Author Description

Between Robert Grosseteste, the founding father of the Oxford Schools and Duns Scotus, its most famous pupil, many gifted minds contributed to the notable body of theological scholarship that emanated from Oxford's Halls. Among them, Richard Rufus, the first Franciscan theologian at Oxford, embarked on a new path from Grosseteste's work and developed many revolutionary ideas about the contingency of the universe and the unlimited freedom of God. This work explores the question of why Grosseteste and Rufus held certain opinions, and shows that their differing outlooks contributed greatly to the heated debate on relations between the sacred and the profane, an issue of prominence in European culture of the Middle Ages.