John Scotus Eriugena Quotes
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. The quotes below are attributed to John Scotus Eriugena, organized by topic.
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John Scotus Eriugena on God
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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:
“Every visible and invisible creature is a theophany, a manifestation of God.”
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“True philosophy is true religion, and true religion is true philosophy.”
Quid est aliud de philosophia tractare, nisi verae religionis, qua summa et principalis omnium rerum causa, Deus, et humiliter colitur, et rationabiliter investigatur, regulas exponere? Conficitur inde, veram esse philosophiam veram religionem, conversimque veram religionem esse veram philosophiam. -
“When we are told that God is the maker of all things, we are simply to understand that God is in all things – that He is the substantial essence of all things.”
Cum ergo audimus, Deum omnia facere, nil aliud debemus intelligere, quam Deum in omnibus esse, hoc est, essentiam omnium subsistere.
John Scotus Eriugena on Knowledge
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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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“No one enters heaven except through philosophy.”
Nemo intrat in caelum nisi per philosophiam. -
“Cum ergo audimus, Deum omnia facere, nil aliud debemus intelligere, quam Deum in omnibus esse, hoc est, essentiam omnium subsistere.”
When we are told that God is the maker of all things, we are simply to understand that God is in all things – that He is the substantial essence of all things. | De Divisione Naturae , Bk. 1, ch. 72; translation from Hugh Fraser Stewart Boethius: An Essay (London: William Blackwood, 1891) p. 255. -
“De Divisione Naturae , Bk. 1, ch. 72; translation from Hugh Fraser Stewart Boethius: An Essay (London: William Blackwood, 1891) p. 255.”
Cum ergo audimus, Deum omnia facere, nil aliud debemus intelligere, quam Deum in omnibus esse, hoc est, essentiam omnium subsistere. -
“Auctoritas siquidem ex vera ratione processit, ratio vero nequaquam ex auctoritate. Omnis enim auctoritas, quae vera ratione non approbatur, infirma videtur esse. Vera autem ratio, quum virtutibus suis rata atque immutabilis munitur, nullius auctoritatis adstipulatione roborari indigent.”
For authority proceeds from true reason, but reason certainly does not proceed from authority. For every authority which is not upheld by true reason is seen to be weak, whereas true reason is kept firm and immutable by her own powers and does not require to be confirmed by the assent of any authority. | De Divisione Naturae , Bk. 1, ch. 69; translation by I. P. Sheldon-Williams, cited from Peter -
“Sed fortasse quis dixerit: Quomodo omnia, quae sunt, lumina sunt?”
Yet someone may ask: how is it that all things which are, are lights? | Expositiones super Ierarchiam Caelestem S. Dionysii , vol. 122, col. 128 in Jacques Paul Migne Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Series Latina ; translation from Walter Baumann "In Principio Verbum" : Seminar on Canto 74, Lines 76-145 , p. 250 -
“Yet someone may ask: how is it that all things which are, are lights?”
Sed fortasse quis dixerit: Quomodo omnia, quae sunt, lumina sunt? -
“Quid est aliud de philosophia tractare, nisi verae religionis, qua summa et principalis omnium rerum causa, Deus, et humiliter colitur, et rationabiliter investigatur, regulas exponere? Conficitur inde, veram esse philosophiam veram religionem, conversimque veram religionem esse veram philosophiam.”
What, then, is it to treat of philosophy, unless to lay down the rules of the true religion by which we seek rationally and adore humbly God, who is the first and sovereign cause of all things? Hence it follows that the true philosophy is the true religion, and reciprocally that the true religion is the true philosophy. | De Divina Praedestinatione , ch. 1; translation from Kenelm Henry Digby More
John Scotus Eriugena on Mind
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“For authority proceeds from true reason, but reason certainly does not proceed from authority. For every authority which is not upheld by true reason is seen to be weak, whereas true reason is kept firm and immutable by her own powers and does not require to be confirmed by the assent of any authority.”
Auctoritas siquidem ex vera ratione processit, ratio vero nequaquam ex auctoritate. Omnis enim auctoritas, quae vera ratione non approbatur, infirma videtur esse. Vera autem ratio, quum virtutibus suis rata atque immutabilis munitur, nullius auctoritatis adstipulatione roborari indigent.
John Scotus Eriugena on Time
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“De Divisione Naturae , Bk. 1, ch. 69; translation by I. P. Sheldon-Williams, cited from Peter Dronke (ed.) A History of Twelfth-Century Western Philosophy (Cambridge: CUP, 1988) p. 2.”
Auctoritas siquidem ex vera ratione processit, ratio vero nequaquam ex auctoritate. Omnis enim auctoritas, quae vera ratione non approbatur, infirma videtur esse. Vera autem ratio, quum virtutibus suis rata atque immutabilis munitur, nullius auctoritatis adstipulatione roborari indigent.