Discuss the history and significance of the medieval university and Scholasticism

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The modern day university has its origins in medieval society. By the twelfth century, spurred by the resurgence of economic activity, the rise of towns, and the influx of heretofore unavailable Classical texts, education shifted from monastic and parish settings to cathedral schools located in the new urban centers of Western Europe. Growing out of these schools, groups of students and teachers formed guilds for higher learning; the Latin word universitas describes a guild of learners and teachers. These universities were arenas for intellectual inquiry and debate. The universities offered a basic Liberal Arts curriculum divided into two parts: the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, which comprised arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.
The ancient Classical texts brought to Europe by the Muslims, such as Aristotle's works in the natural sciences, presented new intellectual and theological challenges to churchmen and scholars. The Scholastics engaged in an effort to reconcile the two primary modes of knowledge: faith and reason, the first as defended by theology, the second as exalted in Greek philosophy. Indeed, the Scholastic method was concerned with balancing opposing points of view and ultimately finding some form of reconciliation. The Scholastics were the humanists of the medieval world; they held that the human being, the noblest and most rational of God's creatures, was the link between the created universe and divine intelligence. They believed that human reason was the handmaiden of faith, and that reason—although incapable of transcending revelation—was essential to the understanding of God's divine plan.