Legend of the Middle Ages

Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam

Brague Remi

This volume presents a penetrating interview and sixteen essays that explore key intersections of medieval religion and philosophy. With characteristic erudition and insight, Remi Brague focuses less on individual Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thinkers than on their relationships with one another. Their disparate philosophical worlds, Brague shows, were grounded in different models of revelation that engendered divergent interpretations of the ancient Greek sources they held in common. So, despite striking similarities in their solutions for the philosophical problems they all faced, intellectuals in each theological tradition often viewed the others' ideas with skepticism, if not disdain. Brague's portrayal of this misunderstood age brings to life not only its philosophical and theological nuances, but also lessons for our own time.

Reviews

"Remi Brague is one of the few scholars alive who is equally an expert on medieval Arabic, Jewish, and Latin philosophy (as well as on ancient Greek philosophy). He is an extraordinary linguist in both ancient and modern languages, which enables a truly subtle analysis of texts and ideas. 'The Legend of the Middle Ages' demonstrates his special ability to discover profound philosophical implications in notions and questions in medieval texts that modern scholars would usually pass over" – Kent Emery, Jr., University of Notre Dame

"One of the great merits of the book is that throughout the text Brague bursts balloons of preconception... Brague always corrects, argues, prunes, distinguishes, specifies, compares, and refines with incomparable scholarship and talent" – Vient de paraitre, on the French edition

"This account will illuminate novices as well as adepts embarked on a shared journey into a fascinating world... By using contemporary reflections on hermeneutics and other sophisticated tools... [Brague] deftly introduces us into this world in a way that helps us attain the consciousness demanded to understand 'the other', so as to better appreciate our own limitations. In fact, that correlative activity of coming to understand ourselves as we seek to understand the other fairly defines the journey on which these essays launch us. So it could best be described as an exercise in self-understating, facilitated by a rich store of historical examples, deftly employed" – David Burrell, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"Brague shows [how] the subtle, often acrimonious interplay between Judaism, Christianity and Islam helped to create the advanced thought of the Middle Ages – a phrase that, after reading Brague's book, no longer sounds like an oxymoron" – Adam Kirsch, Nextbook

"Highly recommended to scholars of the Middle Ages as well as those in philosophy and religion more generally. They will all be enlightened by careful reading of this book" – Library Journal

"Brague artfully explicates the commonalities of Islamic, Jewish and Christian philosophy in the Middle Ages" – Religious Studies Review

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