... going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way

a week passed without sophie hearing from alberto knox. there were no more postcards from lebanon either, although she and joanna still talked about the cards they found in the major's cabin. joanna had had the fright of her life, but as nothing further seemed to hap-pen, the immediate terror faded and was submerged in homework and badminton.

sophie read alberto's letters over and over, looking for some clue that would throw light on the hilde mystery. doing so also gave her plenty of opportunity to digest the classical philosophy. she no longer had difficulty in distinguishing democritus and socrates, or plato and aristotle, from each other.

on friday, may 25, she was in the kitchen fixing dinner before her mother got home. it was their regular friday agreement. today she was making fish soup with fish balls and carrots. plain and simple.

outside it was becoming windy. as sophie stood stirring the casserole she turned toward the window. the birch trees were waving like cornstalks.

suddenly something smacked against the window-pane. sophie turned around again and discovered a card sticking to the window.

it was a postcard. she could read it through the glass: "hilde moller knag, c/o sophie amundsen."

she thought as much! she opened the window and took the card. it could hardly have blown all the way from lebanon!

this card was also dated june 15. sophie removed the casserole from the stove and sat down at the kitchen table. the card read:

dear hilde, i don't know whether it will still be your birthday when you read this card. i hope so, in a way; or at least that not too many days have gone by. a week or two for sophie does not have to mean just as long for us. i shall be coming home for midsummer eve, so we can sit together for hours in the glider, looking out over the sea, hilde. we have so much to talk about. love from dad, who sometimes gets very depressed about the thousand-year-long strife between jews, christians, and muslims. i have to keep reminding myself that all three religions stem from abraham. so i suppose they all pray to the same god. down here, cain and abel have not finished killing each other.

p.s. please say hello to sophie. poor child, she still doesn't know how this whole thing hangs together. but perhaps you do?

sophie put her head down on the table, exhausted. one thing was certain--she had no idea how this thing hung together. but hilde did, presumably.

if hilde's father asked her to say hello to sophie, it had to mean that hilde knew more about sophie than sophie did about hilde. it was all so complicated that sophie went back to fixing dinner.

a postcard that smacked against the kitchen window all by itself! you could call that airmail!

as soon as she had set the casserole on the stove again, the telephone rang.

suppose it was dad! she wished desperately that he would come home so she could tell him everything that had happened in these last weeks. but it was probably only joanna or mom. sophie snatched up the phone.

"sophie amundsen," she said.

"it's me," said a voice.

sophie was sure of three things: it was not her father. but it was a man's voice, and a voice she knew she had heard before.

"who is this?"

"it's alberto."

"ohhh!"

sophie was at a loss for words. it was the voice from the acropolis video that she had recognized.

"are you all right?"

"sure."

"from now on there will be no more letters."

"but i didn't send you a frog!"

"we must meet in person. it's beginning to be urgent, you see."

"why?"

"hilde's father is closing in on us."

"closing in how?"

"on all sides, sophie. we have to work together now."

"how...?"

"but you can't help much before i have told you about the middle ages. we ought to cover the renaissance and the seventeenth century as well. berkeley is a key figure..."

"wasn't he the man in the picture at the major's cabin?"

"that very same. maybe the actual struggle will be waged over his philosophy."

"you make it sound like a war."

"i would rather call it a battle of wills. we have to attract hilde's attention and get her over on our side before her father comes home to lillesand."

"i don't get it at all."

"perhaps the philosophers can open your eyes. meet me at st. mary's church at eight o'clock tomorrow morning. but come alone, my child."

"so early in the morning?"

the telephone clicked.

"hello?"

he had hung up! sophie rushed back to the stove just before the fish soup boiled over.

st. mary's church? that was an old stone church from the middle ages. it was only used for concerts and very special ceremonies. and in the summer it was sometimes open to tourists. but surely it wasn't open in the middle of the night?

when her mother got home, sophie had put the card from lebanon with everything else from alberto and hilde. after dinner she went over to joanna's place.

"we have to make a very special arrangement," she said as soon as her friend opened the door.

she said no more until joanna had closed her bedroom door.

"it's rather problematic," sophie went on.

"spit it out!"

"i'm going to have to tell mom that i'm staying the night here."

"great!"

