Rating: 
Summary: Science versus Religion
Review: Once upon a time not so very many centuries ago, Europe was the "third world" and the Islamic world stood at the pinnacle of civilization. How did Western culture transform itself from uncivilized backwater to what it is today, while Islamic culture became the modern "third world"? Rubenstein doesn't set out to answer this question, but his work stands as authority for the proposition that ancient wisdom, specifically the works of Aristotle, changed the balance in favor of the West.
During the early Middle Ages, while Europeans were beating each other over the heads with poorly forged swords, Islamic civilization was at its zenith, and Arabic "falsafa" (philosophy) was the reason. Europe had completely forgotten Aristotle, but the Arabs knew his works and studied them earnestly.
During the 1200 to 1400's, the "Reconquista" recovered both Spain and Aristotle from the Arabs. Over the next few centuries, both cultures struggled to reconcile science with religion. Religion won an unconditional victory in the Moslem world and Islamic civilization went into decline.
Rubenstein records the initial enthusiastic acceptance of science by Europe, the uneasy truce that developed between science and religion, and the ultimate "victory" of science over religion. Ironically, the men whose work formed the foundation for that victory were almost uniformly men of religion. Rubenstein argues for a modern detente between science and religion similar to Stephen Jay Gould's concept NOMA (which is described in Gould's book "Rocks of Ages"). Zealots from the camps of both science and religion would do well to read these two books.
Rating: 
Summary: Readable and exciting biographical history
Review: Richard Rubenstein manages to tell a little known story in history -- that of the rediscovery of Aristotle's ideas in the Middle Ages in the West and its influence on subsequent Western intellectual development. As Rubenstein points out, it is often assumed that the Dark Ages came to an end with the efforts Copernicus, Galileo and Newton. This is only part of the story. The other half -- a necessary prerequisite for the existence of scientists at all -- was the reintroduction of Aristotle's ideas into Western culture. Aristotle was an advocate of the importance of this world (he didn't recognize any other), unlike the previously Platonic-otherworldly emphasis that had been dominating Christianity since St. Augustine. It was this shift in ideas within what was then Christian Europe that set the stage for the later scientists.
*Aristotle's Children* focuses on the history and personalities of those who rediscovered, studied and reinterpreted Aristotle's ideas, as well as Christianity as a result. It more a historical biographical book than an intellectual history. Those looking for a detailed intellectual analysis of the period are advised to look at some of Rubenstein's sources such as W.T. Jones's "A History of Western Philosophy: The Medieval Mind". At the same time, Rubenstein does cover the essentials of the ideas of all the people involved.
Sadly the book concludes by emphasizing the importance of compromise between faith and reason for the world of today -- a compromise that would never have been endorsed by Aristotle, though that is exactly what medievals, who were trying to reinterpret the Christianity in the light of Aristotle tried, and ultimately failed to do.
Rating:
Summary: Faith and Reason
Review: Richard Rubenstein, aside from being a great storyteller, is a professor of conflict resolution and public affairs at George Mason University.
In this book, he tells the story of Aristotle's writings and their influence on the formation of modern Europe: from their birth in ancient Greece to their eclipse in Roman times and the early Middle Ages; and their subsequent rediscovery in the 11th and 12th centuries by Christian knights, who were reconquering Spain from Muslim rule.
What the Europeans found was that the highly cultivated Muslims had translated Aristotle's works - as well as those of other Greek thinkers - into Arabic. Centuries prior, Greek philosophy had been translated from Greek to Syriac by the Nestorians, an ascetic religious group skilled in linguistics. The texts were further translated into Persian, and fell into the hands of the Arabs in the 7th century in their conquest of Persia. In the 11 century, Christian Europe finds, not only the writings of the the ancient Greeks, but commentaries by Arab and Jewish philosophers such as Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides.(I was reminded of a short story by Jorge Luis Borges called Averroes Search, in which Averroes was searching for the Arabic words for tragedy and comedy.)
The Christian churchmen quickly recognized the importance of the discovery and had all the texts translated into Latin. At first they were stunned: Aristotle had written on everything form physics to metaphysics, from politics to art.
Here begins the awakening of Europe from the Dark Ages. It also marks the beginnig of the uneasy relationship between faith and reason. Rubenstein, being a professor of conflict resolution, gives a very balanced account of the tension between the two. It's almost as if he's their marriage counselor.
By 1250, Aristotle's writings were required reading in all the major universities in Europe. Aristotle's views, that the universe operated according to its own laws and that human beings were basically reasonable creatures, did not reconcile with the Christian worldview, that God created the universe and often intervenes in history.
Rubenstein, in a very engaging narrative, takes us through the next four centuries of conflict involving many clever and colorful characters such as Peter Abelard, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard of Clairvaux, Duns Scotus, Wiliam of Ockham, etc. There are many high level theological debates, heresy trials, excommunications, shifting of alliances and changing of positions. By the time Galileo and Newton arrived on the scene, faith and reason had gone their separate ways (divorce) and the scientific revolution had begun.
Being a good conflict manager, Rubenstein points out that both science and religion benefitted from their rocky marriage and that their children were left with a richer legacy.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book, False Thesis
Review: The bulk of this book deals effectively with the impact of Aristotle on Western Europe and his importance in the slow emergence there of an intellectual and scientific culture independent of theological constraints. The importance of his book is that it cleary shows this independence arising out of, not against, a Christian intellectual and spiritual matrix.Unfortunately, Rubenstein claims to be doing something else, and this claim of his makes it harder to appreciate what he in fact did do. He claims to be demonstrating the superior value of "transnational" global culture, specifically an encounter between Jewish, Islamic and Christian scholars in evolving a morally grounded conception of science. He even implies this Aristotelean moment was superior in some ways to the more Eurocentric one that followed as Europeans turned against Aristotle in the 1500s and 1600s, by which time the Philosopher's teachings had ossified and lost all value. The West's creative incorporation of Aristotle, as Rubenstein himself makes quite clear, was due to the imaginative uses made of him by a string of European intellectuals, including Abelard, Acquinas, and William of Ockaam. While Rubenstein mentions such Islamic and Jewish scholars as Avicenna, Averroes, and Moses Maimonides, it is clear from his own analysis that their commentaries on Aristotle were a sidebar to the creative reworking that the West itself did. Rubenstein's references to present day events such as Cold War anti-Communism, the war in Iraq or globalization are even more of a sideshow and a distraction. He tries to use his book to promote a transnational ideology. What he in fact has given us (and it still makes the book worthwhile) is an early chapter in the rise of, and utter uniqueness of, the West.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but no "road map" to conflict resolution.
Review: This book covers an enormous amount of intellectual history and is worth reading for its summary of thinkers from Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, Avicenna, Aquinas, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, to William of Ockham. The book sets out the theme that the intellectual turn that led to scientific understanding actually started, not with Copernicus and Galileo, but much earlier, at least by the 12th Century as Aristotelean works on natural phenomena began to flood the libraries of Europe's scholars. Aristotle's work on logic had been long known, thanks to Boethius' 6th Century translations. But this was all the West had until the Christian gradual retaking of the Iberian Peninsula made possible rediscovery of his other works. The libraries of the Muslims and Jewish scholars there had Aristotle's works, and Latin scholars eagerly translated them with help of the Jews and the Muslims.
The impact of Aristotle's natural philosophy derived from his outlook that human reason, not tradition, revelation or sentiment, is the road to uncover objective truths about the universe. This outlook regularly leads to conflicts with a faith-based outlook. So what were the Muslims doing with these time-bombs? Rubenstein traces the route that preserved Aristotle's work. The Nestorians translated much of Greek philosophy, not only Aristotle, into Syriac, and these got further translated to Persian, and therefore they fell into the hands of the Arabs with their 7th Century conquest of Persia. These treasuries, at least initially they were seen this way, resulted in the arabic translations and Muslim philosophy flourished. However, by the 11th Century the Muslim religious establishment banished Aristotle from the universities concluding his outlook was inimical to their faith, just before Aristotle was rediscovered in the West. Many religious scholars, both Muslim and Christian, were so fascinated with Aristotle's knowledge of the natural world that they tried hard to spiritualize or "correct" Aristotle's outlook in the hope that then it would not endanger faith. Both Muslim and Christian religious authorities were wary of Aristotle's outlook and in the long run both concluded his outlook could not be papered over. The Muslims were both quicker and more vigilant, the Christians more dilatory and divided and at the same time enthralled by Aristotle's knowledge. Attempts to ban his thought in the West were made in the 13th Century, but it was too late. Modern secular thought was let out of the bottle in the West; even though it still struggles to emerge for many Muslims and well as Christians. In the West, there are still many who would like faith to dominate reason. Currently, only 23 percent of Americans, for example, believe biological evolution to be correct. The story is far from over.
Another theme Rubenstein pursues is how Plato and Aristotle differ, even though they agree on many things. The Aristotelian Stance is one of "...unabashed admiration for the material and a distaste for mystical explanations of natural phenomenon..." plus an "optimism about human nature" (page 8). The Platonic attitude is that the "really real" are abstractions such as Beauty, Goodness, Justice -- Eternal Forms or Ideas. The sensate natural world Aristotle rejoiced in only reminded Plato "of a much better place" (page 29). Mystery was Plato's meat. Rubenstein feels some periods of history favor one stance over the other. In times of economic growth, political expansion, optimism and the like, the Aristotelian stance fits in. In times of discomfort and longing, where personal and social conflicts seen all but unresolvable, the Platonic stance kicks in. Plato, with mystery and supernaturalism, may be where many will cling to now. Rubenstein would like to go beyond these tendencies. He would like to restore a creative, rather than destructive, tension between reason and faith. They cannot be fused, but perhaps there can be a integration in which technology, using reason, is guided by a new, global morality based on a "mature and expanded" faith, a faith not threatened by reason. However he offers no road map for such startling developments, let alone any evidence that those of faith see any need to "mature." On the other hand we can see many road maps and much evidence for the outcome he fears, namely, that powerful elites will use both faith and reason for keeping and extending their power.
