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The Theological and Pastoral Influences of St. Bonaventure's Critical Retrieval of Joachim of Fiore on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI

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The Theological and Pastoral Influences of St. Bonaventure's Critical Retrieval of Joachim of Fiore on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Providence College DigitalCommons@Providence Theology Graduate Theses Theology Spring 2013 Loving in the Present: The Theological and Pastoral Influences of St. Bonaventure's Critical Retrieval of Joachim of Fiore on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI William L. Patenaude Providence College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/theology_graduate_theses Part of the Religion Commons Patenaude, William L., "Loving in the Present: The Theological and Pastoral Influences of St. Bonaventure's Critical Retrieval of Joachim of Fiore on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI" (2013). Theology Graduate Theses. 1. https://digitalcommons.providence.edu/theology_graduate_theses/1 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theology at DigitalCommons@Providence. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theology Graduate Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Providence. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Graduate Thesis Submission Loving in the Present: The Theological and Pastoral Influences of St. Bonaventure’s Critical Retrieval of Joachim of Fiore on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Submitted by: William L. Patenaude Providence College April 24, 2011 Loving in the Present William Patenaude Introduction The influences of St. Bonaventure on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI1 have been noted in studies by Fr. Aidan Nichols O.P., Tracey Rowland, Fr. Maximilian Heinrich Heim, and others.2 A dedicated overview of Bonaventurian thought within the writings of the current Holy Father, however, is necessary to more fully appreciate the roots of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s theology and its imprint on (and implications for) Catholic theology, anthropology, and pastoral practices. The present work intends to demonstrate that Joseph Ratzinger’s 1957 thesis on St. Bonaventure’s critical retrieval of Joachim of Fiore did not simply light a candle to illuminate Ratzinger’s later theological explorations, but rather uncovered a Trinitarian supernova—one of dynamic relationship and love. This would forever influence how Ratzinger/Benedict XVI perceives humanity’s history as well as its engagement with the very essence of revelation. Specifically, I suggest that the current Successor of Peter has benefited considerably from St. Bonaventure’s pastoral response to thirteenth- century Franciscan “Spiritualists” and their acceptance of an imminent or realized eschatology. This response included a corrective theology of history that, along with Bonaventure’s dialectical engagement with new ways of thought (specifically, Joachim’s), provides vital understandings of what Christianity offers a fallen world. The present work will examine how these Bonaventurian influences allow Ratzinger to develop from core Christian theological proclamations—particularly the Cross and that God, as Trinity, is relationship and love—a particular emphasis on Christian charity. This emphasis, which will be shown to permeate his works, is the observation that the Franciscan Master General, like Augustine, “knew” that for Christianity to remain authentic, it must maintain its continuing kenosis—that is, its communal obligation (and the implications thereof) for members of the Body of Christ to sacrificially “love in the present.”3 1 The naming convention used in the present work will refer to “Ratzinger” for particular statements or texts related to Joseph Ratzinger before his election to the papacy. “Benedict XVI” will be used for those statements/texts after his ascension to the Chair of Peter. Otherwise, “Ratzinger/Benedict XVI” will be used for overarching statements that refer to the man in his entirety. 2 Aidan Nichols devotes a chapter to Ratzinger’s study of Bonaventure’s theology of history and metaphysics in The Theology of Joseph Ratzinger (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988), 51-65. Tracey Rowland makes similar observations, and carries them into Ratzinger’s pontificate in Ratzinger’s Faith, The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (Oxford: University Press, 2008). Maximilian Heinrich Heim focuses on Ratzinger’s role and subsequent criticisms of the Second Vatican Council. Heim suggests that Ratzinger’s studies of St. Bonaventure “had key importance for Ratzinger in the later debate about the eschatological aspects of the Constitution on the Church and about the different ways in which it was received in ecumenical circles as well as by proponents of Latin American liberation theology.” Joseph Ratzinger: Life in the Church and Living Theology, trans. Michael J. Miller (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2005), 160. Fr. Heim notes that more can be said about Bonaventure’s influence on Ratzinger, but that this was beyond the scope of his work (163). See also Thomas P. Rauch, SJ, Pope Benedict XVI, An Introduction to His Theological Vision (New York: Paulist Press, 2009). 