Craig Martin (1) (1976–)

There are lots of introductory books to the study of religion. Craig Martin, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College, has added his own contribution to this ever-growing canon, A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion (Acumen Publishing, 2012). But why? What does this new intro offer? Well, if you are interested in learning how to penetrate the deep true meaning of the sacred or how we can understand the nature of religious belief or experience then keep looking. Martin offers an alternative to most introductions by presenting a socio-functional approach to cultural traditions and generally attempts to demystify religion as a natural category. In A Critical Introduction, Martin offers an explanation of various elements of society by exploring notions of classification, structure, and habitus. He also walks readers through the social components of religious traditions, touching upon the concepts of legitimation, authority, and authenticity. Martin is very much influenced by authors such as Karl Marx, Peter Berger, Pierre Bourdieu, and Bruce Lincoln, among many others. Overall, this new introduction presents a critical approach to religious phenomena, which provides methods to determine the historical contexts, material consequences, and beneficiaries of particular cultural practices. In our conversation we discussed functionalism, social boundaries, classification, social constructionism, the relationship between words and things, animism, stereotypes, essentialism, the naturalization of the social order, class difference, the supernaturalization of claims, cultural toolboxes, absent authority, projection, and the difference between religions and other cultural practices.… (mais)

More evidence that the rise of modern science was a consequence of the evolution of European thought rather than a revolutionary break with the past. The reconsideration of Aristotelian cosmology is usually presented as part of a secular turn that distinguished medieval from modern thought, but Subverting Aristotle tells a different story. Religion played a larger role in the downfall of Aristotelianism than is usually acknowledged.

Martin’s study of Aristotelianism from the 12th to the 17th c. reveals a surprising plasticity to Catholic thought, as the intellectual setting shifts from late antiquity to the recovery of Aristotle by way of Avicenna and Averroes, from the development of Scholasticism to the rise of humanism and the Reformation challenge through to the formulation of alternative natural philosophies that ultimately banished Aristotle from the Catholic corpus.

Aristotelianism took many forms, supporting both Catholic and Protestant theology, alchemical theorists, and astrology. The numerous schools and diversity of opinions made consensus among religious scholars and ecclesiastical officials impossible. Orthodoxy proper was difficult to define at times. Aristotle’s true views on controversial issues were frequently difficult to ascertain; Aristotelians were accused of being overly interested in logic and of juggling propositions, corollaries and conclusions. Platonists skirmished with Peripatetics, erudíts with libertines. Aristotle was suspect on theological issues including the unicity of the passive intellect and the eternity of the world, God’s providence over sublunary material and whether human happiness was a result of living well or rewards in the afterlife.

Martin makes full use of his deep bibliography. We learn that, even while debating the intentions of Aristotle and his authority on matters pertaining to the natural world, scholars found time to discuss the presence of demons in dreams, the efficacy of oracles, and whether humans could be produced by spontaneous generation in order to repopulate the world after universal floods. A treatise might argue that reliance on the philosophy of a pagan of dubious moral character could lead to gravely mistaken conclusions about God, creation and the human soul, while also maintaining that a woman’s eyes, rather than her breath, could cloud a mirror, or that the existence of monsters shows that sometimes imperfect beings arise from material necessity beyond the perfection of God’s power.

By the 16th c., Italian humanists were counting less on Averroes and Aquinas as interpreters of Aristotle and were instead relying on Greek texts and the views of Greek commentators to uncover Aristotle’s real intent. Concluding that Aristotle had deviated from key tenets of Christianity, critics sought to separate Aquinas from the Aristotelian camp, inferring that the danger was not in the text but in the subsequent use of its authority. The difficulty in placing Aristotle among the pious made it easier to dispense with him as an authority for understanding nature and the mysteries of faith. The rediscovery of Sextus Empiricus and ancient skepticism led humanists to conclude that the truths of religion were unknowable and distinct from natural reason. The subsequent separation of theology from natural philosophy emboldened challengers to the traditional Thomistic synthesis. Pierre Gassendi promoted Epicurean atomism as an alternative to traditional natural philosophies. Plato’s Timaeus offered another alternative model. Critics of Aristotle sharpened their attacks, directing their arguments against the spiritual flaws of traditional natural philosophy in order to demonstrate that their motivations were not heretical. Hence Martin’s key contention―that powerful intellectual currents within the Church turned against Aristotle, and that the role of religion was instrumental in generating the critique that resulted in the demolition of Aristotelian natural philosophy.… (mais)