The Scholastic Project

Much changed between the Middle Ages and the time of enlightenment. What did not change, however, was that the reasonable white man was the thinking subject who was allowed access to the life of the mind, and defined what it was to be reasonable. This book is the story of how scholastic theology defined this universal subject, and a catalogue of the exclusions which ensued. These exclusions still obtain today. The categories of woman, Jew, and heretic were core others against which ideal Christian subjectivity was implicitly defined. Theologians used these categories as sites of investigation, how did they tell us about God's presence in the world? What epistemological and ontological purpose did these "others" serve?
Read more