The Medieval mental Model of the Universe

C S Lewis argues that the medieval mental model of the universe was a work of genius comperable to Aquinas' Summa or Dante's Divine Comedy. The medieval synthesis included "the whole organisation of their theology, science and history into a single, complex, harmonious mental model of the universe" (Discarded Image, p11) that would include all truth in a tidy manner. For the medievals, "All the aparent contradictions must be harmonised. A Model must be built which will get everything in without a clash; and it can do this only by becoming intricate, by mediating its unity through a great, and finely ordered multiplicity." (p11) Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoical, Pagan and Christian elements were all included. "Everything links up with everything else; at one, not in a flat equality, but in a hierarchical ladder" (p12) of great beauty.