"but it's only something i'm saying, you see. i've got to go somewhere else."

"that's bad. is it a guy?"

"no, it's to do with hilde."

joanna whistled softly, and sophie looked her severely in the eye.

"i'm coming over this evening," she said, "but at seven o'clock i've got to sneak out again. you've got to cover for me until i get back."

"but where are you going? what is it you have to do?"

"sorry. my lips are sealed."

sleepovers were never a problem. on the contrary, almost. sometimes sophie got the impression that her mother enjoyed having the house to herself.

"you'll be home for breakfast, i suppose?" was her mother's only remark as sophie left the house.

"if i'm not, you know where i am."

what on earth made her say that? it was the one weak spot.

sophie's visit began like any other sleepover, with talk until late into the night. the only difference was that when they finally settled down to sleep at about two o'clock, sophie set the alarm clock to a quarter to seven.

five hours later, joanna woke briefly as sophie switched off the buzzer.

"take care," she mumbled.

then sophie was on her way. st. mary's church lay on the outskirts of the old part of town. it was several miles walk away, but even though she had only slept for a few hours she felt wide awake.

it was almost eight o'clock when she stood at the entrance to the old stone church. sophie tried the massive door. it was unlocked!

inside the church it was as deserted and silent as the church was old. a bluish light filtered in through the stained-glass windows revealing a myriad of tiny particles of dust hovering in the air. the dust seemed to gather in thick beams this way and that inside the church. sophie sat on one of the benches in the center of the nave, staring toward the altar at an old crucifix painted with muted colors.

some minutes passed. suddenly the organ began to play. sophie dared not look around. it sounded like an ancient hymn, probably from the middle ages.

there was silence again. then she heard footsteps approaching from behind her. should she look around? she chose instead to fix her eyes on the cross.

the footsteps passed her on their way up the aisle and she saw a figure dressed in a brown monk's habit. sophie could have sworn it was a monk right out of the middle ages.

she was nervous, but not scared out of her wits. in front of the altar the monk turned in a half-circle and then climbed up into the pulpit. he leaned over the edge, looked down at sophie, and addressed her in latin:

"gloria patri, et filio, et spiritui sancto. sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper et in saecula saeculorum. amen."

"talk sense, silly!" sophie burst out.

her voice resounded all around the old stone church.

although she realized that the monk had to be alberto knox, she regretted her outburst in this venerable place of worship. but she had been nervous, and when you're nervous its comforting to break all taboos.

"shhh!" alberto held up one hand as priests do when they want the congregation to be seated. "middle ages began at four," he said. "middle ages began at four?" asked sophie, feeling stupid but no longer nervous. "about four o'clock, yes. and then it was five and six and seven. but it was as if time stood still. and it got to be eight and nine and ten. but it was still the middle ages, you see. time to get up to a new day, you may think. yes, i see what you mean. but it is still sunday, one long endless row of sundays. and it got to be eleven and twelve and thirteen. this was the period we call the high gothic, when the great cathedrals of europe were built. and then, some time around fourteen hours, at two in the afternoon, a cock crowed--and the middle ages began to ebb away." "so the middle ages lasted for ten hours then," said sophie. alberto thrust his head forward out of the brown monk's cowl and surveyed his congregation, which consisted of a fourteen-year-old girl.

"if each hour was a hundred years, yes. we can pretend that jesus was born at midnight. paul began his missionary journeys just before half past one in the morning and died in rome a quarter of an hour later. around three in the morning the christian church was more or less banned, but by a.d. 313 it was an accepted religion in the roman empire. that was in the reign of the emperor constantine. the holy emperor himself was first baptized on his deathbed many years later. from the year 380 christianity was the official religion throughout the entire roman empire."

"didn't the roman empire fall?" "it was just beginning to crumble. we are standing before one of the greatest changes in the history of culture. rome in the fourth century was being threatened both by barbarians pressing in from the north and by disintegration from within. in a.d. 330 constantine the great moved the capital of the empire from rome to constantinople, the city he had founded at the approach to the black sea. many people considered the new city the "second rome." in 395 the roman empire was divided in two--a western empire with rome as its center, and an eastern empire with the new city of constantinople as its capital. rome was plundered by bar-barians in 410, and in 476 the whole of the western empire was destroyed. the eastern empire continued to exist as a state right up until 1453 when the turks conquered constantinople."

