In today's General Audience, the Holy Father paused from his series examining the lives and works of great writers in Church history, and he looked specifically at the 12th century. He spoke about the "two realms in which [the century's] fervid theological activity developed: the monasteries and the town schools, the scholae, some of which very soon gave life to the universities, which constituted one of the typical "inventions" of the Christian Middle Ages." From the monasteries came the importance of "spiritual reading" -- reading Scripture "in the spirit in which it was written and created." From the schools came the Scholastic method, which "gives confidence to human reason: grammar and philology are at the service of theological learning". He spoke about faith and reason together giving "confidence to human reason: grammar and philology are at the service of theological learning."
Zenit has a full English translation. Benedetto XVI Forum has a translation and photographs. The Italian language original was published by Daily Journal. Vatican Information Service has a press release, and Asia News has an article.
Here is the Holy Father's English-language summary of his presentation:
"In our catechesis on the Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages, we now turn to the renewal of theology in the wake of the Gregorian Reform. The twelfth century was a time of a spiritual, cultural and political rebirth in the West. Theology, for its part, became more conscious of its own nature and method, faced new problems and paved the way for the great theological masterpieces of the thirteenth century, the age of Saint Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. Two basic "models" of theology emerged, associated respectively with the monasteries and the schools which were the forerunners of the medieval universities. Monastic theology grew out of the prayerful contemplation of the Scriptures and the texts of the Church Fathers, stressing their interior unity and spiritual meaning, centred on the mystery of Christ. Scholastic theology sought to clarify the understanding of the faith by study of the sources and the use of logic, and led to the great works of synthesis known as the Summae. Even today this confidence in the harmony of faith and reason inspires us to account for the hope within us (cf. 1 Peter 3:15) and to show that faith liberates reason, enabling the human spirit to rise to the loving contemplation of that fullness of truth which is God himself."
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