An original way to grasp the faith–sacrament relationship in De Sacramentis Christiane fidei by Hugh of Sanct Victor (original) (raw)
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The virtus of the faith in De Sacramentis christiane fidei by Hugh of Saint Victor
This paper was prepared for the annual IGMT (Internationale Gesellschaft für Theologische Mediävistik) in Padua 6-9 July 2011. It's divided into three parts. The first one is an overall research on the use of the concept of virtue and the possible relevance of the triad of faith, love and hope within the theology of Hugh. In the second passage we focus on the theology of faith in De Sacramentis specifically on the sacrament of faith.Finally we’ll produce some conclusions underlining the possible utility - not only theological - of some of Hugh’s intuitions for our time.
Foundations of the definition of faith in dialogue with Porta fidei by Benedict XVI
Roczniki Teologiczne. - Vol 62, No 9, 2015
Faith is closely linked with love. Acts of charity are what proves that we are believers and they can also serve as arguments for unconscious faith among the non-religious. If the Creator himself is the source of all such acts, in each act of charity we have to do with human consent and a manifestation of God's power. Through its various functions and dimensions , the Church is a signpost in the process of faith-building. Membership in the Church helps us open ourselves to this grace as it is a room for evaluative reflection on human deeds and thoughts, an environment in which hearts receive God's support in a special way, and a place which gives us a chance to confront ourselves with other believers, whose testimony motivates us in times of spiritual dryness. Signs of the times are certain events in which man is able to see hints for his life more by asking about the reason for which they occur than about their nature.
The concept of faith from Benedict to Francis: 10 years after Lumen Fidei 1
2023
This article, referring to the tenth anniversary of the publication of the encyclical Lumen Fidei in 2013, the first encyclical of Pope Francis, which he wrote to complement the work of Benedict XVI, will want to show, on the one hand, the hermeneutical continuity between the two pontificates, with regard to faith and its transmission, on the other and methodological differentiation in relation to the concept of faith between the German and the Argentinian pope. Analyzing Lumen Fidei, the article shows the exemplary unity of intentions of both Popes who, despite coming from different theological and existential experiences, find themselves in this document and propose a unifying message that includes, on the one hand, a clear analysis of the act of faith to demonstrate its rationality and necessity, to be fully "human" clearly inspired by Ratzinger, and on the other hand, the practicality of faith and its impact on today' s areas of life and society with a decidedly more Bergoglian inspiration. The theological genius of Benedict, one of the greatest theologians who ascended the papal throne, and the pastoral charisma of Francis, the first Latin American Jesuit and Pope, remain an inexhaustible source of inspiration for all believers.
"Fides virtus". The Virtue of Faith from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century
M. Forlivesi - R. Quinto - S. Vecchio (eds., with G. Liboni - C. Tarlazzi), "Fides virtus". The Virtue of Faith from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century, (Archa Verbi. Subsidia, 12), Münster: Aschendorff, 2014. ISBN: 9783402102282., 2014
Tracing the history of the doctrines on the nature of faith is an immense endeavour. What the Middle Ages and the Renaissance felt on this subject resulted in a huge literary production, involving an extensive number of authors and taking a variety of themes into account. Compared to this vast literature, the contributions constituting the present volume have a limited and defined scope: they aim to analyse 12th- to 16th-century doctrines specifically concerned with faith as a theological virtue. In this perspective, a number of recurrent problems of exegetical, theological, pastoral, or political nature have been identified. Among the most significant challenges faced by medieval and Renaissance authors, one can notice the attempt to hold together two key-features defining faith: on the one hand, the gnoseological "weakness" of faith, which is considered an assent, maybe a sort of obscure understanding, yet not a sight, either of God or of anything else; on the other hand, the absolute "certitude" and "truth" of faith, which were the matter of no controversy. These features gave rise to a crucial gnoseological