"and its name got changed to istanbul?"

"that's right! istanbul is its latest name. another date we should notice is 529. that was the year when the church closed plato's academy in athens. in the same year, the benedictine order, the first of the great monastic orders, was founded. the year 529 thus became a symbol of the way the christian church put the lid on greek philosophy. from then on, monasteries had the monopoly of education, reflection, and meditation. the clock was ticking toward half past five ..."

sophie saw what alberto meant by all these times. midnight was 0, one o'clock was 100 years after christ, six o'clock was 600 years after christ, and 14 hours was 1,400 years after christ...

alberto continued: "the middle ages actually means the period between two other epochs. the expression arose during the renaissance. the dark ages, as they were also called, were seen then as one interminable thousand-year-long night which had settled over europe between antiquity and the renaissance. the word 'medieval' is used negatively nowadays about anything that is over-authoritative and inflexible. but many historians now consider the middle ages to have been a thousand-year period of germination and growth. the school system, for instance, was developed in the middle ages. the first convent schools were opened quite early on in the period, and cathedral schools followed in the twelfth century. around the year 1200 the first universities were founded, and the subjects to be studied were grouped into various 'faculties,' just as they are today."

"a thousand years is a really long time."

"yes, but christianity took time to reach the masses. moreover, in the course of the middle ages the various nation-states established themselves, with cities and citizens, folk music and folktales. what would fairy tales and folk songs have been without the middle ages? what would europe have been, even? a roman province, perhaps. yet the resonance in such names as england, france, or germany is the very same boundless deep we call the middle ages. there are many shining fish swimming around in those depths, although we do not always catch sight of them. snorri lived in the middle ages. so did saint olaf and charlemagne, to say nothing of romeo and juliet, joan of arc, ivanhoe, the pied piper of hamelin, and many mighty princes and majestic kings, chivalrous knights and fair damsels, anonymous stained-glass window makers and ingenious organ builders. and i haven't even mentioned friars, crusaders, or witches."

"you haven't mentioned the clergy, either."

"correct. christianity didn't come to norway, by the way, until the eleventh century. it would be an exaggeration to say that the nordic countries converted to christianity at one fell swoop. ancient heathen beliefs persisted under the surface of christianity, and many of these pre-christian elements became integrated with christianity. in scandinavian christmas celebrations, for example, christian and old norse customs are wedded even to this day. and here the old saying applies, that married folk grow to resemble each other. yuletide cookies, yuletide piglets, and yuletide ale begin to resemble the three wise men from the orient and the manger in bethlehem. but without doubt, christianity gradually became the predominant philosophy of life. therefore we usually speak of the middle ages as being a unifying force of christian culture."

"so it wasn't all gloom, then?"

"the first centuries after the year 400 really were a cultural decline. the roman period had been a high culture, with big cities that had sewers, public baths, and libraries, not to mention proud architecture. in the early centuries of the middle ages this entire culture crum-bled. so did its trade and economy. in the middle ages people returned to payment in kind and bartering. the economy was now characterized by feudalism, which meant that a few powerful nobles owned the land, which the serfs had to toil on in order to live. the population also declined steeply in the first centuries. rome had over a million inhabitants in antiquity. but by 600, the population of the old roman capital had fallen to 40,000, a mere fraction of what it had been. thus a relatively small population was left to wander among what remained of the majestic edifices of the city's former glory. when they needed building materials, there were plenty of ruins to supply them. this is naturally a source of great sorrow to present-day archeologists, who would rather have seen medieval man leave the ancient monuments untouched."

"it's easy to know better after the fact."

"from a political point of view, the roman period was already over by the end of the fourth century. however, the bishop of rome became the supreme head of the roman catholic church. he was given the title 'pope'--in latin 'papa,' which means what it says-- and gradually became looked upon as christ's deputy on earth. rome was thus the christian capital throughout most of the medieval period. but as the kings and bishops of the new nation-states became more and more powerful, some of them were bold enough to stand up to the might of the church."

"you said the church closed plato's academy in athens. does that mean that all the greek philosophers were forgotten?"

