The+Middle+Ages

=The Middle Ages= ...going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way...

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=What were the Middle Ages?=

The Middle Ages was the name given in the Renaissance to the period of time between Antiquity and the Renaissance. This period of time can also be called the Dark Ages, but it wasn't all gloomy. The first school system was started, Christianity was spreading, and nation-states started to establish themselves. The Middle ages can be thought of as the unifying force of Christian culture. At this time, there was no great difference between philosophy and theology.

One of the most important historical facts that happened during the Middle Ages was the fall of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century, Rome was being threatened by barbarian attacks, and Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Constantinople, which was also called new Rome. By 395 the Roman Empire was divided in two, and in 410 Rome was plundered by the barbarians. In 476 the rest of the Western Empire fell, but the Eastern Empire existed until 1453.

=Major Philosophers=

**Who was St. Augustine and what did he believe?**

 * [[image:http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/piero/saints1.jpg width="213" height="243" align="left"]]**St. Augustine lived from 354-430, and was not always a Christian. He was a Manichaean for a time, and probably was preoccupied by the question of evil. His principal leanings were Neoplatonic, and were also largely influenced by Platonic ideas. St. Augustine was also the person who ‘Christianized’ Plato, by putting Plato’s world of ideas into God’s mind. Another thing that he did was point out that there are limits to how far reason can get a person in religious questions, after a certain point people just need to believe. St. Augustine believed that evil was the absence of God, and believed that man has a soul. He thought that God decided who would be saved, that no one deserves God’s redemption, and we are at God’s mercy. He did not, however, renounce man’s responsibility for his own life. He wrote a work called the //City of God//. A main idea was that ‘There is no salvation outside the Church.’ St. Augustine was the first philosopher to use history in his philosophy. While the question of evil was not new, St. Augustine’s way of answering it was.

Who was St. Thomas Aquinas and what did he believe?
St. Thomas Aquinas was the most significant philosopher during the Middle Ages. He is credited with making Aristotle’s philosophy compatible with Christianity, and making the great synthesis between faith and knowledge. He thought that there shouldn’t be a difference between what reason or philosophy teaches us and what faith or Christianity teaches us. Some things, like the creation, we need to have faith. Aquinas also believed that there were two paths to God – one through the Christian faith and the other through reason and the senses. He did believe that faith is the surest, because senses can sometimes lead people astray. Aquinas set out to prove that there is only one truth, so if Aristotle said something that we can use our reason to get to, it does not conflict with Christianity.