to produce a definitive body of knowledge that would be as perfect as humanity's fallen state permits, and which would provide a view of God, nature, and human conduct, promoting order in this world and blessedness in the next.

On 9th May 1950 Robert Schuman (1886-1963) made the historic declaration that would form the foundation of the European Community. What is seldom appreciated is the remarkable degree to which Schuman's actions were the conscious implementation of the Neo-Thomistic project of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). Leo sought to employ the intellectual resources of St Thomas Aquinas to achieve «the restoration, both in rulers and peoples, of the principles of the Christian life in civil and domestic society». The resolution of the Church's difficulties with the French Republic and republicanism generally was a central goal of Leo's programme. In the half-century that followed a series of philosophers sought to envisage the concrete conditions under which Leo's vision could be realised. Foremost among them was Jacques Maritain (1882-1973). Robert Schuman was a close student of Aquinas and committed to the reconciliation of the Church and the Republic. As French Foreign Minister he sought to act upon Maritain's belief that a European federation conceived under the banner of liberty would ultimately lead to the establishment of a new Christendom.

Books and learning in 12th-century Europe are the broad concern of the nineteen papers assembled here. The discussion of ’books’ ranges from important individual manuscripts, to collections manufactured in ’scriptoria’ and kept in ’libraries’; the ’learning’ is primarily the composition, transmission and study of Latin literary texts, both ancient and contemporary. Special attention is given to the Latin classics, to the literary culture of the larger Benedictine houses, to the phenomenal quantity of Latin satirical writing of the period, and to the dissemination and reception of texts and ideas over time. While the geographical focus is England, the relationship of English materials and developments to the wider European context is constantly emphasized.

Hugh of Amiens (c. 1085-1164) was an important intellectual figure in the twelfth century. During a long life he served as a cleric, Cluniac monk, abbot, and archbishop of Rouen. He wrote a number of works including poems, biblical exegesis, anti-heretical polemics, and most importantly one of the earliest collections of systematic theology, his Dialogues. This book examines all of Hugh's writings to uncover a better understanding not only of this individual, but also of the twelfth-century as a whole, especially the theological preoccupations of the period, including the development of systematic theology and views on the differences of the monastic and clerical ways of life.

Presents an innovative, constructive alternative to Christian involvement in the "culture wars" Church leaders and scholars have long wrestled with what should provide a guiding vision for Christian engagement in culture and politics. In this book Thomas Bushlack argues that a retrieval of Thomas Aquinas's understanding of civic virtue provides important resources for guiding this engagement today. Bushlack suggests that Aquinas's vision of the pilgrim church provides a fitting model for seeking the earthly common good of the political community, and he notes the features of a Thomistic account of justice and civic virtue that remain particularly salient for the twenty-first century. The book concludes with suggestions for cultivating a Christian rhetoric of the common good as an alternative to the predominant forms of discourse fostered within the culture wars that have been so divisive.

This book is a breakthrough in illuminating humanism. For the first time it is presented in an intercultural perspective. It introduces Chinese, Indian, African, Islamic, and Western traditions into the intercultural discussion about basic issues of understanding the human world. By this means it recognizes different disciplinary perspectives: history, philosophy as well as religious, literary and gender studies. Special emphasis is put on the controversial relationship between humanism and religion. This complex network of argumentations is an answer to the challenge of cultural orientation at the age of globalization. Humanism is brought to life as a synthesis of transcultural values and a mutual and critical recognition of cultural differences.

This book deals with the work of one of the most famous medical scholars of the middle ages, renowned to his contemporaries as being able to see more deeply into the theory of medicine than anyone else. It is based in particular on an analysis of his huge commentary on Avicenna's Canon, the biggest and most important single medical text of the Middle Ages. This is the first modern analysis of the commentary, and while the size and elaborate scholastic structure of it has deterred historians, it remained an important text for two centuries. This book explains the nature and purposes of medical scholasticism, which reached its height in the half century before the Black Death, in which Gentile died.