Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was one of the most brilliant minds of the Medieval period.  Born just as universities were first being formed in Europe, he mastered the dialectical method of rational arguments.  First, challenging his peers and then his professors, he left the university in Paris to set up his own lectures – bringing with him flocks of students who loved his audacious style as much as his intellect.    

 Abelard’s life changed when he agreed, at age 36, to take on a private student – the teenage niece of a powerful canon of the Cathedral of Paris.  Abelard and Heloise fell in love, had a child, and secretly married.  When Heloise decided to enter a convent to quiet rumors about them, her uncle believed Abelard had dishonored her.  One night he sent a gang of thugs into his quarters; they beat him and castrated him.

 Humiliated, Abelard became a monk and Heloise’s temporary decision became permanent.  She became a nun, later an abbess.  They never again lived together, nor with their son, though their love endured through letters exchanged over decades.

  Several of Abelard’s books are still in print today.  His memoir, The Story of My Misfortunes, gives insight to life 900 hundred years ago.  Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew and a Christian is an intriguing early multi-cultural exploration (the philosopher is a non-practicing Muslim).  Of his remaining texts the best known is Sic et Non (Yes and No) in which he pointed out numerous contradictions in Christians theology.  He asked 158 questions about Christian beliefs and researched the Bible and from the early Church writings finding “Yes” and “No” answers to each of the 158 questions. 

  Abelard saw a pluralism in Christianity, a pluralism that could still breathe new life into 21st century Christianity.  He tried to bring together reason and faith, much like many Christians today are trying to bring together science and faith.  He was the first major Christian scholar to criticize Anselm’s sacrificial doctrine of the atonement (and the only one for hundreds of years).  For Abelard the cross was about the extreme love that God had for humanity, not about the wrath God was saving up for humans, unless a blood sacrifice was made.  In many ways Abelard was 1,000 years ahead of his time.  For this reason many of his works were condemned and burned as heretical and why he spent time under arrest by the Church.

  For this reason I’ve called my blog “Abelard’s Notebook” – in admiration for a faith that is explored through questioning and wonder, one not satisfied with neat little answers