Dictionary
A modern dictionary of Catholic terms, both common and obscure. Find accurate definitions of words and phrases.
SCHOLASTICISM
The system of philosophy and theology first developed in the medieval schools of Christian Europe, having a scholastic or technical language and methodology, building on the writings of the Church Fathers, notably St. Augustine (354-430), using many of the philosophical principles and insights of Aristotle and Neoplatonism, and co-ordinated into a synthesis of human and divine wisdom by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74).
Three periods of Scholasticism are commonly distinguished: medieval period from St. Anselm to Jean Capréolus (1060-1440); Counter-Reformation or the Spanish-Portuguese Revival (1520-1640), declining after the rise of Protestantism and the spread of Cartesianism; and Neo-Scholasticism, officially recognized by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, beginning in the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present time. (Etym. Latin schola, place of learning, school; from Greek schol_, school; discussion; rest, leisure, employment of leisure time.)
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
