work and interests are incredibly varied. He is a medievalist at heart (12th-13th centuries), but he also delves into other areas, from historical and modern perspectives on the paradigm between science and religion; arguments for the existence of God; the Christian notion of microcosmism; and process theology, to exotheology (theological thought related to extra-terrestrials) and the relationship between religion and football.

Rosamund M. Gammie is a Lecturer in Theology at Bishop Grosseteste University. She has published on the epistemology of Robert Grosseteste (2019) as well as his reaction to the later crusades (2023). She has also co-authored an upcoming paper (2024) with Adam Foxon which proposes a new approach to the twelfth-century Green Children of Woolpit legend. Her current research interests are in collective and collected memories and trauma processes in medieval narratives. She is also interested in popular fiction and its use and abuse of the medieval period, from video games to children's films.