Étienne Gilson (1884–1978)

HELOISE AND ABELARD

Pedro Abelardo, is an original and surprising figure; a restless spirit of the twelfth century, famous both for his thought and for his life. This logical and theological medieval scholastic lived with intensity both the success and intellectual and social recognition, and harsh humiliations and calamities that came after his relationship with the young Eloisa. The correspondence that maintains with Eloísa is the main subject of this work. To qualify the anthropological and theological motives of those unhappy lovers, recourse is made not only to the correspondence, but to the writings of Abelard himself. At stake is, first of all, the meaning of marriage and the donation of one to the other; second, the determination of pure love and morality of mere intention that does not count on works.

Étienne Gilson, whose writings are obligatory references to know medieval metaphysics and the discussion about the existence of a Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages, has published numerous works, some translated into Castilian as: The Philosophy of the Middle Ages; The spirit of medieval philosophy; The philosophy of San Buenaventura; The metamorphosis of the city of God; The being and the philosophers; Dante and philosophy: etc.… (más)