Roczniki Filozoficzne

Volume 50, Issue 3, 2002

Agnieszka Kijewska
Pages 53-67

The Problem of Genesis in the Mediaeval Philosophy
the Genesis of the World according to the Book of Genesis

In the Middle Ages the problem of the beginning (genesis) of the world was studied in the context of an analysis of the Book of Genesis. The Biblical text was interpreted in a way that would be compatible with the reading of Plato’s Timeus. The article focuses on two mediaeval thinkers, Eriugena and Thierry of Chartres, who conducted this sort of research. Both Eriugena’s Periphyseon and Thierry’s treatise De sex dierum operibus belong to the genre of hexaemeron, that is commentaries on the Genesis. An analysis of early mediaeval hexaemerons provides an excellent opportunity to explore these keystone points of mediaeval culture which lie at the cross-roads of philosophy, science and biblical exegesis.