Ingeborg G. Gabriel

Abstract

　　Culture is a result of the human spirit, whereby people in a certain space realize their values. Thereby, no culture is an island but part of a universal humanity. Cultural exchange therefore constitutes a central as well as enriching feature of cultures. Relations between East and West have been marred by conflicts, but they have also brought forth fruitful exchange, when technical means for travel and communication allowed for it. The age of Marco Polo, the so called High Middle Ages, marks the first period of these contacts. At that time cultural developments took place in the West, which strongly influence developments to this day. For this reason, the period has been called the epoch of Early Modernity. In my contribution I take up three of the innovative transformations: a new relation with the material world which led to the development of natural sciences and technology, as well as economics and trade; a new civic city culture, first in Italian cities and then throughout Europe, based on deliberation and cooperation. These two transformations in turn were based on an enhanced understanding of the individual as imago Dei (image of God) with his/her specific capabilities, liberty and responsibility. Thus the time brought forth a sense of humanist and fraternal universalism as the ground on which bridges between cultures and religions can be built. Pope Francis put it at the heart of his encyclical Fratelli tutti in 2020.The transformations which took place in the age of Marco Polo thus merit intercultural reflections also today.

Figure 1: Miniature from manuscript 12th century, Austrian National Library Vienna.

INTRODUCTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIETIES

　　Cultures are physical spaces formed by people in the course of their history and thus the result of the human spirit. Together they present the whole of humanity. The aim of cultures is the common as well as for the individual good, which essentially constitutes a particular realization of values in time and space. Thereby no culture is an island. Intercultural contacts of different intensity belong to the history of humanity. They have grown immensely during the past decades, last but not least because of new technologies. Thus one universal humanity is no longer an abstract idea but an empirical reality. In this sense cultural particularity and human universality might be compared to two poles of an ellipse, which are both necessary.

　　The Venetian merchant Marco Polo was one of the first men to travel to China, more than 700 years ago. He brought back a wealth of information to Europe and his trip initiated fruitful and mutually enriching contacts. In his age, the so called High Middle Ages, cultural transformations took place in the West, which shape our world to this day. For this reason the renowned French Catholic theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu speaks of it as “Early Modernity”.^[1] It has been confirmed by recent historical research that it was in the 13^th century that central features of modernity took shape.^[2] This replaces the earlier hypothesis that the innovative period in European history was the age of national and religious wars starting in the 15^th century.^[3] But it was thus not war which primarily led to innovations but intercultural contacts. First, reinterpretations of antique Greek and Roman traditions and then those with other religions and cultures, e. g. Byzantium and the Arab world. They changed the face of Western societies. The main innovative processes of transformation thereby took place in the natural sciences, in technology and economics, in civic city culture and in a new view of the dignity and potentials of the individual as imago Dei. They also furthered a universalist, humanistic worldview which was ready to open up to other cultures. In this paper I will reflect on these three transformations, which merit a closer look, last but not least because they continue to be present in global culture.

THREE MAJOR CULTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN EUROPE IN THE 12TH/13TH CENTURY

　　During the High Middle Ages (12^th-13^th century) Europe step by step emerged from an extensive period of tribal invasions (since the 5^th century) which had led to massive cultural deterioration. After the implosion of the Roman empire and civilization it took centuries until a synthesis of its heritage with tribal cultures was successful.^[4] During the period of political and cultural instability and wars, the Catholic Church constituted practically the sole functioning institution in Western Europe. It transmitted the classical Greek and Roman philosophical as well as legal traditions to the peoples, whereby monasteries played an important role. We can speak of a slow but persistent merging of three cultural pillars: Judeo-Christian foundations, Greek philosophy (including ethics) and Roman law reinterpreted for the emerging medieval society.^[5]

First Transformation: Empirical Science and Technology - Laws of Nature and the Cosmic Order

　　During the 12^th century a revolution in the sphere of knowledge took place. Central institutions to accomplish it were the then newly founded universities. Their task was – as the name universitas indicates – to research on and teach all the knowledge available at the time.^[6] The re-discovery of the writings of Aristotle which had partly been lost in the West and were brought to it through cultural exchange with the by now Islamic Arab world, played a decisive role in this process. The aim thereby was to gain knowledge about the physical nature through objective observation. Theologically this new interest was grounded in the belief that God manifests himself also in the laws of nature. Research thus became a noble endeavour in itself but also for the benefit of humans,^[7] stimulating progress in natural sciences and technology.^[8] Law thereby has and had a double meaning pertaining to the different spheres of physical nature and of society.^[9] The way the relationship between the two, the laws of nature and the cosmos and the laws of society, is defined, is fundamental for the self-understanding of any culture. They obviously differ, but are also interrelated. According to the Christian belief the cosmic, i. e. natural laws, has been created by God, thus being of divine origin. This is depicted in a miniature from the 13^th century which shows God with a circle. Hardly any other biblical citation was as prominent in medieval texts as a sentence from the Book of Wisdom, stating that God ordered: “omnia in mensura et numero et pondere” (in measure and number and weight) (Wisdom 11.21).^[10] Hand in hand with it went the belief that humans are not objects of the unfathomable whims of nature, but recipients and beneficiaries of a universe created by a benevolent God. It led to a de-sacralisation (disenchantment according to Max Weber) of nature as well as to a new self-assuredness of humans. The discovery of empirical realities can inter alia be observed in the paintings starting with the 13^th century which step by step replaced the golden background by naturalistic presentations of nature and people. Innovations in Gothic architecture, as the vault, allow for larger windows and thus bring more light to the room. Saints like Francis of Assisi furthered this view of nature by making it the theme of poetry. The list of novelties this transformation brought about, could be prolonged.

Figure 2: Man created as imago Dei. Relief on the Porte of the Cathedral of Chartres, 13^th century.

Second Transformation: Civic City Culture and Early Capitalism

　　The emphasis on physical reality was coupled with a second transformation which pertained to society. Also societies function according to laws. The philosophical idea of natural law, taken from antiquity, was refined and theologized. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1275) developed a three level model for this. Thereby the lex aeterna (eternal law) as the order created by God is complemented by the lex naturalis (natural law) as the natural order to be understood by the human mind. Because of human imperfection this understanding, however, remains imperfect. It is made practical in the lex humana (positive law), i. e. in the laws governing the social and political order. They remain, because of their lack of perfection, open to criticism based on the insights of the natural and eternal law.

　　This model gave a more active role to humans. Societies and with it the human lot could and should be improved through better laws. This period also saw a new emphasis on ethics, treating questions of human behavior and virtues. Human actors who in more complex societies have to deal with a wide range of issues need orientation, how to act so as to do justice to others and to God. Whereas the laws of nature are based on physical causality, this obviously is not the case of human relations. There the free will and situational particularities require a different, ethical rationality subject to continuous philosophical and political debates.^[11]

　　These took place in the developing civic city culture. For the first time since the Roman age, organizational structures for voting and debate were established at a wider scale. This required a legal order in accordance with human nature. The insight that laws are not predetermined, but are a subject of knowledge and are to be understood by human minds led to major political and social innovations, also based on the re-discovery of Greek ethics of participation and democracy. In this period city councils are established, first in Northern Italy, the home of Marco Polo and later all over Europe. There debates took place and decisions of importance for the community were made. This process of political emancipation happened in a continuous struggle with feudal lords. Nevertheless, city councils became embryonic places of political freedom and initiated long-term changes in civic culture. According to the sociologist Robert Putnam, the effects of this can be felt till this day looking at standards of development which still exist in Italy between the North and the South, which was governed by feudal lords.^[12] In this second transformation the universities, mainly faculties of law (Bologna since 1088) furthered a culture of dialogue and argument which also was independent from political overlords and the Church.

　　The age of Marco Polo was also the age of nascent far distance trade and of what has been called early capitalism, the consequences of which were ambivalent. Corporations between artisans were founded and economic activities furthered. Wealthy merchants established themselves as powerful actors. But there was also an increase in material inequality and pauperization. St. Francis, the saint of the age, called attention to these drawbacks by living a life of strict poverty and founding the mendicant order of Franciscans which was to be, last but not least, a prophetic critic of ostentatious forms of wealth in the society and in the Church.

