Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus: Natural Theology in the High Middle Ages

Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus are arguably the most celebrated representatives of scholasticism’s golden age. They are known primarily for their work in natural theology, which seeks to demonstrate tenets of faith without recourse to premises rooted in dogma or special revelation. Scholars of this golden age drew on a wealth of tradition, dating back to Plato and Aristotle. Taking in the Arabic and Jewish interpretations of these thinkers, they produced a wide variety of answers to the question: how much can we learn of God? Some responded by denying us any positive knowledge of God. Others believed that we have such knowledge, yet questioned whether acquiring it required divine revelation. Scotus and Aquinas belong to the more empirically minded thinkers in this latter group, arguing against a necessary role for revelation. Many scholars believe that Aquinas and Scotus exhaust the spectrum of answers available to this circle, with Aquinas maintaining that our knowledge is quite confused, and Scotus that it is completely accurate. In this study, Alexander Hall argues that the truth about Aquinas and Scotus lies somewhere in the middle. Hall’s book recommends itself to the general reader who is looking for an overview of this period in Western philosophy, as well as to the specialist. No other study on the market addresses this long-standing matter of interpretation in any detail.