A book that I was reading recently about medieval beliefs was
discussing the differences between the faith of educated theologians
and that of the uneducated laity.
In an attempt to provide an illustration of the enormous gap between
an Abelard or an Aquinas and your average peasant, the author used
the analogy of a modern physicist trying to explain the intricacies
of quantum theory to the man (or woman) in the street.
I was idly wondering how good an analogy this really was. Having done
quantum physics at university (or rather, having been done in by quantum
physics) I can testify that it's really quite hard.
Was there anything of comparable difficulty that a medieval theologian
had to deal with? Obviously there was a great deal to learn, and a lot
of hefty books to read (with very few pictures in them, and nary a
limerick to be found). But was there anything *conceptually* hard? Was
there anything that made your brain ache in the same way that
trying to solve Schrodinger's equation does?
Alasdair.
P.S. Having despatched the fools, jesters and limerick writers,
howsabout a good rousing debate on why Christ never laughed..?
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