Why scholasticism is necessary for theology, part I

If you read theologians writing in the early 20th century, especially Catholic theologians associated with "Ressourcement" leading up to Vatican II, you often hear pretty strong words against "scholasticism." Protestant theologians like John Milbank tend to critique later Catholic scholasticism as well for corrupting the theology of Thomas Aquinas by downplaying the central Neoplatonic elements in his thought (which did happen).

Scholasticism can be defined historically as a web of theological works that began to be written in the Middle Ages that sought to give systematic expositions of Christian doctrine. Peter Lombard, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas are all examples of "scholastic" authors in this vein. Recent scholarship tends to emphasize that scholastic works often had a lot to do with education. We can see an example of this in Aquinas. In the prologue to Aquinas's Summa Theologiae, Aquinas says that he wrote the work for students to help counter "the multiplication of useless questions, articles, and arguments" in theological education in his day. Scholars these days often focus on the implied readers of scholastic texts and the history of their reception just as much as the philosophical ideas they express.

Scholasticism is marked not only by system and organization, but also usually by a precise terminology that allows the authors to write and explain things quickly. This terminology, or "apparatus," is usually derived partly from Aristotle, and is often difficult for beginners.

"Scholasticism" in this way has been a historical force in theology for centuries. After the Reformation, Protestants developed their own form of scholasticism that drew, surprisingly enough, on Thomas Aquinas as a guide. Eastern Orthodoxy also had their own scholasticism, which also benefitted from dialogue with Aquinas (Gregory Palamas read Aquinas).

Yet theologians from all three areas, Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, all had some kind of reaction against scholasticism some time in the 19th and 20th centuries. But there were some voices, like Karl Barth on the Protestant side, who thought that scholasticism as a historical form of discourse gave theology something essential. I'll explore some pro/con arguments for scholasticism from a theological perspective in a later post.