problem, that is to say, how a person adhering to the allegedly true and undeniable faith can really know that his/her faith is not a mere opinion. Another exemplary case concerns the reasoning on faith’s political and ecclesiological dimension. In this respect, faith is not seen primarily as an intellectual attitude, but rather as a sort of theological-anthropological prerequisite, generating, when present, a person’s belonging (or, when absent, a person’s not belonging) to the political community of believers. Precisely the political dimension of faith makes the problem of infidelitas so immediate and momentous for many medieval and Renaissance authors, and elicits the will to reduce the extent of infidelitas and the number of infideles thanks to a widespread work of predication, persuasion and repression. Facing problems like the ones now recalled, medieval and Renaissance authors, in a supreme effort to solve them, begot the kaleidoscopic variety of differing theories that is the subject of the present publication and that – paradoxically as it may seem – paved the way for medieval, Renaissance and modern discourses on relativism and toleration. The volume contains contributions by Paolo Bettiolo, Magdalena Bieniak, Christopher Burger, Charles M.A. Caspers, Mark J. Clark, Marcia L. Colish, Carlo Delcorno, William Duba, Michael Embach, Matthew Gaetano, Christophe Grellard, Fortunato Iozzelli, Tiziano Lorenzin, Fabrizio Mandreoli, Thomas Marschler, Constant J. Mews, Hideki Nakamura, Richard G. Newhauser, Antonino Poppi, Riccardo Saccenti, Silvia Serventi and Francesco Siri.
Nova et Vetera (English), 2023
This article begins by examining the origins of the doctrine of sacramental character in Latin theology in Augustine’s baptismal theology. Building on this foundation, our attention will turn to Peter Lombard’s reception of Augustine’s as the context in which thirteenth-century Scholastic debates about sacramental character would develop. Although the specific metaphysical questions that Scholastics like Aquinas and Bonaventure would entertain do not form part of Augustine’s approach to this issue, Lombard’s particular articulation of Augustine’s sacramental theology would provide the textual and conceptual backdrop against which these later Scholastic conversations would develop. Accordingly, the second section of this article will build on the first, beginning with a consideration of Aquinas and Bonaventure in conversation with each other in their commentaries on the Sentences, and closing with a consideration of Aquinas’s later treatment of this same subject in the wider context of his quidditative approach to the theological life in the Summa theologiae. In the final section of this article, a selection of important Renaissance and early modern interlocutors will be considered who each engage both Aquinas’s and Bonaventure’s positions in different ways. Beginning with John Capreolus, John Duns Scotus, and Thomas Cajetan, this final section will conclude with a consideration of Francisco Suárez, whose own approach to the metaphysics of sacramental character reflects the influence of both Bonaventure and Scotus, even as he engages aspects of Aquinas’s arguments in his textual commentary on the Summa.
Hugh of St. Victor's Sacramental Theology of History: Contours and Relevance
This paper will trace the contours of the theology of history that emerges in Hugh of St. Victor’s (c. 1096–1141) writings and relate it to his sacramental conception of reality. Hugh’s sacramental theology is mystical in the sense that the believer’s ability to comprehend God in contemplation is restored through sacramental symbolism. Hugh called this form of contemplation “speculatio.” Created reality as a symbolic representation of the Creator, and thus amenable to speculative contemplation, is the sacramental ground on which Hugh was able to build his theology of history. Allegorical and tropological interpretation controlled by the literal-historical reading of the text is how Hugh’s speculative interpretation of reality is structured when applied to Scripture. From this method, Hugh determined the history was the ordering principle of God's creative and restorative acts, the primordial condition of human existence, and the foundation of doctrinal exposition. Hugh’s theology of history begins with God’s ordering our existence historically so that we might seek Him, takes the fall as a disordering of our time through a disruption of our ability to see God represented in reality, moves through a historical succession of sacraments, formal and speculative, that put humanity on the track of reformation, and culminates in the union with God that was humanity’s original telos.