#000476
Philosophy in the Middle Ages: The Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions
Arthur Hyman & James J. Walsh (editors)
The standard one-volume sourcebook for medieval philosophy, and a quietly important one for treating the era's three great traditions as a single conversation. Editors Arthur Hyman and James Walsh gather primary texts, in translation, from Christian, Islamic, and Jewish thinkers across roughly the fifth to fourteenth centuries — Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, al-Fārābī, al-Ghazālī, Avicenna, Averroës, Maimonides, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and many more — each set in context by an editorial introduction, and given in generous excerpt rather than summary. Approach it as a working companion to a survey history rather than a narrative in itself. Its real strength is that integration of the Islamic and Jewish traditions that older collections tended to sideline; a later third edition expands the selections further. A durable desk anthology.
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The editors
Arthur Hyman (1921–2017) was a leading scholar of medieval and especially Jewish philosophy, long associated with Yeshiva University; James J. Walsh was his co-editor and a fellow specialist in the period. Their anthology grew out of the need for a single volume that treated the three great medieval traditions as one field.
The book
Philosophy in the Middle Ages collects primary texts, in translation, from Christian, Islamic and Jewish thinkers across roughly the fifth to fourteenth centuries — Augustine, Boethius, Pseudo-Dionysius, Anselm, al-Fārābī, al-Ghazālī, Ibn Sīnā, Ibn Rushd, Maimonides, Bonaventure, Aquinas, Duns Scotus and more — with editorial introductions setting each in context. It emphasizes generous excerpts over summaries.
How to read it
Approach it as a working sourcebook to study alongside a survey history, not as a narrative. Its great strength is the integration of the Islamic and Jewish traditions, which many older collections marginalized; a later third edition, revised by Thomas Williams, expands and updates the selections.
For more context
Pair it with a narrative history such as Frederick Copleston's volumes on medieval philosophy for the connecting story between the texts.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Arthur Hyman & James J. Walsh (editors)
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Spirituality & Philosophy
- Location
- Colorado