"not entirely. some of the writings of aristotle and plato were known. but the old roman empire was gradually divided into three different cultures. in western europe we had a latinized christian culture with rome as its capital. in eastern europe we had a greek christian culture with constantinople as its capital. this city began to be called by its greek name, byzantium. we therefore speak of the byzantine middle ages as opposed to the roman catholic middle ages. however, north africa and the middle east had also been part of the roman empire. this area developed during the middle ages into an arabic-speaking muslim culture. after the death of muhammad in 632, both the middle east and north africa were won over to islam. shortly thereafter, spain also became part of the world of islamic culture. islam adopted mecca, medina, jerusalem, and bagdad as holy cities. from the point of view of cultural history, it is interesting to note that the arabs also took over the ancient hellenistic city of alexandria. thus much of the old greek science was inherited by the arabs. all through the middle ages, the arabs were predominant hi sciences such as mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine. nowadays we still use arabic figures. in a number of areas arabic culture was superior to christian culture."

"i wanted to know what happened to greek philosophy."

"can you imagine a broad river that divides for a while into three different streams before it once again becomes one great wide river?"

"yes."

"then you can also see how the greco-roman culture was divided, but survived through the three cultures: the roman catholic in the west, the byzantine in the east, and the arabic in the south. although it's greatly oversimplified, we could say that neoplatonism was handed down in the west, plato in the east, and aristotle to the arabs in the south. but there was also something of them all in all three streams. the point is that at the end of the middle ages, all three streams came together in northern italy. the arabic influence came from the arabs in spain, the greek influence from greece and the byzantine empire. and now we see the beginning of the renaissance, the 'rebirth' of antique culture. in one sense, antique culture had survived the dark ages."

"i see."

"but let us not anticipate the course of events. we mast first talk a little about medieval philosophy. i shall not speak from this pulpit any more. i'm coming down."

sophie's eyes were heavy from too little sleep. when she saw the strange monk descending from the pulpit of st. mary's church, she felt as if she were dreaming.

alberto walked toward the altar rail. he looked up at the altar with its ancient crucifix, then he walked slowly toward sophie. he sat down beside her on the bench of the pew.

it was a strange feeling, being so close to him. under his cowl sophie saw a pair of deep brown eyes. they belonged to a middle-aged man with dark hair and a little pointed beard. who are you, she wondered. why have you turned my life upside down?

"we shall become better acquainted by and by," he said, as if he had read her thoughts.

as they sat there together, with the light that filtered into the church through the stained-glass windows becoming sharper and sharper, alberto knox began to talk about medieval philosophy.

"the medieval philosophers took it almost for granted that christianity was true," he began. "the question was whether we must simply believe the christian revelation or whether we can approach the christian truths with the help of reason. what was the relationship between the greek philosophers and what the bible said? was there a contradiction between the bible and reason, or were belief and knowledge compatible? almost all medieval philosophy centered on this one question."

sophie nodded impatiently. she had been through this in her religion class.

"we shall see how the two most prominent medieval philosophers dealt with this question, and we might as well begin with st. augustine, who lived from 354 to 430. in this one person's life we can observe the actual transition from late antiquity to the early middle ages. augustine was born in the little town of tagaste in north africa. at the age of sixteen he went to carthage to study. later he traveled to rome and milan, and lived the last years of his life in the town of hippo, a few miles west of carthage. however, he was not a christian all his life. augustine examined several different religions and philosophies before he became a christian."

"could you give some examples?"

"for a time he was a manichaean. the manichaeans were a religious sect that was extremely characteristic of late antiquity. their doctrine was half religion and half philosophy, asserting that the world consisted of a dualism of good and evil, light and darkness, spirit and matter. with his spirit, mankind could rise above the world of matter and thus prepare for the salvation of his soul. but this sharp division between good and evil gave the young augustine no peace of mind. he was completely preoccupied with what we like to call the 'problem of evil.' by this we mean the question of where evil comes from. for a time he was influenced by stoic philosophy, and according to the stoics, there was no sharp division between good and evil. however, his principal leanings were toward the other significant philosophy of late antiquity, neoplatonism. here he came across the idea that all existence is divine in nature."

"so he became a neoplatonic bishop?"

"yes, you could say that. he became a christian first, but the christianity of st. augustine is largely influenced by platonic ideas. and therefore, sophie, therefore you have to understand that there is no dramatic break with greek philosophy the minute we enter the christian middle ages. much of greek philosophy was carried over to the new age through fathers of the church like st. augustine."

