Trinity

By van Inwagen, Peter; Howard-Snyder, Dan

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is a central and essential element of Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that is of special concern in the present ...

Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is central to Christian theology. The part of the doctrine that concerns us here may be stated in these words: although the Father, ...

Socinianism

By Marshall, John

Socinianism was both the name for a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theological movement which was a forerunner of modern unitarianism, and, much less precisely, a polemic term of abuse ...

Abelard, Peter (1079–1142)

By Tweedale, Martin M.

Among the many scholars who promoted the revival of learning in western Europe in the early twelfth century, Abelard stands out as a consummate logician, a formidable polemicist ...

Latitudinarianism

By Marshall, John

The term ‘Latitudinarianism’ designated, initially abusively, the attitudes of a group of late seventeenth-century Anglican clergy who advocated ecclesiastical moderation, voiced broad if heavily qualified support for religious ...

Giles of Rome (c.1243/7–1316)

By Del Punta, Francesco; Trifogli, Cecilia

Giles of Rome was one of the most eminent theologians and commentators on the works of Aristotle at the University of Paris in the second half of the ...

Origen (c.185–c.254)

By Hause, Jeffrey

An ascetic Christian, prodigious scholar and dedicated teacher, Origen devoted his life to exploring God’s revelation. Much of his work takes the form of commentaries on Scripture. He ...

Barrow, Isaac (1630–77)

By Callergård, Robert

Isaac Barrow was a mathematician and theologian who spent most of his successful academic lifetime in Cambridge. He was a professor of Greek and of geometry, and the ...

Newton, Isaac (1642–1727)

By Harper, William L.; Smith, George E.; Biener, Zvi

Newton is best known for having invented the calculus and formulated the theory of universal gravity – the latter in his Principia, the single most important work in ...

Sen, Amartya (1933–)

By Qizilbash, Mozaffar

Amartya Sen is one of the leading economists of the twentieth century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998. His influence extends well beyond economics ...

Whitehead, Alfred North (1861–1947)

By Bradley, James

Whitehead made fundamental contributions to modern logic and created one of the most controversial metaphysical systems of the twentieth century. He drew out what he took to be ...

Francis of Meyronnes (d. after 1325)

By Hause, Jeffrey

Francis of Meyronnes, the doctor illuminatus (Enlightened Doctor), was called the ‘Prince of the Scotists’ for his work in systematizing and propagating the philosophy of Duns Scotus ...

Richard of St Victor (d. 1173)

By Emery, Kent

Richard is most famous for his contemplative doctrine, which is based on a biblical anthropology that involves a philosophical psychology and noetic theory. Richard’s writings should be understood ...

Russell, Bertrand Arthur William (1872–1970)

By Griffin, Nicholas

Bertrand Russell divided his efforts between philosophy and political advocacy on behalf of a variety of radical causes. He did his most important philosophical work in logic and ...

Joachim of Fiore (c.1135–1202)

By Murphy, Sean Eisen

Joachim was a charismatic monastic reformer and inventive scriptural exegete whose study of the Bible led him to propound complex theories of history. Especially interested in the Apocalypse ...

Marius Victorinus (fl. 4th century AD)

By Kenney, John Peter

Gaius Marius Victorinus was a rhetorician active in Rome in the fourth century ad. Classically educated and with an interest in philosophy, he converted to Christianity late ...

Whewell, William (1794–1886)

By Fisch, Menachem

William Whewell’s two seminal works, History of the Inductive Science, from the Earliest to the Present Time (1837) and The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon their ...

Augustine (AD 354–430)

By Matthews, Gareth B.

Augustine was the first of the great Christian philosophers. For well over eight centuries following his death, in fact until the ascendancy of Thomas Aquinas at the end ...

Gilbert of Poitiers (c.1085–1154)

By Jacobi, Klaus
Translated by Jarka-Sellers, Hannes

Gilbert’s most important work is his commentary on the theological treatises of Boethius. His contemporaries valued him not only as a theologian but also as a philosopher, especially ...

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–64)

By Hopkins, Jasper

Also called Nicolaus Cusanus, this German cardinal takes his distinguishing name from the city of his birth, Kues (or Cusa, in Latin), on the Moselle river between Koblenz ...

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772–1834)

By Milnes, Timothy

In addition to being one of the finest poets of the Romantic generation, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) was a philosopher, theologian, and literary theorist whose work exerted a ...

Karsavin, Lev Platonovich (1882–1952)

By Meerson, Michael A.

Karsavin belongs to the Russian philosophical school of all-oneness (vseedinstvo) and God’s humanity (bogochelovechestvo) originating with Vladimir Solov’ëv in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Karsavin’s thought ...

Philoponus (c. AD 490–c.570)

By Wildberg, Christian

John Philoponus, also known as John the Grammarian or John of Alexandria, was a Christian philosopher, scientist and theologian. Philoponus’ life and work are closely connected to the ...

Ibn ‘Adi, Yahya (893–974)

By Inati, Shams C.

Following in the footsteps of the Greek philosophers, Ibn ‘Adi concerned himself with the ultimate human end, happiness, which he found in knowledge. However, he was primarily occupied ...

Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109)

By Hopkins, Jasper

Anselm of Canterbury, also known as Anselm of Aosta and Anselm of Bec or Saint Anselm, was first a student, then a monk, later prior and finally abbot ...