Geç Dönem Bizans Teolojisinde Thomizm: Demetrios Kydones ve Gennadios Scholarios’un Katkıları/Thomism in Late Byzantine Theology: The Contributions of Demetrios Kydones and Gennadios Scholarios
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), one of the most influential scholastic thinkers of the Middle Ages, found resonance not only within the intellectual circles of the Latin West but also among the Greek-speaking scholars of the Byzantine Empire shortly after his death. This intellectual interaction was ini...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Uludag University
2025-06-01
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| Series: | Oksident |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/oksident/issue/92047/1635256 |
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| Summary: | Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), one of the most influential scholastic thinkers of the Middle Ages, found resonance not only within the intellectual circles of the Latin West but also among the Greek-speaking scholars of the Byzantine Empire shortly after his death. This intellectual interaction was initially facilitated by the missionary activities of the Dominican Order -of which Aquinas himself had been a member- across the Eastern Mediterranean. However, it was not until the 14th century that this influence gained momentum, particularly through the efforts of Byzantine intellectuals proficient in Latin. Among them, Demetrios Kydones stands out for translating several of Aquinas’s major works -most notably the Summa contra Gentiles- into Greek. These translations marked one of the most tangible and effective points of entry for Thomistic thought into Byzantine intellectual life. They laid the groundwork for what could be termed the Byzantine reception of Aquinas.
This study aims to examine the ways in which Aquinas’s thought was introduced into and received by Byzantine theological discourse. It offers a detailed analysis of how Aquinas's influence manifested in the shaping of late Byzantine theology and investigates the intellectual, theological, and political contexts in which this reception occurred. Kydones’s translations proved influential not only within restricted scholarly circles but also within certain layers of the Byzantine bureaucracy and educational system, serving as a crucial conduit for the transmission of Aristotelian thought from Latin into Greek traditions. Through these translations, Aquinas was engaged not merely as a dogmatic theologian but also as a subject of philosophical debate among Greek Orthodox thinkers.
This process did not proceed without resistance. A number of Byzantine authors argued that Thomistic approaches were incompatible with Orthodox theology, prompting figures such as Gennadios Scholarios to respond directly to these criticisms. This study also addresses the influence of Aquinas’s ideas on Scholarios himself, including his attempts to systematize those ideas and his broader engagement with scholastic methodology. Scholarios is widely regarded as the most committed Byzantine proponent of Thomism. However, his appropriation of Aquinas must be understood within the constraints of his historical context: just as Thomistic thought began to take root in Byzantium, the fall of the empire in 1453 abruptly curtailed its institutional continuity. As a result, Scholarios’s works reflect not a fully established and enduring theological tradition but rather a limited and idiosyncratic mode of reception—what might be called a “Byzantine Thomism.”
Particular attention is paid to how Thomistic thought reverberated beyond the fall of Byzantium, especially through Scholarios’s presence at the court of Sultan Mehmed II. The study frames Aquinas’s thought not merely as a case of theological transmission, but as a constitutive element in the late Byzantine world’s broader intellectual and teopolitical transformation -one that continued to echo into the early Ottoman context as a significant site of theological-philosophical rupture and reconfiguration. |
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| ISSN: | 2687-2749 |