Modern Problem from Middle Ages

Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was one of the great figures of the intellectual revolution which occured during the Middle Ages. He said, "The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning...For by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at the truth."

This sounds all too familiar. And what happened to Peter? He was deemed a heretic by the Church and imprisoned. Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux, who was mainly responsible for Abelard's imprisonment said, in response to the ideology Abelard was teaching, "The faith of the righteous believes, it does not dispute."

Kind of a frightening idea. Excommunication and imprisonment aren't real big nowadays, or are they? The Church is trying a new advertising campaign, saying that it is safe to ask questions in church. But what happens when someone like Peter Abelard comes along with questions the church either isn't ready for, or plain doesn't want to address? During the rise of Scholasticism, there were things that could be studied and questioned, and other things that were forbidden. These forbidden things being the foundational concepts of the Catholic Church. Any questioning of such ideas was deemed heresy. We'd like to think in our "enlightened" civilization that such concepts have been swept away. But, in many cases, that doesn't seem to be true. People aren't excommunitcated from the Church as they used to be; but there are more ways to shut someone out besides throwing them out the door. I grew up Protestant/Evangelical and I've seen such shunning. That's one of the reasons I left the institutional church all together.

When Peter Abelard taught, people flocked to him. Why would they do that? Was it because he was tearing away at the foundation of the Catholic Church? I'd bet not. The Catholic Church was the universal church of the time, and Peter doesn't strike me as a Martin Luther. It seems that Abelard was defining that which the Church required people take on faith. And people, no matter the age, are searching for those definitions. Most people aren't satisfied with pat answers; and they sure as hell don't like people answering questions for them. The people flocking to Abelard seemed to represent, in my mind, the current generation of seekers. People who want more than faith; they want belief. And to gain belief they must be allowed to ask questions, seek answers; and in putting the answers together, hopefully, come up with the Truth that will "set them free".

I don't know where I'm going with this. I just felt a bit of a kinship to Peter Abelard, so I thought I'd share a bit of that.