Logic

Sic et Non

♡+

Peter Abelard

c. 1120

Abelard's most influential methodological work assembles 158 theological questions — from the nature of faith to the permissibility of lying — and places contradictory authorities side by side without resolving them. The title means "Yes and No." By marshalling Church Fathers against each other, Abelard does not undermine authority but teaches the reader how to think through authority: how to read charitably, distinguish contexts, and resolve apparent contradictions through reason. It is the founding document of the Scholastic method and the ancestor of every theological summa that followed.