Conflict between Abelard and St. Bernard

Bernard, in contrast, held to a simple (and therefore unquestioning) interpretation of faith; raising questions and complexities, in Bernard's view, could only lead to uncertainty and thence to doubt, while the insistent questioning of received authority threatened the entire structure, and therefore the (simple) teaching mission of the Church. In some respects, the difference between Abelard and Bernard can be regarded a conflict of the theoretical and the practical or political. In Abelard's view, every idea and every question was fair game for analysis. There is no reason to believe that his analysis led him anywhere in the end than back to a stronger orthodoxy. In his Confession of Faith, w

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at their spirituality and in the way that they expressed them than Heloise and St. Francis of Assisi. Yet each of them, in their very different ways, made significant contributions to the growth of the medieval Church, and their ways that their very different personalities and contributions were integrated into the fabric of the Church is powerful testimony to the power and flexibility of medieval Catholicism as both institution and system of faith. Heloise was that not infrequent figure in the Middle Ages, the unwilling nun, though the path by which she reached the cloister was anything but the usual one. Most women who were forced into convents got there because they were embarrassing or inconvenient to someone, or simply because their families either lacked a suitable dowry for them or judged them not sufficiently attractive to be marriageable. In a sense, it can be said that Heloise found herself in a novice's habit for the first of these reasons; Abelard first parked her in a convent as protection of a sort from Fulbert, then--for reasons not entirely clear--pressured her into taking vows (Letters 19-20). Whatever his intention, this was among other things likely the immediate reason for the revenge that Fulbert wrough
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Council Sens, Middle Ages, Benedictine Rule, Renaissance Italian, Francis Assisi, Church Fathers--must, Soissons Sens, Teresa Avila, Confession Faith, Abelard Bernard, francis assisi, medieval church, interpretation faith, st francis assisi, middle ages, sexual passion, god's fool, mystery complexity, st francis, confession faith, disappointed love,
Approximate Word count = 1805
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)