3 Joseph Ratzinger, Theology of History in St. Bonaventure, trans. Zachary Hayes O.F.M. (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1971), 163. - 1 - Loving in the Present William Patenaude To accomplish this, the present work will trace how Ratzinger’s encounters with the Nazi regime and, later, theologians such as Augustine and Henri de Lubac prepared him for his reading of the Seraphic Doctor. This reading provided Ratzinger with a view of God’s revelation and saving activity as historical— that is, as taking place in collective and individual moments of both reflection and radical charity. The emphasis on the Christian obligation to “love in the present” is threatened by what Ratzinger/Benedict XVI considers to be temptations to “escape” history and its suffering. In general, such escape has to do with either (i) a retreat into a privatized form of religious individualism or sectarianism that minimizes or excludes charity toward other humans and the world generally; or (ii) a godless eschatology rooted in the hope that human suffering can be eliminated through rational politics and technological power. Joachim’s New Age theology will be shown to be both an important resource and liability for Christian tradition. Indeed, Bonaventure, the young Ratzinger, and the mature Benedict XVI maintain that Joachim has something to offer regarding the interplay of history, revelation, and salvation. Given this shared appreciation of (and warnings about) Joachim, the present work will identify and explore Bonaventurian themes within Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s writings and activities. A central place will be given to Ratzinger’s original study of Bonaventure and his principal works on revelation and eschatology. As appropriate, attention will be called to his appreciation and critiques of the Second Vatican Council, as well as significant theological trends that he would (and continues to) engage. Pontifical texts examined will primarily include Benedict XVI’s three encyclicals, although selected homilies and letters will also be cited. Throughout his corpus, Ratzinger/Benedict XVI will be found exhorting individual Christians to maintain a primacy of cruciform love so that the Church can faithfully propose to the world what will be described herein as a unique sacramental view of social doctrine. Expanding the understanding of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s encounter with Bonaventure Nichols in particular finds it significant that Ratzinger concludes his work on Bonaventure with the centrality of Pauline love (cf. 1 Cor 13)4. Nichols, as with Rowland and Heim, counts as a watershed moment for Ratzinger his 1957 Habilitationsschrift on St. Bonaventure’s interrelated views on revelation and human 4 Nichols, Theology of Joseph Ratzinger, 44. - 2 - Loving in the Present William Patenaude history. Indeed, when published for the general public more than a decade later, Ratzinger noted in his foreword that the “bitter controversies of the 1260s and 1270s” were “similar to the post-Conciliar mood which we are experiencing” in the late 1960s.5 As for methodology, Ratzinger finds Bonaventure evenhandedly discoursing with unruly elements under his care in an effort “to preserve the unity of the Order.”6 For Ratzinger, Bonaventure becomes a model for the pastoral use of sound theology to successfully—that is, with charity—resolve threats from unorthodox members of his community. To understand Bonaventure’s impact on Ratzinger, one must know the thirteenth-century landscape in which Bonaventure found himself. This includes especially the Franciscan General’s attempts to re-direct the exuberance of those in his Order mesmerized with the writings of a twelfth-century mystic, Joachim of Fiore. These writings were later construed to prove that St. Francis had ushered in a new Age of the Spirit, an interpretation that would find itself at odds with orthodox Catholic understandings of the Trinity and the place of the Cross.7 How Bonaventure handled these Franciscan Spiritualists led to two strands of thought about Christianity’s understanding of history. These strands are interrelated and form a dominate genetic code that has shaped Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as both theologian and priest. The first element of our subject’s Bonaventurian ancestry came from the Franciscan General’s view of scripture having a “historical character.” While Ratzinger affirms that “scripture is closed” for Bonaventure, he adds that “its meaning is advancing in a steady growth through history; and this growth is not yet closed.”8 For Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, revelation’s interaction with humanity’s history of love is the driving force that, at the end of time, will make known the fullness of Truth, and, importantly, make possible
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