I have been enlarging my territory in philosophy this semester and something I have just learned has made some connections for me.
Scholasticism is a technic of training that makes an effort to put philosophy and theology together. It later took on criticism from Humanism that brought a tighter technic of training on philosophy and education and left out theology. Have you ever heard of someone being called a “Dunce”? Duns Scotus was a Scholatic and was made fun of for his applications of philosphy and theology and thus the nickname, dunce.
Without going into great detail, the simple thought for me is that Scholasticism had a focus on God, while Humanism has a focus on man. An example of this is evolution focuses on man, while creationism focuses on God. We could apply this to many other thoughts or philosophies. But the crux is where do we put our focus.
No wonder so many people doubt the authority of the Bible, because those who doubt are placing their focus on man or themselves and not on God. If we put our focus on God we see the authority.
I see the large church in many of our now mainline denominations being very Humanistic. We see that for some it is okay for homosexual unions in marriage – focus on man and not on God. We see that for some there are various ways of salvation – again the focus on man and not on God.
Not that I would call a Humanist a dunce or any other nickname, but I would be cautious of where I was putting my focus on any kind of research. For me my focus is on God. John Wesley had a formula he called the quadralateral: Primary – Scripture, then tradition, reason and experience. Note the focus is on God and God’s Word, then on man’s thought and experiences.
I guess I am a scholastic who sees a correlation between philosophy and theology. But I would be in good company with Aquinas, Augustine, Anselm and Duns Scotus. Call me a dunce if you want to, but remember that God is on my side when you start your name calling.
