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Robert Grosseteste on God As Principle and End of Creation with an Edition of Book V and VII of the Commentary on the De Divinis Nominibus

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Robert Grosseteste on God As Principle and End of Creation with an Edition of Book V and VII of the Commentary on the De Divinis Nominibus UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI SALERNO DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURALE DOTTORATO IN FILOSOFIA SCIENZE E CULTURA DELL’ETÀ TARDO-ANTICA MEDIEVALE E UMANISTICA XIV CICLO Coordinatore: Chiar.mo Prof. Giulio d’Onofrio Tesi di dottorato realizzata in convenzione di co-tutela internazionale con l’Institut supérieur de philosophie della Université catholique de Louvain Robert Grosseteste on God as Principle and End of Creation With an edition of Book V and VII of the Commentary on the De divinis nominibus Tesi di dottorato di: Gioacchino Curiello Tutor: Chiar.mo Prof. Alessandro Conti Tutor: Chiar.mo Prof. Jean-Michel Counet ANNO ACCADEMICO 2014/2015 1 2 “This is what Grosseteste as a scientist, philosopher, and theologian most desired: the unity of God and Creation stamped with the authority of the earliest Church. He found it in Denys” (Sir Richard William Southern) 3 4 Table of Contents CHAPTER 0 - Introduction .......................................................................................................5 0.1 The Life and Scholarly Works of Robert Grosseteste......................................................5 0.1.1 Life ...........................................................................................................................5 0.2.2 Works........................................................................................................................8 0.1.3 Scholarship.............................................................................................................10 0.2 The object of this dissertation: God and Creation..........................................................12 0.2.1 Filling a gap in scholarship.....................................................................................12 0.2.2 God as Principle and End of Creation....................................................................14 0.2.2.1 The threefold scheme: moné-próodos-epistrophé...........................................14 0.2.2.2 Theology and philosophy................................................................................15 0.2.3 Why did Grosseteste comment on the Corpus Dionysiacum?................................17 0.3 The structure of the dissertation.....................................................................................19 Abbreviations and notes............................................................................................................25 CHAPTER I - Grosseteste: translator and commentator of the Corpus Dionysiacum ............27 I.1 The Corpus Dionysiacum before the Commentary.........................................................27 I.2 Aliae translationes...........................................................................................................31 I.3 Grosseteste’s translation..................................................................................................35 I.4 Grosseteste as commentator............................................................................................38 I.5 Philosophical implications of Grosseteste’s translation theory ......................................44 I.6 Conclusion......................................................................................................................51 CHAPTER II - Manentia: God’s Transcendence......................................................................53 II.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................53 II.2 The doctrine of God before the Corpus Dionysiacum...................................................55 II.2.1 Definitions of God.................................................................................................55 II.2.2 Naming God means loving God.............................................................................60 II.2.3 Divine names..........................................................................................................63 II.2.4 Conclusion.............................................................................................................68 II.3 God as manentia in the Corpus Dionysiacum................................................................69 II.3.1 Knowing God.........................................................................................................70 II.3.1.1 The steps of the ascent....................................................................................70 II.3.1.2 Knowing God through symbols.....................................................................79 5 II.3.1.3 Philosophical knowledge of God...................................................................85 II.3.2 The relationship between love and knowledge......................................................88 II.3.3 God has no name ...................................................................................................92 II.3.3.1 Negations........................................................................................................93 II.3.3.2 God’s proper name.........................................................................................97 II.3.4 Conclusion.............................................................................................................99 CHAPTER III - Processio: A Theology of Creation...............................................................101 III.1 Introduction................................................................................................................101 III.2 Procession in the works before the Commentary.......................................................102 III.2.1 God is form (forma)............................................................................................102 III.2.1.1 Three meanings of ‘form’...........................................................................103 III.2.1.2 The form as a conservative principle..........................................................105 III.2.1.3 The form and matter....................................................................................109 III.2.2 God is first (prima) form.....................................................................................111 III.2.2.1 A Platonic View...........................................................................................112 III.2.2.2 The crisis.....................................................................................................114 III.2.2.3 The absence of Plato...................................................................................118 III.2.2.4 Against Plato...............................................................................................119 III.2.3 Form of everything (omnium)............................................................................124 III.2.3.1 Ubiquity of the first form............................................................................125 III.2.3.2 Trinitarian exemplarism..............................................................................128 III.2.4 Conclusion..........................................................................................................130 III.3 Procession in the Corpus............................................................................................131 III.3.1 Everything proceeds from God...........................................................................132 III.3.1.1 Why did God Create? .................................................................................132 III.3.1.2 Rationes.......................................................................................................135 III.3.1.3 The Many Degrees of Creatures’ Receptivity.............................................141 III.3.2 God has many names .........................................................................................146 III.3.2.1 A causal explanation of divine names.........................................................146 III.3.2.2 The primacy of Goodness...........................................................................149 III.3.2.3 Trinitarian names........................................................................................152 III.3.3 Conclusion..........................................................................................................154 CHAPTER IV - Reversio: Through human nature towards God............................................157 IV.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................157 6 IV. 2 The conditions for the return of the Universe............................................................158 IV.2.1 Homo in medio collocatus..................................................................................159 IV.2.2 Incarnation..........................................................................................................162 IV.3 The return of human beings........................................................................................166 IV.3.1 The resurrection..................................................................................................166 IV.3.1.1 Before the Commentary: a theme in the background..................................167 IV.3.1.2 The resurrection of the body.......................................................................169 IV.3.1.3 Back to Adam and beyond..........................................................................173 IV.3.2 Deification and Hierarchy...................................................................................177
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