A History of Western Philosophy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1945

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Book 2, Introduction and Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 2: “Catholic Philosophy”, Part 1: “The Fathers”

Introduction Summary

“Catholic philosophy” refers to the thinkers from St. Augustine in the fifth century CE to the Renaissance about a thousand years later. This period coincides roughly with what is commonly called the Middle Ages; however, the Church Fathers (as early Catholic theologians were later called) and Boethius were also transitional figures who bridged the classical and medieval worlds.

Thought during this period in Western Europe was dominated by Christianity and the Catholic Church. In fact, philosophers were almost always members of the clergy and their thought was expected to reflect the worldview and beliefs of the church. The church “brought philosophic beliefs into a closer relation to social and political circumstances than they have ever had before or since” (301). The power and wealth which the church acquired were important factors in spreading its beliefs and philosophical views. After St. Augustine, Europe went through a period of about five centuries known as the Dark Ages. This period was filled with great political turmoil marked by the breakup of the Roman Empire and traditional cultural institutions.

During this period, literacy and culture were at a low point, but many people associated with the church kept knowledge alive. After Emperor Charlemagne’s attempt at reviving the empire, and especially by the eleventh century, a major cultural revival was underway. The growth in power of the papacy, combined with rediscovery of the philosophy of Aristotle and other ancient thinkers, produced the Scholastic movement, the major philosophical achievement of the High Middle Ages.

Russell announces that Book 2 will deal with general history in great depth, because this is the only way to make “the genesis and significance of Catholic philosophy intelligible” (305).

Chapter 1 Summary: “The Religious Development of the Jews”

In explaining the influence of Christianity on thought, Russell goes back to the very beginning, to the origins of the Jewish people and religion. This is because Christianity grew out of Judaism, although Christian thought also added important classical Greco-Roman elements. Russell sees Christianity as combining “a conception of morals and history derived from the Jews” (308), ideas of salvation and redemption similar to Orphism and other Middle Eastern religious cults, and metaphysical and ethical perspectives derived from Plato, the Stoics, and the Neoplatonists.

Chapter 2 Summary: “Christianity During the First Four Centuries”

Christianity began as an offshoot of Judaism, and indeed most of the earliest Christians were Jews who had come to believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. Eventually, Christianity spread eastward to the Greek- and Latin-speaking areas of the Mediterranean. Gnosticism and Manicheanism were rival cults that challenged orthodox Christianity at times. St. Paul’s writings in the New Testament show “a considerable acquaintance with Greek culture” (326), and the Church Fathers of the first few Christian centuries show an increasing use of Greek philosophy in formulating their Christian theology. The period from the first to the fifth century showed the consolidation of Christian theological views through the political order, including the emperor and church councils. In general, Christianity became assimilated to political structures familiar from the classical Greco-Roman world.

Chapter 3 Summary: “Three Doctors of the Church”

In this chapter Russell discusses St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, and St. Augustine, known collectively as the Doctors (i.e., teachers) of the Western Church.

St. Ambrose (339-397) was bishop of Milan and the teacher of St. Augustine (354-430). Born in North Africa, Augustine was a convert to Christianity whose writings form a powerful synthesis of classical philosophical themes with Christian theology. St. Jerome (c. 341-420) was strongly imbued with classical culture but came to feel that this conflicted with his commitment to Christianity. Rather than focusing on philosophical works, he concentrated on producing a Latin version of the Bible, translated from the original Hebrew and Greek, which became the Western Church’s standard bible.

Chapter 4 Summary: “Saint Augustine’s Philosophy and Theology”

Russell concentrates on Augustine as philosophically the most significant of the three Doctors. Augustine’s book The City of God gives a defense of Christianity together with a theological interpretation of the fall of the empire. His Confessions is one of the earliest autobiographies and exhibits an intense focus on the concept of sin. Explicitly philosophical passages in Augustine’s works deal with the nature of time, creation, and free will.

Chapter 5 Summary: “The Fifth and Sixth Centuries”

The fifth century saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire, caused in large part by the invasions of Italy by Germanic tribes. Russell argues that this “century of destructive action […] largely determined the lines upon which Europe was to be developed” (366). As the empire broke up, government became more localized and the church became the only central authority. Commerce, roads, and other infrastructure fell into decay, which had ill effects on culture.

However, a number of notable thinkers lived during this period. Russell considers the philosopher and statesman Boethius (c. 477-524) “a singular figure.” His Consolation of Philosophy, a dialogue between the author and Lady Philosophy, was written while Boethius was in prison awaiting execution for treason. The book shows strong Platonic influence as it explores questions of happiness, virtue, fortune, and free will. It was one of the most popular texts throughout the Middle Ages, second only to the Bible.

Chapter 6 Summary: “Saint Benedict and Gregory the Great”

The monk St. Benedict (c. 480-c. 550) established monasticism in Western Europe by means of his Benedictine Order. This gives him an important place in Western history because the monasteries were the main vehicle by which learning and culture were preserved during the Dark Ages.

St. Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), who served as pope from 590 until his death, shows the growing power and importance of the papacy in consolidating ideas and beliefs and holding Western European civilization together.

Book 2, Introduction and Part 1 Analysis

Russell uses the term “Catholic philosophy” in preference to the more widely used “medieval philosophy.” Russell’s use of this term emphasizes that the period encompasses thinkers who bridged the classical and medieval Christian worlds, like St. Augustine and Boethius. Thus, “Catholic philosophy” is a broader term that emphasizes the strong influence of the Catholic Church on thought during this era. Throughout this thousand-year period, the church functioned as the focal point for belief and was the force that held society together amid strife and political turmoil. Russell also emphasizes and argues that modern philosophy grew out of Catholic philosophy by sharing many of its assumptions and concerns. For example, Descartes drew on his education in Scholasticism to form his theory of knowledge, which would subsequently form the basis of modern skepticism (568).

Among the thinkers of this period, Russell most admires Boethius, even comparing him to Socrates. However, Russell’s general bias against religious thought makes itself felt in a number of passages in this section. For example, he faults St. Jerome for writing on theological issues instead of “practical statesmanship” and sees the fall of Rome as having been aggravated by the fact that “the best and most vigorous minds of the age were so completely remote from secular concerns” (344). Russell’s characterization of the Middle Ages as being completely uninterested in earthly knowledge is arguably an oversimplification in light of more in-depth research of medieval life by specialists in the period.

Yet despite the general otherworldly emphasis in medieval thought, Book II contains perhaps a denser concentration of general history that any of the other parts of the work. Russell spends a great deal of time on church councils, wars, the papacy, and both civil and ecclesiastical politics. While much of this material has no direct bearing on philosophy, Russell attempts to show that through the turmoil of the Middle Ages, a new society was forming in which nationalism and national monarchies would become an important force in society and would, in later times, influence ideas about human nature, religion, and politics.

For Russell, understanding the “growth and decay” of “the medieval synthesis” (304) is crucial to understanding modern thought, which began largely as a reaction against the “tidy and […] apparently complete” world of medieval thought and society. Thus, this section of the work functions as a preparation for understanding the modern world.