Philosophy of Western Civilization; Philosophy of Law; Philosophy of Psychological Selflessness; Church History of Middle Ages, 600-1500; History of Papacy, to 1309; Historiography of Western Civilization; Spirituality
摘要
Part of a special issue in honor of W. Norris Clarke，S. J. The dynamism of Western civilization and the authority of its law can both be traced back to the papal reformation that occurred in Europe in the late 11th century. This spiritual revolution was based on a new explanation of human "lack" and how it is to be resolved. Contemporary incredulity regarding the significance of the papal reformation，meanwhile，is due to a misleading periodization of Western history that originated in the Renaissance. As Harold Berman's remarkable book Law and Revolution shows, the basic problem with Western law today is that it has lost its spiritual foundations, which we are not even aware of because we understand the law only in terms of its rational codification.
