ABSTRACT
A common thread underlay all the activity of medieval society: the importance of Christian beliefs and Church doctrine. The Middle Ages was the heir to three distinct cultures: European Christendom in the West and Byzantium, and Arabic Islam in the East. This chapter discusses the new learning and scholarship that swept over Western Europe. As with the rise of early Christianity, medieval Europe owed a profound intellectual debt to Greek philosophy in all its varied forms: first Neoplatonic and then Aristotelian influence. Neoplatonic philosophy in late antiquity, defined as a synthesis of the major currents in Greek philosophy and oriental religious and mystical spirit, continued to have a profound influence in the Middle Ages. The two survivors of the Carolingian Empire were the Church and feudalism. Most Latin medieval scholars appeared to have misinterpreted Averroes's position on faith and reason by ascribing to him the doctrine of 'double truth'.
