Archa Verbi 16 (2019)
Articles
Wanda Zemler-Cizewski: ‘The Only Menstruating Animal’ - Muliebria According to Rupert of Deutz and his Sources
Unlike other patristic and medieval exegetes of Genesis 1-3, Rupert of Deutz includes within his comments on Genesis 3, 16 a description of the suffering caused by menstruation among the travails imposed upon the woman. To understand his rationale for doing so, the present study traces his comments on passages in Genesis and Leviticus where menstruation is mentioned, with the intention of uncovering his sources and the information that he derives from them. Chief among his sources is Gregory the Great’s letter eight to Augustine of Canterbury on admission into church and reception of the sacrament for women who are menstruating or recovering from childbirth. Hence, Rupert’s perspective on menstruation recognizes both that is it debilitating and painful to women, but also that it is a natural function, so that menstruating women should not be shunned as unclean or excluded from places of worship.
Keywords: Genesis – Leviticus – Woman/women – Menstruation/menopause – Gregory the
Great – niddah
Shawn Colberg: Wisdom and Conformity - Reading as Journey in the Theology of Saint Bonaventure
This study exposits Saint Bonaventure’s understanding of Christian wisdom as that which facilitates and marks a person’s growth in conformity to God. Bonaventure depicts believers as viatores or wayfarers on a progressive journey established by the Triune God, facilitated through grace, and realized through increasing exemplarity between the wayfarer and theincarnate Word. Progress on the journey is often paired with the language of wisdom or sapientia. Wayfarers advance by successfully discerning and reading the signposts of the journey. The present study argues that wisdom for the wayfarer is realized in reading God’s revelation so as to find conformity and union with God through the Word who is himself divine Wisdom. Bonaventure’s understanding of wisdom is embedded in a dynamic movement toward full similitude between the wayfarer and God; the wise person, indeed, is known and marked by habitual exemplarity with the Word. To that end, the study explores Bonaventure’s working definitions of wisdom, the relationship of wisdom to exemplarity, and the role of lectio for reaching union with God as terminus of the journey and full expression of Christian wisdom.
Keywords: Bonaventure – wisdom – exemplarity – grace – union with God
Magdalena Płotka: Delectatur autem sensus in obiecto : Bonaventure on delight
The purpose of the paper is to reconstruct Bonaventure’s description of human experience of earthly delight. The paper argues argue that Bonaventure developed a consistent conception of delight, which he derived from his Franciscan spirituality, a conception however, as the paper will show, that is not static but dynamic.First, the terminology which is used by Bonaventure to refer to delight and enjoyment is presented. As it is argued, the two most commonly used terms are delectatio and gaudium . Next, the Bonaventurian account of sensual delight as described in the Itinerarium mentis in Deum is examined. Bonaventure puts delight right at the outset of the cognitive experience, locating it within the structure of sense perception. Next, it is argued that paradoxically, a contempt for the world (‘way of martyrdom’) is a condition for perfect earthly delight. The paper ends with a conclusion that Bonaventure developed a dynamic conception of delight. Instead of analysing its internal structure as an emotion or reference to an object (good), he described delight as it evolves, undergoing a dynamic process of perfection.
Keywords: delight – pleasure – St. Bonaventure – Franciscan spirituality
Thomas Prügl: A lost inaugural lecture of Saint Bonaventure?
Ms. München, Universitätsbibliothek 8°, cod. 3, dating form the late 15th century, contains a text titled Commendacio sive principium Bonaventure in totam sacram scripturam. This article examines the content and the theological ideas of this text and provides a first edition. Despite employing some Bonaventurian ideas, the text cannot be considered an authentic work by St. Bonaventure. It offers an understanding of theology based on Dionysian apophaticism and on a model of mystical ascent in the tradition of Thomas Gallus. The focus, however, is on an intellectual understanding rather than on an affective interpretation of mystical union. In the introduction, the study briefly discusses possible dates of St. Bonaventure's inceptio, proposing that Bonaventure’s admission to the college of masters in Paris is uncertain.Keywords: Bonaventura da Bagnoregio – principium – Dionysius Areopagita – Thomas Gallus – mystical union
Paul D. Hellmeier OP: Why Albert the Great is not a Dualist on Human Nature
Many influential scholars hold that Albert the Great is a dualist regarding human nature. This widespread and rarely questioned opinion is put to the test here. The evaluation of the sources and the exact analysis of the main arguments lead to the conclusion that Albert is not a dualist in the conventional sense of a dualism of two different substances. Firstly, the second part of the Summa theologiae, which contains strong dualistic statements, cannot possibly be an authentic work of Albert, and secondly, many arguments which seem to support a dualism in Albert’s work are based on misunderstandings, a lack of consideration of the development of Albert’s thought, or a lack of knowledge of the biological writings of Aristotle. Further apparent evidence of dualism in Albert’s work proves untenable after detailed analysis of his understanding of form. For although this concept of form has strong Neoplatonic traits, it is made fruitful for the hylemorphic interpretation of the relationship between body and soul. The article concludes with a brief critical review of the application of the modern terms “dualism” and “Platonism” to the anthropological models of medieval thinkers.
Keywords: Albert the Great – Anthropology – Dualism – Aristotelianism
Martina Roesner: L’influence de Jean Scot Érigène sur la pensée de Maître Eckhart
The possible influence of John Scotus Eriugena on Meister Eckhart’s philosophy and theology is a question that has received comparatively little attention in scholarship. The present paper argues that Eriugena has indeed had an impact on Eckhart’s thought, not only through the Clavis physicae but also through his sermon Vox spiritualis aquilae and, more importantly, his scholia on Pseudo-Dionysius, which are taken almost word for word from his Periphyseon . These marginal commentaries were sometimes (wrongly) considered as part of the original text and integrated into Eriugena’s Latin translations of Dionysius’s works, as was the case with the manuscript of the Corpus Dionysiacum held by the Dominican convent in Paris, where Eckhart stayed repeatedly as a student and as a professor. In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Eckhart takes up Eriugena’s idea that John the Evangelist had to be “deified” in order to know the eternal Logos in all his depth, and extends this notion to all human beings through his doctrine of the “birth of God in the soul”. Eckhart’s two commentaries on Genesis, by contrast, develop certain key notions of Eriugena’s doctrine of creation as it is described in his Periphyseon : God is not “this or that” but above all determinations and needs to externalise himself in a finite creation in order to know his own essence. This creative process presents itself as an irradiation of divine intelligibility that makes the whole world appear, not as a set of solid objects but as a “tissue of light”.
Keywords: John Scotus Eriugena – Meister Eckhart – deification of man – metaphysics of
creation – metaphysics of light