William of Ockham: 'A Letter to the Friars Minor' and Other Writings

The key ideas on authority of a powerful and historically important thinker.

William of Ockham (Author), Arthur Stephen McGrade (Edited by), John Kilcullen (Edited by)

9780521352437, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 September 1995

438 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.9 cm, 0.7 kg

"The co-editors of this volume should be congratulated for providing much theoretical material to students of politics who do not have easy access to its original medieval Latin medium. When read in conjunction with their earlier Short Discourse on Tyrannical Government, the new selections confirm that William of Ockham was a master of political thought in the western tradition. There are judiciously designed biographical, bibliographical, and textological sections, and an excellent Introduction for the uninitiated. The texts themselves represent most periods of Ockham's polemical career. The translation is faithful: it reminds one of Jowett on Plato." The Canadian Catholic Review

More than any other single thinker, William of Ockham (c.1285–1347) is responsible for the widely held modern assumption that religious and secular-political institutions should normally operate independently of one another. When this assumption is questioned in some quarters, Ockham's acute analysis of the basis and functions of authority in spiritual and temporal affairs is of modern as well as historical interest. His point of departure was a tragic collision between two specifically Christian ideals: the Franciscan conception of Christ's lordship (as lacking material wealth and power) and the ideal of a society guided by the single supreme authority of Christ's vicar, the Pope. This volume begins with Ockham's personal account of his engagement in that conflict and continues with essential passages from the major works in which he attempted to resolve it.

1. A Letter to the Friars Minor
The Work of Ninety Days
2. A Dialogue
3. Eight Questions on the Power of the Pope.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX]