Robert Holcot’s quodlibetal question, Utrum theologia sit scientia (Muckle (ed) 1958), is a detailed investigation into the scientific nature of theology. The Scholastic authors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries debated the question of whether theology is a practical or speculative science, or whether it was primarily deductive or declarative, but they tended to agree that it was a science. Holcot, breaking with tradition, concludes that theology is not a science per se, if scientia is understood strictly as demonstrable knowledge. That is, theological truths - such as the existence of God - are not demonstrable by the viator in this life. Holcot, following William of Ockham, argued against the traditional proofs for the existence of God as developed by earlier theologians such as Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and John Duns Scotus. Holcot argues that human reason cannot demonstrate the existence of God; and while Holcot quickly dismisses arguments based on empirical premises (i. e., cosmological argument), he devotes more attention to Anselm’s ontological argument.
Beyond the question of the scientific nature of theology, fourteenth-century theologians were increasingly concerned with the applicability of Aristotelian logic to certain revealed theological truths (such as the Trinity and the Incarnation). The medieval Scholastics generally agreed that Aristotle’s logic was universally valid, and corresponded to natural reason. But, in certain instances there was a tension, or conflict, between Aristotelian syllogisms and particular doctrines. In Determinatio X Holcot considers various syllogisms regarding the Trinity that prove particularly problematic (Gelber 1974:381-443). There he considers the following expository syllogism (a third figure syllogism with a singular middle term):
Essentia est Pater (The Divine Essence is the Father) Essentia est Filius (The Divine Essence is the Son)
Ergo, Filius est Pater. (Therefore, the Son is the Father)
The problem, of course, is that the individual propositions are true and the conclusion is false, despite the seemingly valid syllogistic form. Medieval authors had proposed various solutions to the problem - that is, Ockham denied that a term that is simultaneously one thing and many things (essentia above) is a singular term - but Holcot rejected such solutions that are grounded in positing a ‘‘real,’’ ‘‘conceptual,’’ or ‘‘formal’’ distinction between the Divine Essence and the Persons of the Trinity. Instead, he followed Richard Campsall in developing a theory of alternative logic.
Holcot argues in his commentary on the Sentences I.5 and in Determinatio X that there is a twofold logic that applies to all of reality: the logica naturalis (logic of nature/ natural order) and logica fidei (logic of faith). Because of this argument, Robert Holcot, along with the author of the Centiloquium Theologicum and Richard Campsall, are often considered ‘‘skeptics’’ with respect to the relationship between faith and reason. But, as Fritz Hoffman and Hester Gelber have argued, the charge of skepticism is unjustly applied to Holcot.
Holcot did not reject Aristotelian logic (logica naturalis) or deny that the Trinity can be understood rationally according to particular logical rules. The problem, according to Holcot, is that Aristotle’s logic is not universal; the Divine Trinity and Incarnation are revealed realities that Aristotle did not know about, and therefore did not take into account in his logical works. But, from this it does not follow that the logic of faith is irrational, and in fact Holcot argues that it is fitting (non est inconveniens) that natural logic is inapplicable to the Trinity given that faith concerns realities that transcend the physical world (Sent. I, q. 5, f. 2ra). Instead, Holcot proposes various rules for excluding middle terms that can stand for one thing and many things simultaneously in an expository syllogism. These rules of faith (logica fidei) are logical, grounded on reason, and offer a ‘‘supplemental logic’’ that is applicable to trinitarian syllogisms.
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