The Dynamo and the Angelic Doctor: The Bias of Henry Adams' Medievalism

Abstract

man of letters rather than as a professionally committed academician, interpretation of his writing has got far beyond the mere location and description of his scholarly weaknesses.' And rightly so: his importance is unquestionably literary. Thus in discussing some of the eccentric methods and paradoxical conclusions of Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres my primary purpose is not to cavil with the ideas expressed there. Still less do I wish to defend the faith many feel to be maligned by Adams' 'appreciation of the Middle Ages; Catholic periodicals have long since registered more than adequate dismay at the portrait of the Virgin as Seat of Irrationality and Subverter of the Trinity.2 Rather, and much more simply, I should like to examine Adams' very peculiar treatment of St. Thomas Aquinas as an index to the meaning of Mont-Saint-Michel, both in itself and as a phenomenon of American intellectual history.