In The Great Conversation, we ask perhaps the most urgent question of all: “How should we live?” “We” ask, first-person plural: within a community of conversation, from the standpoint of our shared humanity, in dialogue with some of the greatest spirits to meditate on the question. We continue this 4 volume set with the medieval world, featuring Christian, Jewish, & Muslim thought through the early Renaissance. Western Civilization cannot be other than the pursuit of life lived civilly: urbanely, politically, in conversation that accommodates even deep disagreements within the bond of social friendship. The Great Conversation Volume II features excerpts from the following texts and authors alongside insightful introductions and necessary context for the new reader:

Beowulf

St. Benedict’s The Rule of St. Benedict

al-Ghazali’s Deliverance from Error

Peter Abelard’s Dialogue between a Philosopher, a Jew, and a Christian

Maimonides’ The Guide of the Perplexed

Guillaume de Lorris & Jean de Meun’s The Romance of the Rose

St. Thomas Aquinas’ Suma Theologiae

Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy

St. Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

Christine de Pizan’s The Book of the City of Ladies

Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince