The Bible and Aristotle in the controversy between Augustine and Julian of Aeclanum

This chapter shows that when Augustine of Hippo accused Julian of Aeclanum of being too keen a student of 'Aristotle's Categories' (and therefore, in his view, an adherent of a dangerously liberal education that could lead to rationalism, heresy and even atheism) he may not necessarily have been referring to the study of Aristotle himself, but to that of Porphyry's Isagoge in a Latin translation, perhaps the one which is still extant in fragments by Marius Victorinus. This, at any rate, is what Julian's own references to those 'Aristotelian Categories' suggest. What is also striking in Julian's case is the almost Scholastic attitude with which he recommends the study of Aristotle as philosophical propaedeia for a better understanding of theological issues