Rating:
Summary: Intellectual history that reads like an adventure novel
Review: This book is a knockout. As hard as it may be to imagine a book about the "Aristotelian Revolution" of the Middle Ages being a page-turner, I could not put this one down. To begin with, the story itself is incredibly interesting and important. When Aristotle's complete works, lost to the West for 700 years, were rediscovered in "reconquered" Spain, European thinking was changed forever. As Rubenstein says, it was as if some document discovered in our own time were found to contain the science of the future -- the secret of time travel, or a cure for AIDS. Catholic officials were therefore forced to decide whether to ban the new learning, which contained all sorts of ideas at odds with traditional Christian thought, or to try to reconcile faith with reason. Surprisingly, after a ferocious struggle involving "superstars" of Christian learning like Peter Abelard, Saint Bernard, Bonaventure, Aquinas, and William of Ockham, they opted for reconciliation. The result was Europe's first Scientific Revolution -- and a creative dialogue between reason and religion that, Rubenstein suggests, might serve as a model for us modern folk. What makes this book so appealing is the author's ability to make complex debates crystal-clear to ordinary readers, and his gift for vivid historical narrative. We are there when Peter Abelard goes on trial before his nemesis, Saint Bernard;
when Pope Innocent III calls down the fires of Crusade upon the heretical Cathars; and when Aquinas fights it out with enemies to his left and right at the tumultuous University of Paris.
You don't have to know much about medieval history to enjoy this story, but reading it made me want to learn more about the origins of modern Western thinking -- and about ways of healing the split between what Rubenstein calls "the culture of the heart" and "the culture of the head."
Rating:
Summary: Interesting biased
Review: This interesting account tries to weave a tale of preservation of learning from Spain to Oxford to the Renaissance. This book, while interesting and entertaining, has several flaws. Its largest flaw is the authors subconscious hatred of Catholicism and love of Islam. The author tries to make the argument that 'enlightened' Islam(the same people that were circumcising women and importing slaves from Africa) was actually far superior to the western states of the Catholic world. And that learning was loved in Spain where 'Jews and Muslims' preserved the works of Plato and Aristotle. The basic fallacy here is that this is simply incorrect. The Muslim governors win Spain had no interest in learning, they only had interest in conquering lands for Allah and they did not support these efforts, by many Jews who were translating the documents. The Islamic hysteria with persecuting 'non believers' led them to destroy many Greek texts that seemed polytheistic. It was the Jews of Spain, who would later give birth to Maimonadies, that preserved the works of Plato and Aristotle and transported these works along trade routes to Christendom, where they were eventually adopted at Oxford and Florence. This is where the author does the story justice, in describing the men and schools of learning that worked to preserve essential western works from the intolerance of the Church. The book should have been called 'between Cross and Crescent: how enlightened men preserved the essential works of western civilization'. An interesting account but historically flawed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Post-Modern Tangent
Review: Why is it that so many modern historians of Aristotle's works seek to undermine the very world he has made possible? Well, if you are looking for a book whose goal is the joining of "faith" and "reason" - look no further, this is it.
I enjoyed the beginnings of this book, and honestly believed it would deal with the more interesting effects that Aristotle had on Jewish, Islamic and Christian thinkers. And it did. Slightly. Until it moved into a very detailed history of the Catholic church, with a slight focus on its flirtations with Aristotle and the philosophy of reason.
What is discussed of Muslim Spain, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides and all of the renaissance heroes of individualism, reason & science, could well be covered by the history channel in a 1 hour program written for anyone with a child's attention span.
As a history of Church schisms, this is a palatable book. As anything else, read on elsewhere (examples: M. Adler, A. Gottlieb & A. Rand)
However, I save my main criticism for Rubenstein's antagonism towards egoism (rational selfishness) which is never defined, his empty criticism of the sovereign rights of the nation-state, his light-hearted comparisons/commentaries on Marx/Communism, and his completely irrational, un-Aristotelian assertion that "faith" and "reason" may one day find each other again as intellectual companions, or perhaps bed buddies.
Sounds like a good recipe for a Post-Modernist, UN takeover of reality.
Worst of all, Rubenstein's assertion that we may one day be so lucky to achieve a utopian state of "world morality", whatever that may be, is much more than just dubious.
Aristotle and all those who followed him stood for the individual in all his "egoistic" glory, whether it be in direct opposition to the State, the Church, moral & physical relativism or blind dogma of any sort.
As Jefferson put it: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man". Sadly, Rubenstein finds himself on the wrong side of the fence, since his philosophical & political assertions make us wonder whether a fence really exists.
Kenneth Clark's Civilisation series on VHS is recommended as an antidote for this mind-numbing, entertaining story undermined by facts, reality and good old Aristotle himself.
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