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Theology of History In St. Bonaventure
This is the English publication of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger s second doctoral dissertation. Its topic is The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure, but Ratzinger focuses on two Bonaventure s embrace of the medieval belief that St. Francis ushered in the eschaton, and Bonaventure s so-called Augustinian tradition. Both are carefully discussed in light of Bonaventure s theology of history, which is centered primarily around Christ being the pivot of history rather than its end. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) 268 pages, paperback Franciscan Press 9780819904157
268 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1959
About the author
Pope Benedict XVI
942 books959 followersOriginally
Joseph Ratzinger
, a noted conservative theologian before his election in 2005, Benedict XVI strove against the influence of secularism during his papacy to defend traditional Catholic teachings but since medieval times first resigned in 2013.
After Joseph Ratzinger served a long career as an academic and a professor at the University of Regensburg, Pope Paul VI appointed him as archbishop of Munich and Freising and cardinal in 1977. In 1981, he settled in Rome as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, one most important office of the Roman curia. He also served as dean of the college of cardinals.
Benedict XVI reigned 265th in virtue of his office of bishop of Rome, the sovereign of the state of Vatican City and the head of the Church. A conclave named him on 19 April 2005; he celebrated his inaugural Mass on 24 April 2005 and took possession of his Lateran cathedral basilica of Saint John on 7 May 2005.
Benedict XVI succeeded Saint John Paul II, predecessor and his prolific writings on doctrine and values. Benedict XVI advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increase of many developed countries. Relativism denied objective truth and moral truths in particular; he viewed this central problem of the 21st century. With the importance of the Church, he understood redemptive love of God. He reaffirmed the "importance of prayer in the face of the activism" "of many Christians engaged in charitable work." Benedict also revived a number and elevated the Tridentine Mass to a more prominent position.
Benedict founded and patronized of the Ratzinger foundation, a charitable organization, which from the sale of books and essays makes money to fund scholarships and bursaries for students across the world.
Due to advanced age on 11 February 2013, Benedict announced in a speech in Latin and cited a "lack of strength of mind and body" before the cardinals. He effectively left on 28 February 2013.As emeritus, Benedict retained the style of His Holiness, and the title and continued to dress in the color of white. He moved into the newly renovated monastery of Mater Ecclesiae for his retirement. Pope Francis succeeded him on 13 March 2013.
(more info on Ratzinger Foundation: https://www.ewtn.com/library/Theology...)
After Joseph Ratzinger served a long career as an academic and a professor at the University of Regensburg, Pope Paul VI appointed him as archbishop of Munich and Freising and cardinal in 1977. In 1981, he settled in Rome as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, one most important office of the Roman curia. He also served as dean of the college of cardinals.
Benedict XVI reigned 265th in virtue of his office of bishop of Rome, the sovereign of the state of Vatican City and the head of the Church. A conclave named him on 19 April 2005; he celebrated his inaugural Mass on 24 April 2005 and took possession of his Lateran cathedral basilica of Saint John on 7 May 2005.
Benedict XVI succeeded Saint John Paul II, predecessor and his prolific writings on doctrine and values. Benedict XVI advocated a return to fundamental Christian values to counter the increase of many developed countries. Relativism denied objective truth and moral truths in particular; he viewed this central problem of the 21st century. With the importance of the Church, he understood redemptive love of God. He reaffirmed the "importance of prayer in the face of the activism" "of many Christians engaged in charitable work." Benedict also revived a number and elevated the Tridentine Mass to a more prominent position.
Benedict founded and patronized of the Ratzinger foundation, a charitable organization, which from the sale of books and essays makes money to fund scholarships and bursaries for students across the world.
Due to advanced age on 11 February 2013, Benedict announced in a speech in Latin and cited a "lack of strength of mind and body" before the cardinals. He effectively left on 28 February 2013.As emeritus, Benedict retained the style of His Holiness, and the title and continued to dress in the color of white. He moved into the newly renovated monastery of Mater Ecclesiae for his retirement. Pope Francis succeeded him on 13 March 2013.
(more info on Ratzinger Foundation: https://www.ewtn.com/library/Theology...)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 8, 2012
This is the pope's revision of his doctoral thesis, and in my opinion, is the best thing he ever wrote. Setting the historical outlook of St. Bonaventure in the context of 13th century disputes about how the kingdom of God was to be realized, Ratzinger shows through close readings of his texts how Bonaventure did not view the realization of the Kingdom as a "this worldly" event, but something that lay outside of time, after the end of history.
