SOURCE: Contreni, John J. and Pádraig P. Ó Néill. Introduction to Glossae Divinae Historiae: The Biblical Glosses of John Scottus Eriugena, by John Scottus Eriugena, edited by John J. Contreni and Pádraig P. Ó Néill, pp. 1-85. Firenze, Italy: SISMEL, 1997.

In the following excerpt, Contreni and Ó Néill examine the early writings of Eriugena.

That so much has been written about John Scottus, arguably the most studied of all early medieval intellectual figures during the last twenty-five years or so, testifies to a deeper and more precise appreciation both of his principal historical context, the Carolingian renewal program, and of his unique position within that intellectual and cultural framework.¹ The Carolingian effort to reform society was led by kings, bishops, and abbots, and can be traced in a series of programmatic documents, statutes, synodal decrees, and even poems. The ideals of the reform program were embedded...