"do you mean that st. augustine was half christian and half neoplatonist?"

"he himself believed he was a hundred-percent christian although he saw no real contradiction between christianity and the philosophy of plato. for him, the similarity between plato and the christian doctrine was so apparent that he thought plato must have had knowl-edge of the old testament. this, of course, is highly improbable. let us rather say that it was st. augustine who 'christianized' plato."

"so he didn't turn his back on everything that had to do with philosophy when he started believing in christianity?"

"no, but he pointed out that there are limits to how far reason can get you in religious questions. christianity is a divine mystery that we can only perceive through faith. but if we believe in christianity, god will 'illuminate' the soul so that we experience a sort of supernatural knowledge of god. st. augustine had felt within himself that there was a limit to how far philosophy could go. not before he became a christian did he find peace in his own soul. 'our heart is not quiet until it rests in thee,' he writes."

"i don't quite understand how plato's ideas could go together with christianity," sophie objected. "what about the eternal ideas?"

"well, st. augustine certainly maintains that god created the world out of the void, and that was a biblical idea. the greeks preferred the idea that the world had always existed. but st. augustine believed that before god created the world, the 'ideas' were in the divine mind. so he located the platonic ideas in god and in that way preserved the platonic view of eternal ideas."

"that was smart."

"but it indicates how not only st. augustine but many of the other church fathers bent over backward to bring greek and jewish thought together. in a sense they were of two cultures. augustine also inclined to neoplatonism in his view of evil. he believed, like plotinus, that evil is the 'absence of god.' evil has no independent existence, it is something that is not, for god's creation is in fact only good. evil comes from mankind's disobedience, augustine believed. or, in his own words, 'the good will is god's work; the evil will is the falling away from god's work.' "

"did he also believe that man has a divine soul?"

"yes and no. st. augustine maintained that there is an insurmountable barrier between god and the world. in this he stands firmly on biblical ground, rejecting the doctrine of plotinus that everything is one. but he nevertheless emphasizes that man is a spiritual being. he has a material body--which belongs to the physical world which 'moth and rust doth corrupt'--but he also has a soul which can know god."

"what happens to the soul when we die?"

"according to st. augustine, the entire human race was lost after the fall of man. but god nevertheless decided that certain people should be saved from perdition."

"in that case, god could just as well have decided that everybody should be saved."

"as far as that goes, st. augustine denied that man has any right to criticize god, referring to paul's epistle to the romans: 'o man, who art thou that replies! against god? shall the thing formed say to him that formed it; why hast thou made me thus? or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?' "

"so god sits up in his heaven playing with people? and as soon as he is dissatisfied with one of his creations, he just throws it away."

"st. augustine's point was that no man deserves god's redemption. and yet god has chosen some to be saved from damnation, so for him there was nothing secret about who will be saved and who damned. it is preordained. we are entirely at his mercy."

"so in a way, he returned to the old belief in fate."

"perhaps. but st. augustine did not renounce man's responsibility for his own life. he taught that we must live in awareness of being among the chosen. he did not deny that we have free will. but god has 'foreseen' how we will live."

"isn't that rather unfair?" asked sophie. "socrates said that we all had the same chances because we all had the same common sense. but st. augustine divides people into two groups. one group gets saved and the other gets damned."

"you are right in that st. augustine's theology is considerably removed from the humanism of athens. but st. augustine wasn't dividing humanity into two groups. he was merely expounding the biblical doctrine of salvation and damnation. he explained this in a learned work called the city of god."

"tell me about that."

"the expression 'city of god,' or 'kingdom of god,' comes from the bible and the teachings of jesus. st. augustine believed that all human history is a struggle between the 'kingdom of god' and the 'kingdom of the world.' the two 'kingdoms' are not political kingdoms distinct from each other. they struggle for mastery inside every single person. nevertheless, the kingdom of god is more or less clearly present in the church, and the kingdom of the world is present in the state--for example, in the roman empire, which was in decline at the time of st. augustine. this conception became increasingly clear as church and state fought for supremacy throughout the middle ages. there is no salvation outside the church,' it was now said. st. augustine's 'city of god' eventually became identical with the es-tablished church. not until the reformation in the sixteenth century was there any protest against the idea that people could only obtain salvation through the church."

