Early Franciscan Theology: Between Authority and Innovation

Description

Franciscan theology before Bonaventure has long been regarded as a relatively unoriginal attempt to systematize the tradition of Augustine, which prevailed in the West for most of the earlier Middle Ages. In this book, Lydia Schumacher aims to demonstrate the innovative aspects of early Franciscan theology by examining the historical, philosophical, and religious contexts in which it was developed, and by highlighting how thinkers from this period deployed authoritative sources like Augustine as ‘proof texts’ for their own novel positions. She thereby provides a basis for illustrating the continuity between the early and later Franciscan schools, which have normally been perceived as distinct from one another. Schumacher also emphasizes the ethos that inspired the development of medieval Franciscan thinking and thus distinguishes it from any modern intellectual trends with which it has been associated. Ultimately, Schumacher lays the foundation for future efforts to recover Franciscan theology in the contemporary context on its own terms. Acknowledgements page ix List of Abbreviations xi 1 Early Franciscan Theology: An Introduction 1 Early Franciscan Theology and the Summa Halensis 2 The Historiography of Early Franciscan Theology 9 The Scholastic Context 12 The Scholastic Method 22 Augustine’s Authority and Innovation in Early Franciscan Thought 25 2 The Franciscan Context 30 The Writings of Francis in Context 31 The Biographies of Francis in Context 41 Thomas of Celano’s Biographies of Francis 48 Conclusion 54 3 The Philosophical Context 55 The Translation Movement 56 Avicenna’s Thought 65 Avicennian and Franciscan Thought 76 4 Theological Vision 78 A Transcendental Vision 80 An Affective Vision 89 A Practical Vision 96 Conclusion 101 5 Theistic Proof 103 Reading Anselm’s Argument 105 The Sources of the Summa’s Proof 107 The Proof for a Necessary Existent 111 The Franciscan Nature of the Proof 117 The Divine Nature 119 The Summa’s Doctrine of God and its Sources 120 The Summa Halensis on Divine Infinity 125 John Duns Scotus on Divine Infinity 139 Conclusion 141 7 The Trinity: Context 143 Thomas Aquinas on the Trinity 145 John of Damascus on the Trinity 150 Richard of St Victor on the Trinity 154 The Trinitarian Vision of the Summa Halensis 160 8 The Trinity: Doctrine 163 The Plurality of Persons in the Trinity 164 The Truth and Number of the Persons 174 The Order and Equality of the Persons 176 The Notions of the Persons 179 Conclusion 181 9 Christology 183 The Context of Early Franciscan Christology: Antecedents 184 Metaphysics in the Summa Halensis 191 The Metaphysics of the Incarnation in the Summa Halensis 194 The Context of Early Franciscan Christology: Later Developments 205 Conclusion 210 10 Incarnation 212 Anselm on the Incarnation 214 The Necessity of the Incarnation 216 The Fittingness of the Incarnation 228 Conclusion 239 11 Moral Theology 242 The Summa Halensis vs the Summa theologiae 244 Mosaic Law and the Law of the Gospel 248 Eternal and Natural Law 252 Faith 255 Conclusion 256 12 Conclusion: The Promise of Early Franciscan Theology 259 Bibliography 270 Index 305