June 9, 2024
Not an easy book to read and not an easy book to review. A number of not particularly connected interests brought me here: spending a few years with St. Thomas Aquinas and some of his people, the death of Pope Benedict, a children's show about St. Francis (in Portuguese, which I don't speak). Anyway, here I am. What I really want to know is who this St. Bonaventure guy was. He's constantly spoken of as a contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas and as a heavyweight of his own (the Seraphic Doctor), but despite being a personal acquaintance, I've learned almost nothing about Bonaventure in all of these works.
"The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure" is probably not where most people would start, but it's where I started, and I don't regret it. The 13th Century had a lot going on before St. Thomas took scholasticism to new heights. This was a society on edge. The quip "don't immanentize the eschaton" begins with a fellow named Joachim of Fiore, and he figures heavily in this story. Short of it is, he was an abbot who took the notion of the Old Testament prefiguring the New Testament quite literally and believed an individual could study the O.T. almost scientifically to discover the general trajectory of the future. Far more alarming, he predicted that the end of time was coming, and soon. In 1260, to be exact.
Now, end of time here means something quite specific. It is not the final judgment. Rather, Joachim broke history into three main ages based on the three persons of the Trinity; the age of the Son was coming to an end in 1260. After that, the Age of the Holy Spirit would begin, a thousand years of peace peopled by extraordinary saints in a new order. Joachim dies in 1202; in that year, an eccentric in Assisi is captured in battle and spends a year in captivity.
That man would give up his military pursuits (and his money...and his clothes) a few years later and turned Europe on its ear. No small number of people saw St. Francis as confirmation of Joachim's prophecy, though I have never seen any evidence that St. Francis was aware of Joachim.
An order is built up around the great saint. He passes into eternal glory; is the glorious Age of the Holy Spirit coming in the new few decades, and is the new Franciscan Order the prophesied novus ordo?
Enter St. Bonaventure, the Franciscan friar held as a contemporary and strangely quiet equal of St. Thomas. Appointed the new head of the order, he has to close a growing divide between the Spiritualists who favor Joachim and the more moderate folks (and perhaps the less than truly devout) who are not in favor of radical reforms.
...
Let me stop for a moment. You will not get the information above in Ratzinger's book, or at least not in an expanded order of the above. Ratzinger was much sharper than people realize; you are going to go extremely deep into the weeds about schemas of histories overlapping with other schemas depending on the symbolism of particular numbers. But it was very informative in a way that the information sticks. The key to St. Bonaventure is his Christocentricism, literally: Christ is the center of all. There is no third age, and so St. Bonaventure rejects that element of Joachim of Fiore. But that same Christocentricism is going to lead him into rejecting self-sufficient philosophy, or a philosophy that can be self-sufficient without theology, and putting some real limits on the usage of Aristotle. The "Augustinian vs Aristotelean" argument was clarified for me here. St. Bonaventure knew his Aristotle, and within a proper role he understood using it. But he understood Aristotle's limits, especially in understanding and more importantly living a Christian life.
St. Francis was the model of St. Bonaventure; to love God is to know Him better than any amount of study could ever achieve. Perhaps St. Thomas Aquinas came to this same conclusion, too, on December 6, 1273.
Far, far more in this book than what I have touched on.
"The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure" is probably not where most people would start, but it's where I started, and I don't regret it. The 13th Century had a lot going on before St. Thomas took scholasticism to new heights. This was a society on edge. The quip "don't immanentize the eschaton" begins with a fellow named Joachim of Fiore, and he figures heavily in this story. Short of it is, he was an abbot who took the notion of the Old Testament prefiguring the New Testament quite literally and believed an individual could study the O.T. almost scientifically to discover the general trajectory of the future. Far more alarming, he predicted that the end of time was coming, and soon. In 1260, to be exact.
Now, end of time here means something quite specific. It is not the final judgment. Rather, Joachim broke history into three main ages based on the three persons of the Trinity; the age of the Son was coming to an end in 1260. After that, the Age of the Holy Spirit would begin, a thousand years of peace peopled by extraordinary saints in a new order. Joachim dies in 1202; in that year, an eccentric in Assisi is captured in battle and spends a year in captivity.
