Housing the Powers: Medieval Debates about Dependence on God

This book explores the views of Christian philosophical theologians in Western Europe from the mid-12th to the early 14th century on the housing and exercise of soul powers, with some borrowing of thoughts from their Islamic counterparts. Chapters 1 to 3 discuss the theologians' views about their own housing and exercise of soul powers, while Chapters 4 to 8 discuss the possibility of some of our soul powers being outsourced to God or a super-human emanation of God. The remaining four chapters focus on divine gifts of knowledge, understanding, action, and willing or desire.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 03 February 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Housing the powers? What powers? Soul powers -- powers that shape the lives of human souls. They may be housed, and exercised, by those souls or by other agents. This book explores the views developed by Christian philosophical theologians in Western Europe from the mid-12th to the early 14th century, drawing upon insights from their Islamic counterparts. Chapters 1 to 3 delve into the theologians' perspectives on their own housing and exercise of soul powers, expanding in breadth and depth. Chapters 4 to 8 explore the possibility of some of our soul powers being outsourced, that is, housed and exercised by God or a super-human emanation of God. Chapter 4, in particular, examines an Islamic form that postulated the outsourcing of intellectual thinking from individual human beings to a single intellect eternally emanated from God and responsible for all human thoughts. While this theory garnered interest among European Christian philosophers, it did not receive universal agreement. They found ideas of outsourcing the object, rather than the subject, of religious thought more congenial. The remaining four chapters of the book focus on this more favorable topic. Chapters 5 and 6 explore divine gifts of knowledge and understanding, while Chapters 7 and 8 delve into gifts of action and willing or desire.

Weight: 396g
Dimension: 223 x 143 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192862549