2) Abelard represents the type of jurisprudential thinking which was introduced into the occidental Christian world by Tertullian. He was, so to speak, the lawyer who defends the right of the tradition in showing that the contradictions in the traditional material – which no one can deny – can be solved. In doing so he supported the Church, but of course dialectics which have the power to defend have also the power to attack. And this was the danger in dialectics which some of the traditional theologians sensed, even before the danger became actual. This is again a reason why some more or less orthodox theology doesn’t like apologetics, because the same means with which you defend Christianity can be used to attack it.
3) He was a person of strong self-ref lection, and this was almost a new event in this period which had a very objective character, in the sense of being related to the contents and not to oneself. In Abelard it is not a mere commitment to truth or good, but it was at the same time a ref lection about his being committed. Now you know all this; you have a feeling of repentance; and you ref lect about having this feeling. You have an experience of faith, and you ref lect about this experience. This is something modern, which first appears in Abelard. From this we understand the famous book he wrote, “Historia galami!atum” (“History of my Misfortunes”). This is autobiography. The title is, of course, in the line of Augustine and his Confessions, but the importance is that the self-analysis is not made in the face of.
God – as in Augustine – -and always related to God; rather, the self-analysis is done in relation to himself, in relation to what he has experienced. Here the title itself reveals the danger, a danger in which we all live, as modern men. When Augustine speaks of confessions, then he relates himself to God, in looking at himself. If you speak of “misfortunes,” of “calamities,” then there s a resentful feeling left, and resentment is always a sign of subjectivity. This is supported by his tremendous ambition; by his lack of acknowledgment of others, for instance his teachers; by his continuous attacks on authorities; and by his personal ambition. All this was a very strong subjective character.
