Divine Illumination: The History and Future of Augustine's Theory of Knowledge

This is an account of the history and current relevance of the theory of divine illumination, held by Augustine as the pre-condition for all knowledge.  Schumacher traces the idea from its Platonic originas, through its re-working by St. Augustine, and its use by medieval thinkers such as Duns Scotus, Anselm, Bonaventure and Aquinas. Augustine's account was widely held to be authoritative until the end of the thirteenth century, when former champions of Augustine's tradition, the Franciscan order, pronounced illumination theory untenable.

Schumacher recovers the notion of illumination, showing how the medieval use of the theory unwittingly and radically changed Augstine's original ideas. In an intellectually adventurous retracing of the prehistory of the modern theory of knowledge, Schumacher examine the presuppositions of divine illumination in Augustine, Anselm, Bonaventure and Aquinas. The book goes byond this, however, in combining an analysis of these historical texts with cutting edge questions in current philosophical theology on faith and reason, and the relation of metaphysics and epistemology

This book is an original and lucid contribution to the history of philosophy, medieval history, and modern theology and philosophy.