John Scotus Eriugena 815 – 877
John Scotus Eriugena was an Irish theologian and Neoplatonist philosopher active at the court of the Carolingian king Charles the Bald. He produced the first Latin translation of the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, transmitting Eastern Neoplatonic theology to the Latin West. His magnum opus, the Periphyseon, divides nature into four categories ordered by whether they create or are created, and develops a daring synthesis of Christian doctrine with Greek philosophical metaphysics. His work was condemned in the thirteenth century but later inspired Nicholas of Cusa and the speculative tradition.
Key facts
- Nationality
- Irish
- Era
- Medieval
- Movements
- Medieval, Christian
Selected quotes
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Attributed to John Scotus Eriugena:
“We do not know what God is. God himself does not know what he is because he is not anything.”
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Attributed to John Scotus Eriugena:
“Authority is the source of knowledge, but our own reason remains the norm by which all authority must be judged.”
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Attributed to John Scotus Eriugena:
“Every visible and invisible creature is a theophany, a manifestation of God.”
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Attributed to John Scotus Eriugena:
“True philosophy is true religion, and true religion is true philosophy.”
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Attributed to John Scotus Eriugena:
“No one enters heaven except through philosophy.”