St. Bonaventure's Collations on the Ten Commandments


Book Description

The Collations on the TenCommandmentsaddresses three important aspects of St. Bonaventure'swork. The work shows a reflection ofBonaventure as a Bible expositor, a theologian/philosopher, and as a preacher.




The Ten Commandments


Book Description

What did the ten commandments have to teach? Using the commentaries of a group of scholars from c. 1150-1350, such as Peter Lombard, Robert Grosseteste, and Bonaventure, along with confessors’ manuals, mystery plays and sermon material, this book investigates the place of the Decalogue in medieval thought. Beginning with the overarching themes of law and number, it moves to consider what sort of God is revealed in the commandments of the first stone tablet, and uncovers the structure that lay behind the precepts dealing with one’s neighbour. Interpreting the commandments allows us to look at issues of method and individuality in the medieval schools, and ask whether answers intended for the classroom could make an impression on the wider world.




Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture of Medieval Paris


Book Description

By focusing attention on the importance of preaching, this book should spur a fundamental reconsideration of 'scholastic' culture and education.




A Companion to Bonaventure


Book Description

Although Bonaventurian scholarship has seen a great expansion in the past forty years, there remains no English volume that provides a general yet detailed study of Bonaventure for scholars. The Companion to Bonaventure provides an invaluable guide to understanding him. Together the essays deliver a critical overview of the current research, the major themes in Bonaventure’s life and writings, and how they are being reinterpreted at the start of the twenty-first century. As a great 13th century scholastic luminary, Bonaventure exists as a vital contributor to the early Franciscan movement that swept across the theological and spiritual landscape of the High Middle Ages. The paradoxical simplicity and complexity of Bonaventure’s synthesis has made, and will continue to provide, a profound contributions to Franciscan and Christian reflection. This Companion will help in understanding why this is the case. Contributors include: Joshua Benson, Jacques Bougerol, Ilia Delio, Christopher Cullen, Jared Goff, Jay M. Hammond, Zachary Hayes, J. A. Wayne Hellmann, Kevin L. Hughes, Timothy J. Johnson, David Keck, Gregory LaNave, Pietro Maranesi, Dominic V. Monti, and Marianne Schlosser.




The Ten Commandments in Medieval and Early Modern Culture


Book Description

Over the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as more and more vernacular commentaries on the Decalogue were produced throughout Europe, the moral system of the Ten Commandments gradually became more prominent. The Ten Commandments proved to be a topic from which numerous proponents of pastoral and lay catechesis drew inspiration. God’s commands were discussed and illustrated in sermons and confessor’s manuals, and they spawned new theological and pastoral treatises both Catholic and Reformed. But the Decalogue also served several authors, including Dante, Petrarch, and Christine de Pizan. Unlike the Seven Deadly Sins, the Ten Commandments supported a more positive image of mankind, one that embraced the human potential for introspection and the conscious choice to follow God’s Law.




Biblical Interpretation from the Church Fathers to the Reformation


Book Description

The history of biblical interpretation has attracted considerable attention in recent decades. This is particularly true in the field of medieval exegesis where much effort has been spent on making primary materials available and advancing their interpretation. One area of research in which even the most basic questions are still under debate is the phenomenon of the biblical Glossa Ordinaria, the standard Bible commentary used by Christian theologians from the twelfth century to the Reformation. Part I of the present collection unites the author's major contributions to Glossa studies - its origin, its false ascription to Walahfrid Strabo, its use among the preachers of the thirteenth and fourteenth century and the Reformers, both Catholic and Protestant, of the sixteenth. A central concern here is the fascinating history of the printed Gloss which began with the Strasbourg edition of 1480/81. Part II concentrates on the image of two central New Testament figures, the Apostles Peter and Paul, in biblical exegesis. The studies illuminate the pivotal role in the history of the church played by certain shifts in the understanding of Petrine texts, and trace conflicting tendencies in the interpretation of Paul down to the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Three of the thirteen essays have not been published before.




Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent


Book Description

This book provides, for the first time, an exhaustive discussion of the Franciscan production of texts of religious instruction during the later medieval period (c. 1210-c. 1550). In eight chapters, it introduces the reader to the most important Franciscan sermon cycles, the Franciscan guidelines for living the life of evangelical perfection, the many Franciscan novice training manuals, the Franciscan catechisms and confession manuals, the Franciscan output of liturgical handbooks, the large number of Franciscan texts containing more wide-ranging forms of religious edification, and Franciscan prayer guides. This book provides medievalists and Renaissance scholars alike with a new tool to assess the intellectual and religious transformations between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century, and contributes to the current re-interpretation of the late medieval pastoral revolution.




Simply Bonaventure 2nd. edition


Book Description

“Simply Bonaventure may very well become the standard English introduction to Bonaventure’s thought for college and graduate school teachers and students.” Joseph P. Chinnici, OFM Professor of Church History Franciscan School of Theology Graduate Theological Union Berkeley, California. Simply Bonaventure provides an introduction to the life, thought and writings of the medieval Franciscan, Bonaventure of Bagnoregio. The majority of the work is devoted to Bonaventure’s theology, which is summarized according to his own metaphysical scheme of origin (God), purpose (creation), and destiny (goal of creation). His trinitarian, Christocentric theology is highly relevant to a global world and to the postmodern Christian experience. Sr. Delio’s work is the first to provide a comprehensive view of Bonaventure’s theology, together with an introduction to his life and writings, and to place his theology in dialogue with contemporary human experience. “With this book Ilia Delio has provided a long needed introduction to Bonaventure’s thought. But she has done more than merely open the door to Bonaventure’s world. Because of the depth of her own mature scholarly and spiritual insight, her book can enrich not only beginners but seasoned Bonaventure scholars as well.” Ewert Cousins Editor and Translator of the Bonaventure volume in The Classics of Western Spirituality “Ilia Delio's work combines the adroit use of primary sources, the best of critical commentaries on Bonaventure's thought, and contemporary questions to take the reader on an exciting journey into the heart of one of the medieval period's most dynamic Franciscan thinkers.” Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M. “This fine book is deeply rooted in the very best scholarship yet presented in a gentle spirit and un-intimidating style. Those who study it carefully will gain not only a renewed appreciation of a truly great theologian and saint, but also an admiration for the loving way in which Delio has treated his spiritual vision. I strongly recommend this work to anyone interested in the very best spiritual writing.” John F. Haught Professor of Theology Georgetown University




The School of God


Book Description

Calvin’s Old Testament Exegesis in Context Calvin in Context Jean Calvin, the reformer and pastor of Geneva, is renowned as one of the most important figures in what came to be known as the Reformed and Presbyterian branch of the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps less well known is the fact that he devoted the bulk of his creative efforts to prea- ing, lecturing, and commenting on the Bible. Calvin envisioned a program of reform in Geneva in which the Bible, properly interpreted, would shape the minds and morals of the Genevan populace. The people of Geneva, whom Calvin viewed as a precise spiritual reincarnation of the “sti- necked, intractable Hebrews” of the Old Testament, were in need of some serious remedial education, and it was his duty as their chief minister to provide the requisite training in doctrine and godliness. Despite Calvin’s emphasis on preaching and producing biblical c- mentaries, however, scholars have often portrayed him as “a man of one 1 book”—that one book being the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In so - ing, they have produced a one-dimensional and consequently incomplete view of Calvin’s theological work. Scholars have tended to study Calvin’s theology exclusively from the perspective of his Institutes, without taking into account his work of biblical interpretation and preaching, or the re- tionship of those efforts to the Institutes.




Truth and Reality


Book Description

This is a thorough study and exposition of the last work for which St Bonaventure was responsible before his death in 1274. The Collations on the Hexaemeron, also called The Illuminations of the Church comprises lectures that he gave in Paris in 1273 to Franciscan and other students and masters in the university there. They were recorded by two independent witnesses and one version, the definitive one, was prepared for publication and approved by Bonaventure. This is one of the most interesting, original and important texts of medieval theology and it has been well translated and edited in a new edition. The purpose of this study is to examine the precise context for the approach that Bonaventure took, to place this work as the culmination of his spiritual theology, and to provide the reader with a lucid epitome of the contents of the text, drawing out their significance for theology and prayer in the life of the Church today.




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