During the thousand-year span of the Middle Ages, philosophers discussed the eternal questions of mankind within the most unified society known to Western culture, linked by a single religious faith which encompassed all European life. Inside this framework, scholars drew upon Greek thought and Christian revelation, exploring the nature of being, the problem of fate versus free will, and various views of ultimate reality. This perceptive book by a noted author and critic traces the great arguments of Medieval philosophy through the writings of major thinkers like St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Boethius and Abelard.