That man would give up his military pursuits (and his money...and his clothes) a few years later and turned Europe on its ear. No small number of people saw St. Francis as confirmation of Joachim's prophecy, though I have never seen any evidence that St. Francis was aware of Joachim.
An order is built up around the great saint. He passes into eternal glory; is the glorious Age of the Holy Spirit coming in the new few decades, and is the new Franciscan Order the prophesied novus ordo?
Enter St. Bonaventure, the Franciscan friar held as a contemporary and strangely quiet equal of St. Thomas. Appointed the new head of the order, he has to close a growing divide between the Spiritualists who favor Joachim and the more moderate folks (and perhaps the less than truly devout) who are not in favor of radical reforms.
...
Let me stop for a moment. You will not get the information above in Ratzinger's book, or at least not in an expanded order of the above. Ratzinger was much sharper than people realize; you are going to go extremely deep into the weeds about schemas of histories overlapping with other schemas depending on the symbolism of particular numbers. But it was very informative in a way that the information sticks. The key to St. Bonaventure is his Christocentricism, literally: Christ is the center of all. There is no third age, and so St. Bonaventure rejects that element of Joachim of Fiore. But that same Christocentricism is going to lead him into rejecting self-sufficient philosophy, or a philosophy that can be self-sufficient without theology, and putting some real limits on the usage of Aristotle. The "Augustinian vs Aristotelean" argument was clarified for me here. St. Bonaventure knew his Aristotle, and within a proper role he understood using it. But he understood Aristotle's limits, especially in understanding and more importantly living a Christian life.
St. Francis was the model of St. Bonaventure; to love God is to know Him better than any amount of study could ever achieve. Perhaps St. Thomas Aquinas came to this same conclusion, too, on December 6, 1273.
Far, far more in this book than what I have touched on.
September 13, 2012
This is Ratzinger's (Pope Benedict XVI) dissertation (or, if I recall, his rehabilitation). Regardless of your opinion of his current ecclesiological and political views, this is an amazing work. I read it for a class on Philosophy of History -- clearly, from a Catholic institution --, yet nonetheless the work provides a great view on a medieval interpretation of history from one of the great thinkers of that era.
Ratzinger does a great job in painting the context in which Bonaventure wrote: the young Franciscan order was reeling from ecclesiological pressure and criticism, not only on matters of poverty, but also on eschatological matters as a result of Joachim of Fiore. Bonaventure did much to not only salvage, but also to make reputable, the order of St. Francis.
From there, Ratzinger elucidates Bonaventure's interpretation of history, which relies on an allegorical interpretation of the six days of creation in Genesis and viewing the world's history according to eras which correspond to the six days. It's a fascinating work, one which anyone who is interested in theological studies (particularly in Medieval theology, or just to have a more thorough grasp of Christian theology), or in the philosophy of religion should read. Great work...and this coming from someone who largely disagrees with the current Ratzinger.
Ratzinger does a great job in painting the context in which Bonaventure wrote: the young Franciscan order was reeling from ecclesiological pressure and criticism, not only on matters of poverty, but also on eschatological matters as a result of Joachim of Fiore. Bonaventure did much to not only salvage, but also to make reputable, the order of St. Francis.
From there, Ratzinger elucidates Bonaventure's interpretation of history, which relies on an allegorical interpretation of the six days of creation in Genesis and viewing the world's history according to eras which correspond to the six days. It's a fascinating work, one which anyone who is interested in theological studies (particularly in Medieval theology, or just to have a more thorough grasp of Christian theology), or in the philosophy of religion should read. Great work...and this coming from someone who largely disagrees with the current Ratzinger.
July 8, 2015
Fascinating. While this book is of interest to students of Ratzinger and Bonaventure for obvious reasons, it is of general interest due to its masterful explication of 13th-century attitudes towards revelation, salvation history, eschatology, and the relationship between philosophy and theology. Of particular note is its lengthy treatment of the influence of Joachim of Fiori on both Bonaventure and the church as a whole. This book definitely did more for my understanding of the mind of the medieval Church and its relationship to the early Church than many a more general history book on the same topic. Not to be missed.
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September 1, 2023Picked up at the gift store at the Mission San Miguel Arcangel, which for some reason had a copy. Bonaventure and Joachim's (and their other contemporaries') detailed historical schemas are insane, and generally no borne out by history, but fascinating all the same.
June 8, 2020
Excelente ejemplo de investigación y profundización filosófica sobre un autor medieval y un problema de interpretación: la historia y su sentido.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews