ABSTRACT
On many points of his teaching, in questions regarding God, Christ, the sacraments*, or ethics*, Abelard starts from the Sic et Non (composed probably c. 1120-21); this list of patristic opinions, which are apparently contradictory, is preceded by a definition of his theological method. According to him it is essential always to make sure that one is not led into error by writings that are, after all, human and therefore fallible. Disagreements among the Fathers* should induce us to go all the deeper in the search for truth. In his Dialogue (generally dated 1140-42, but also perhaps 1125-27; Mews 1985), which is the debate of a philosopher with a Jew and a Christian about which road to take toward the Sovereign Good*, and on the nature of Good and Evil*, Abelard talks about the superiority of natural law* over written law and about the essential compatibility between the philosopher’s ethical approach (ethica) and the Christian’s theological approach (divinitas). But he does not give the Christian’s answer regarding the road to follow in order to reach the Sovereign Good. It is only in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (c. 1135?) that Abelard develops the thesis that the redeeming action of Christ does not consist in freeing man from servitude to the devil, but in inspiring in him the true love* of God through the example of his life and his death. Abelard deals again with moral questions in his Know Thyself (Scito teipsum): sin* is no longer bad will, as in the Dialogue and the commentary on Rm, but it is the consent to bad will
through contempt of God. Abelard did not write a systematic treatise on all the questions raised in the Sic et Non, but his students kept notes of his Sentences, where he addresses faith* in God and in Christ, the sacraments, and charity as the root of all ethics.
