Theology, Life, and God's Word
Theology, Life, and God's Word Th tudy of sacr d . cl'ip"urc a th W rd of God undoubtedl held prine of place in B()noventure's edu, alion aL t h Universi,l-y of Paris.
Medieval pedagogy. how v r, cUd no re lli t th 01 gical inquil)' to the e ,ts of the OJd and New Testam nts. Wh'il rheauLhorityofthe sac.red s riptur remained unchallenged, many th ologian. in t l1 lhirte nth centl11)' felt 'I growing urgem.:y to complement their bibHcal studies wi1.h exposure to th nduring insights of authotities such as AUJ;,'ustine, John Dama C ' ll ,Abelard. and Hugh f Saint Victor.
1l1ey bell ved that these additional resoUl' es woult! enabl thern to examine and disCH, S '''lith greater larity Lh rucial questions of faith fa .ing them, and achiev a more aULhenticinlegn:ltion of r d's 'Word ,inl th.eir lives and the Ijyes of those whom the s rved. The'il' erfort~ were a sist d by P t r Lombard, who compiled. in the pre eding '. nttlry, quotati n ' from patristi and l1'1.agisteria l sources and group d lhem by th me ill fourbooks. The boot tr ated the nature of God, rea Li 111 an II'edemptioll , the incamacion 0 ["
Iwist, and the sa raments. Thi cone i n of 3t1thot"ilaLiv qumes or t.houghts on ntral theologkaJ concern , comm n ly I nown as 77,t: Book 0/'
CIIt(m~·e. b came the standard textbook fol' the logians in th) thlreenth entul rbrough the efforts of' Bonaventure's mentor,
Alexand r oD-lal s. TI,e Bo()ktJj"Sellt"cnce remained a classical theoJog-il:al reS()UTC in tIl la 'sr 0111 w II into the sixteenth entury.
Bonaventure was illu'oducecl le Till! 800/1'11 nt/mas as earl as 1243; however it was not until h was Bache'lor of ent n 'es in 1250 that he und rtook his own commentary on Peter Lombard's four books.
This new academic challenge produced the four-volume Commentary on OIC SCll t"CIICC., whi -11. remains an often-neglected resource for the
Theology, Life, and God's Word stud ofBuo'lVcnture'sspirit.ualily. I-Us predilecLion for prefaces, evidentlhroughu~11 hi$works, find~ an • -ceptional deptll nnd beauty f p1" ssionin lh ()pcI1ing pages of each book of 17n' Commcllt(f~'v VII lit II , ell.tcllt'/.'S. These I refaccs arc presentl!cl il~ tl1 is chapter. Til I rerac> to he firsr l ook servcs as a gCl1eral inlroducl ion () Bonav ' n1111' ,'. inL rpretatioll of Peter Lombard's original oil tion or quo lations.
Appealing to rhe Aristotelian calegol'ies of mAterial, ronn .. 11, final, amldlij ntcHuse, he uelinea cs he-COOL I1l,organizatiull,imcncied good. and author or The B/lok of . WltCII CCS, III the second prefa 'e,
BOl lavCIlLul'c SUll1mariz s. i.n magisterial fashion . th~ heigills of hum(m eli):,,,, iLy al-the reatioll of the world and th · profound I ()verty of all who are marked by the subsequent deformity ofsil1 . The I hiI'd and fUUILh preface take LIp lhe que 'Lion 0 salvation by refiecLing on the pow r of Christ as the sa -ram nL of redt'ml Lio" to Tcstorc humanity to the fullness )f lire, and on I he lndividual sacramcnts as medi. inal cures prescribed by Christ, the divine physician.