Berengar of Tours Quotes
Berengar of Tours was a French theologian, philosopher, and grammarian of the eleventh century, master of the cathedral school of Tours, and the principal early-medieval defender of the application of dialectic to theological questions. His controversial treatment of the Eucharist, in which he applied Aristotelian categories to the question of how bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, prompted a series of councils and the eventual condemnation of his teaching by the Roman synod of 1079. The quotes below are attributed to Berengar of Tours, organized by topic.
Berengar of Tours on God
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Attributed to Berengar of Tours:
“Reason is the gift of God; to refuse it where it may help us is to refuse God's gift.”
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Attributed to Berengar of Tours:
“Dialectic is not the enemy of the faith; it is the rigorous handmaid of careful belief.”
Berengar of Tours on Knowledge
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Attributed to Berengar of Tours:
“What we cannot articulate clearly, we cannot believe rightly.”
Berengar of Tours on Truth
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Attributed to Berengar of Tours:
“He who flees from logic flees also from a part of the truth.”
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Attributed to Berengar of Tours:
“I yield to the authority of the Church, but not to the authority of the unlearned.”