Scholastic thinkers held a wide variety of doctrines in both philosophy and theology, the study of religion. What gives unity to

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问题     Scholastic thinkers held a wide variety of doctrines in both philosophy and theology, the study of religion. What gives unity to the whole Scholastic movement, the academic practice in Europe from the 9th to the 17th centuries, are the common aims, attitudes, and methods generally accepted by all its members. The chief concern of the Scholastics was not to discover new facts but to integrate the knowledge already acquired separately by Greek reasoning and Christian revelation. This concern is one of the most characteristic differences between Scholasticism and modern thought since the Renaissance.
    The basic aim of the Scholastics determined certain common attitudes, the most important of which was their conviction of the fundamental harmony between reason and revelation. The Scholastics maintained that because the same God was the source of both types of knowledge and truth was one of his chief attributes, he could not contradict himself in these two ways of speaking. Any apparent opposition between revelation and reason could be traced either to an incorrect use of reason or to an inaccurate interpretation of the words of revelation. Because the Scholastics believed that revelation was the direct teaching of God, it possessed for them a higher degree of truth and certainty than did natural reason. In apparent conflicts between religious faith and philosophic reasoning, faith was thus always the supreme arbiter; the theologians’ decision overruled that of the philosopher. After the early 13th century, Scholastic thought emphasized more the independence of philosophy within its own domain. Nonetheless, throughout the Scholastic period, philosophy was called the servant of theology, not only because the truth of philosophy was subordinated to that of theology, but also because the theologian used philosophy to understand and explain revelation.
    This attitude of Scholasticism stands in sharp contrast to the so-called double-truth theory of the Spanish-Arab philosopher and physician Averroes. His theory assumed that truth was accessible to both philosophy and Islamic theology but that only philosophy could attain it perfectly. The so-called truths of theology served, hence, as imperfect imaginative expressions for the common people of the authentic truth accessible only to philosophy. Averroes maintained that philosophic truth could even contradict, at least verbally, the teachings of Islamic theology.
    As a result of their belief in the harmony between faith and reason, the Scholastics attempted to determine the precise scope and competence of each of these faculties. Many early Scholastics, such as the Italian ecclesiastic and philosopher St. Anselm, did not clearly distinguish the two and were overconfident that reason could prove certain doctrines of revelation. Later, at the height of the mature period of Scholasticism, the Italian theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas worked out a balance between reason and revelation.
Which of the following is most likely to be discussed in the part succeeding the passage?

选项 A、Relations of St. T. Aquinas’ achievements to previous efforts.
B、How St. T. Aquinas worked out in the balance in discussion.
C、Other endeavors on the relationship of reason and revelation.
D、Outstanding features of the mature period of Scholasticism.

答案C

解析 这是一道推论题。文章最后一段指出:由于他们相信信仰和推理是和谐的,所以经院哲学家企图确定它们各自的准确范围和能力;许多早期的经院哲学家并没有清楚地区分这两者:后来,在经院哲学成熟的鼎盛时期,圣.托马斯.阿奎奈在推理和启示之间找到了一种平衡。由此可知,随后的段落应该是探讨人们为弄清推理和启示之间的关系所作出的其他努力。C说“有关推理和启示之间的关系所作的其他努力”,这与文章的意思符合。圣.托马斯.阿奎奈只是经院哲学家的一个代表,不可能对他的个人成就作太详尽的论述,所以A和B不对;D明显与最后一段的内容不符。
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