Peter Abelard’s ‘Topical Exegesis’ in the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (11, 16–24)
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Abstract
Although many scholars have stressed the dialectical structure of Peter Abelard’s theological works, the total absence of studies concerning the use of dialectical topics into his theological discourse is surprising. Therefore, this study aims to draw attention on this specific aspect of Abelard’s theological works, in order to illustrate the way in which the dialectical topics, exposed in a logical context, were subsequently put into service of the Sacred Scripture to explore its sense. My conclusions are that the ‘topical exegesis’ represents the space of autonomy assigned to human reason in search of a foundation, if not rational at least reasonable, of the high degree of verisimilitude of Revelation’s content.
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