"it was about time!"

"we can also observe that st. augustine was the first philosopher we have come across to draw history into his philosophy. the struggle between good and evil was by no means new. what was new was that for augustine the struggle was played out in history. there is not much of plato in this aspect of st. augustine's work. he was more influenced by the linear view of history as we meet it in the old testament: the idea that god needs all of history in order to realize his kingdom of god. history is necessary for the enlightenment of man and the de-struction of evil. or, as st. augustine put it, 'divine foresight directs the history of mankind from adam to the end of time as if it were the story of one man who gradually develops from childhood to old age.' "

sophie looked at her watch. "it's ten o'clock," she said. "i'll have to go soon."

"but first i must tell you about the other great medieval philosopher. shall we sit outside?"

alberto stood up. he placed the palms of his hands together and began to stride down the aisle. he looked as if he was praying or meditating deeply on some spiritual truth. sophie followed him; she felt she had no choice.

the sun had not yet broken through the morning clouds. alberto seated himself on a bench outside the church. sophie wondered what people would think if anyone came by. sitting on a church bench at ten in the morning was odd in itself, and sitting with a medieval monk wouldn't make things look any better.

"it is eight o'clock," he began. "about four hundred years have elapsed since st. augustine, and now school starts. from now until ten o'clock, convent schools will have the monopoly on education. between ten and eleven o'clock the first cathedral schools will be founded, followed at noon by the first universities. the great gothic cathedrals will be built at the same time. this church, too, dates from the 1200s--or what we call the high gothic period. in this town they couldn't afford a large cathedral."

"they didn't need one," sophie said. "i hate empty churches."

"ah, but the great cathedrals were not built only for large congregations. they were built to the glory of god and were in themselves a kind of religious celebration. however, something else happened during this period which has special significance for philosophers like us."

alberto continued: "the influence of the arabs of spain began to make itself felt. throughout the middle ages, the arabs had kept the aristotelian tradition alive, and from the end of the twelfth century, arab scholars began to arrive in northern italy at the invitation of the nobles. many of aristotle's writings thus became known and were translated from greek and arabic into latin. this created a new interest in the natural sciences and infused new life into the question of the christian revelation's relationship to greek philosophy. aristotle could obviously no longer be ignored in matters of science, but when should one attend to aristotle the phi-losopher, and when should one stick to the bible? do you see?"

sophie nodded, and the monk went on:

"the greatest and most significant philosopher of this period was st. thomas aquinas, who lived from 1225 to 1274. he came from the little town of aquino, between rome and naples, but he also worked as a teacher at the university of paris. i call him a philosopher but he was just as much a theologian. there was no great difference between philosophy and theology at that time. briefly, we can say that aquinas christianized aristotle in the same way that st. augustine christianized plato in early medieval times."

"wasn't it rather an odd thing to do, christianizing philosophers who had lived several hundred years before christ?"

"you could say so. but by 'christianizing' these two great greek philosophers, we only mean that they were interpreted and explained in such a way that they were no longer considered a threat to christian dogma. aquinas was among those who tried to make aristotle's philosophy compatible with christianity. we say that he created the great synthesis between faith and knowledge. he did this by entering the philosophy of aristotle and taking him at his word."

"i'm sorry, but i had hardly any sleep last night. i'm afraid you'll have to explain it more clearly."

"aquinas believed that there need be no conflict between what philosophy or reason teaches us and what the christian revelation or faith teaches us. christendom and philosophy often say the same thing. so we can frequently reason ourselves to the same truths that we can read in the bible."

"how come? can reason tell us that god created the world in six days or that jesus was the son of god?"

"no, those so-called verities of faith are only accessible through belief and the christian revelation. but aquinas believed in the existence of a number of 'natural theological truths.' by that he meant truths that could be reached both through christian faith and through our innate or natural reason. for example, the truth that there is a god. aquinas believed that there are two paths to god. one path goes through faith and the christian revelation, and the other goes through reason and the senses. of these two, the path of faith and revelation is certainly the surest, because it is easy to lose one's way by trusting to reason alone. but aquinas's point was that there need not be any conflict between a philosopher like aristotle and the christian doctrine."

