Faith, Sacraments and Charity. This chapter considers Abelard’s lectures or sententie on faith, sacraments and charity (from the 1130s) in which he formulated a synthetic vision of theology, recorded by students. It also reviews Abelard’s theology through the perspective of one of his foremost critics, Hugh of St. Victor, in the De sacramentis. While Abelard was always known as a logician, he emerged in the 1130s as one of the most original theologians and theorist of ethics of his generation. The chapter considers the evolution of the Theologia ‘Scholarium’ in the context of his teaching in the schools. It concludes by looking at the evolution of his thinking about the distinction between vice and sin in his Ethics or Scito teipsum, arguing that here he is responding to a longstanding concern of Heloise.
Keywords: Abelard, faith, sacraments, charity, Hugh of St. Victor, theology, ethics, schools