Description: The English Franciscan William of Ockham (c.1285-1347) was one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in late medieval Europe. Fresh scholarship has shown his profound impact on logic, metaphysics, epistemology and the philosophy of language in the late Middle Ages and beyond. Following a dispute between the papacy and his Order, Ockham abandoned his academic career and devoted himself to anti-papal polemics. Scholars have produced divergent and often contradictory interpretations of Ockham as a political thinker: a destructive critic of the medieval Church, a medieval Catholic traditionalist, the Franciscan ideologue, and a constitutional liberal. This 2007 book offers a fresh reappraisal of Ockham's political thought by approaching his anti-papal writings as a series of polemical responses. His aggressive and persistent attack on the papacy emerges in this study as an attempt to rescue the ethical foundations of the Christian society from the political influences of heretical popes.
Review Quotes: "Shogimen's careful readings and precise contextualization bring to the fore a full picture of an Ockham who has been only dimly viewed in the past. Serious scholars of medieval thought owe him a large debt of gratitude for writing a volume that will be read and debated for decades to come." -The Review of Politics, Cary J. Nederman