"so we can take our choice between believing aristotle and believing the bible?"

"not at all. aristotle goes only part of the way because he didn't know of the christian revelation. but going only part of the way is not the same as going the wrong way. for example, it is not wrong to say that athens is in europe. but neither is it particularly precise. if a book only tells you that athens is a city in europe, it would be wise to look it up in a geography book as well. there you would find the whole truth that athens is the capital of greece, a small country in southeastern europe. if you are lucky you might be told a little about the acropolis as well. not to mention socrates, plato, and aristotle."

"but the first bit of information about athens was true."

"exactly! aquinas wanted to prove that there is only one truth. so when aristotle shows us something our reason tells us is true, it is not in conflict with christian teaching. we can arrive successfully at one aspect of the truth with the aid of reason and the evidence of our senses. for example, the kind of truths aristotle refers to when he describes the plant and the animal kingdom. another aspect of the truth is revealed to us by god through the bible. but the two aspects of the truth overlap at significant points. there are many questions about which the bible and reason tell us exactly the same thing."

"like there being a god?"

"exactly. aristotle's philosophy also presumed the existence of a god--or a formal cause--which sets all natural processes going. but he gives no further description of god. for this we must rely solely on the bible and the teachings of jesus."

"is it so absolutely certain that there is a god?"

"it can be disputed, obviously. but even in our day most people will agree that human reason is certainly not capable of disproving the existence of god. aquinas went further. he believed that he could prove god's existence on the basis of aristotle's philosophy."

"not bad!"

"with our reason we can recognize that everything around us must have a 'formal cause,' he believed. god has revealed himself to mankind both through the bible and through reason. there is thus both a 'theology of faith' and a 'natural theology.' the same is true of the moral aspect. the bible teaches us how god wants us to live. but god has also given us a conscience which enables us to distinguish between right and wrong on a 'natural' basis. there are thus also 'two paths' to a moral life. we know that it is wrong to harm people even if we haven't read in the bible that we must 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' here, too, the surest guide is to follow the bible's commandment."

"i think i understand," said sophie now. "it's almost like how we know there's a thunderstorm, by seeing the lightning and by hearing the thunder."

"that's right! we can hear the thunder even if we are blind, and we can see the lightning even if we are deaf. it's best if we can both see and hear, of course. but there is no contradiction between what we see and what we hear. on the contrary--the two impressions reinforce each other."

"i see."

"let me add another picture. if you read a novel-- john steinbeck's of mice and men, for example ..."

"i've read that, actually."

"don't you feel you know something about the author just by reading his book?"

"i realize there is a person who wrote it."

"is that all you know about him?"

"he seems to care about outsiders."

"when you read this book--which is steinbeck's creation--you get to know something about steinbeck's nature as well. but you cannot expect to get any personal information about the author. could you tell from reading of mice and men how old the author was when he wrote it, where he lived, or how many children he had?"

"of course not."

"but you can find this information in a biography of john steinbeck. only in a biography--or an autobiography--can you get better acquainted with steinbeck, the person."

"that's true."

"that's more or less how it is with god's creation and the bible. we can recognize that there is a god just by walking around in the natural world. we can easily see that he loves flowers and animals, otherwise he would not have made them. but information about god, the person, is only found in the bible--or in god's 'autobiography,' if you like."

"you're good at finding examples."

"mmmm..."

for the first time alberto just sat there thinking-- without answering.

"does all this have anything to do with hilde?" sophie could not help asking.

"we don't know whether there is a 'hilde' at all."

"but we know someone is planting evidence of her all over the place. postcards, a silk scarf, a green wallet, a stocking ..."

alberto nodded. "and it seems as if it is hilde's father who is deciding how many clues he will plant," he said. "for now, all we know is that someone is sending us a lot of postcards. i wish he would write something about himself too. but we shall return to that later."

"it's a quarter to eleven. i'll have to get home before the end of the middle ages."

"i shall just conclude with a few words about how aquinas adopted aristotle's philosophy in all the areas where it did not collide with the church's theology. these included his logic, his theory of knowledge, and not least his natural philosophy. do you recall, for ex-ample, how aristotle described the progressive scale of life from plants and animals to humans?"

sophie nodded.