Third Transformation: Universal Humanism and First Steps Towards the Discovery of the Globe

　　Human culture develops in finite physical and social spaces - the family, the clan, the country and religious communities. They are particular, not universal. Encounters with humans from other cultures, however, made people always ask about their status. Were they fully, or only partly human? Greek culture defined humans as those having the word (logon echon), i. e. those who spoke a language to be understood by oneself and which classified them as rational beings. Differences in language thus led to the cultural perception that those we are not able to talk to are only partly human. They are “barbarians” who babble, thus the Greek word.^[13] All cultures, however, also develop ideas of universality. In Christianity the belief in the equality of all humans is based on their being created in the image of God. (The image of man beside God from the Cathedral of Chartres in France depicts this belief). Humans and the transcendent God are even more intimately linked through incarnation, e. g. God becoming human in Jesus Christ. The fundamental questions: What is the position of man in the universe is thus answered in a specific way, which ascertains the universality of the human kind and stresses the universality of the laws of nature, technology and society. This furthered encounters with other lands and opened new parts for the discovery of the globe. Early modernity thus brought forth an empirical and practical universalism. It led to a perception that despite the fact of different languages humans have more in common than what divides them. That the differences of cultures and religions have a common basis in human nature and thus can also become a source of enrichment and innovation.

Summing up

　　In the age of Marco Polo several long term cultural developments begin in the West. Though the transformations, I described in short, took shape in a partly still chaotic political and social environment, they constituted a considerable progress which furthered human life through technical and scientific means and political institutions increasing the spaces for cultural development. Contacts with other cultures, often superior in many fields, furthered this process of advancement, which to this day shapes our perception of the world. As all true innovations they became a common heritage of humanity, even if today we must reflect how science and technology, civic culture and human self-consciousness can be developed further in a way that truly benefit humans. This global question is of philosophical as well as practical relevance. It has to be asked and answered by each age building on diverse traditions. There exists no “abstract universalism”, as Pope Francis wrote, nor are cultures divided by cleavages that cannot be transgressed. The encounter with other cultures is thus a fact of life, but also a means of enrichment to better understand the world. As the renowned French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss therefore once wrote: “The only thing which can be really detrimental and even fatal for a group of humans and which will not allow them to develop their full nature, is to be alone” (translation I. G.).^[14]

^[1]Chenu (1966), (p. 390).

^[2]Grzymala-Busse (2020).

^[3]This hypothesis underpins Vandermeersch (2004). His contribution contains inspiring insights on Chinese law and ritual. European history for him starts with the contract theory of Hobbes omitting its Greek, Roman and Christian roots, Hobbes’ homo homini lupus (man is a wolf to man) constitutes but a provocative antithesis to Aristotle’s homo homini amicus et socius (man is a friend and consort for man).

^[4]The life and institutions of Late Antiquity are admirably described in Brown (2012).

^[5]This process of transmission is described in detail by Jürgen Habermas (2019), (pp. 617-758). 

^[6]“The university as a form of social organization, was specific for medieval Europe. Makdisi (1970) (p. 258).

^[7]According to Congar (1960) (p. 77).

^[8]Taylor (2009) writes: “The great invention of the West was that of an immanent order in nature, whose working could be systematically understood and explained in its own terms”. (p. 15).

^[9]According to Oakley (2005) the distance between nature as creation and the creator (and consequently between nature and humans as co-creators) opens the way to active human participation. The Greek view of nature was that of an intelligent organism saturated and permeated by the mind (p. 38).

^[10]Curtius (1948) p.495. I thank Leopold Leeb for this information.

^[11]The distinction of two rationalities can already be found in Aristotle NE II 2: 1104a.

^[12]Putnam (1994).

^[13]According to the anthropologist Mircea Eliade cultures in general depart from a notion that puts them at the center of the world, Eliade (1986) (pp. 29-64).

^[14]Levi-Strauss (1961), (p. 73).

Ingeborg G. Gabriel, University of Vienna.

REFERENCES

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