"aristotle believed that this scale indicated a god that constituted a sort of maximum of existence. this scheme of things was not difficult to align with christian theology. according to aquinas, there was a progressive degree of existence from plants and animals to man, from man to angels, and from angels to god. man, like animals, has a body and sensory organs, but man also has intelligence which enables him to reason things out.

angels have no such body with sensory organs, which is why they have spontaneous and immediate intelligence. they have no need to 'ponder,' like humans; they have no need to reason out conclusions. they know everything that man can know without having to learn it step by step like us. and since angels have no body, they can never die. they are not everlasting like god, because they were once created by god. but they have no body that they must one day depart from, and so they will never die."

"that sounds lovely!"

"but up above the angels, god rules, sophie. he can see and know everything in one single coherent vision."

"so he can see us now."

"yes, perhaps he can. but not 'now.' for god, time does not exist as it does for us. our 'now' is not god's 'now.' because many weeks pass for us, they do not necessarily pass for god."

"that's creepy!" sophie exclaimed. she put her hand over her mouth. alberto looked down at her, and sophie continued: "i got another card from hilde's father yesterday. he wrote something like--even if it takes a week or two for sophie, that doesn't have to mean it will be that long for us. that's almost the same as what you said about god!"

sophie could see a sudden frown flash across alberto's face beneath the brown cowl.

"he ought to be ashamed of himself!"

sophie didn't quite understand what alberto meant. he went on: "unfortunately, aquinas also adopted aristotle's view of women. you may perhaps recall that aristotle thought a woman was more or less an incomplete man. he also thought that children only inherit the father's characteristics, since a woman was passive and receptive while the man was active and creative. according to aquinas, these views harmonized with the message of the bible--which, for example, tells us that woman was made out of adam's rib."

"nonsense!"

"it's interesting to note that the eggs of mammals were not discovered until 1827. it was therefore perhaps not so surprising that people thought it was the man who was the creative and lifegiving force in reproduction. we can moreover note that, according to aquinas, it is only as nature-being that woman is inferior to man. woman's soul is equal to man's soul. in heaven there is complete equality of the sexes because all physical gender differences cease to exist."

"that's cold comfort. weren't there any women philosophers in the middle ages?"

"the life of the church in the middle ages was heavily dominated by men. but that did not mean that there were no women thinkers. one of them was hildegard of bingen..."

sophie's eyes widened:

"does she have anything to do with hilde?"

"what a question! hildegard lived as a nun in the rhine valley from 1098 to 1179. in spite of being a woman, she worked as preacher, author, physician, botanist, and naturalist. she is an example of the fact that women were often more practical, more scientific even, in the middle ages."

"but what about hilde?"

"it was an ancient christian and jewish belief that god was not only a man. he also had a female side, or 'mother nature.' women, too, are created in god's likeness. in greek, this female side of god is called sophia. 'sophia' or 'sophie' means wisdom."

sophie shook her head resignedly. why had nobody ever told her that? and why had she never asked?

alberto continued: "sophia, or god's mother nature, had a certain significance both for jews and in the greek orthodox church throughout the middle ages. in the west she was forgotten. but along comes hildegard. sophia appeared to her in a vision, dressed in a golden tunic adorned with costly jewels ..."

sophie stood up. sophia had revealed herself to hildegard in a vision ...

"maybe i will appear to hilde."

she sat down again. for the third time alberto laid his hand on her shoulder.

"that is something we must look into. but now it is past eleven o'clock. you must go home, and we are approaching a new era. i shall summon you to a meeting on the renaissance. hermes will come get you in the garden."

with that the strange monk rose and began to walk toward the church. sophie stayed where she was, thinking about hildegard and sophia, hilde and sophie. suddenly she jumped up and ran after the monk-robed philosopher, calling:

"was there also an alberto in the middle ages?"

alberto slowed his pace somewhat, turned his head slightly and said, "aquinas had a famous philosophy teacher called albert the great..."

with that he bowed his head and disappeared through the door of st. mary's church.

sophie was not satisfied with his answer. she followed him into the church. but now it was completely empty. did he go through the floor?

just as she was leaving the church she noticed a picture of the madonna. she went up to it and studied it closely. suddenly she discovered a little drop of water under one of the madonna's eyes. was it a tear?

sophie rushed out of the church and hurried back to joanna's.