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Beatrice As a Theologian of Deification in the Vita Beatricis

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Beatrice As a Theologian of Deification in the Vita Beatricis ROB FAESEN Beatrice as a Theologian of Deification in the Vita Beatricis The literary and spiritual-theological strategy of the anonymous author of the Vita Beatricis has attracted the attention of a number of researchers in the past. Indeed, it is striking that the author of the Vita integrated an adaptation of the Seven Manners of Love into his text, which enables us carefully to compare the Middle Dutch original and the Latin version. As I have argued elsewhere, the Latin author employs a complex, varied strategy.1 In this contribution, I will analyse a specific aspect of the Vita Beatricis, namely the theological dimen- sions of the text, which I will then discuss from the perspective of mainstream thirteenth-century theology, albeit not as extensively.2 Indeed, the anonymous author consistently presents Beatrice as a theological author, and especially as a theologian whose life and work bring to the fore a theological theme that was controversial in the thirteenth century, namely that of deification.3 Beforehand it may be useful to give some consideration to the term ‘theology’ since it can be used in several senses – just as is the case with ‘philosophy’, ‘lite- rature’ or ‘mysticism’. Jean Leclercq rightly pointed out that it is methodologically incorrect to define the meaning of this term based on its use in a certain period, and then to examine whether or not this ‘theology’ is present in other periods.4 1 See Rob Faesen, ‘Mystiek en hagiografie: Hoe behandelt de anonieme auteur van de “Vita Beatricis” het verschijnsel mystiek?’, Ons Geestelijk Erf, 73 (1999), 97-110. 2 We will not discuss the question whether or not there may have been an original, Middle Dutch autobiography written by Beatrice, which the anonymous biographer translated into Latin, as Leonce Reypens assumes (see Vita Beatricis: De autobiografie van de Z. Beatrijs van Tienen o.cist. 1200- 1268, ed. by L. Reypens, Studiën en Tekstuitgaven van Ons Geestelijk Erf, 15 (Antwerp: Ruusbroec- genootschap, 1964), pp. 38*-46* (= hereinafter referred to as ‘VB’)), on the basis of expressions used in the prologue of the Vita (see VB, lib. I, cap. 4). This may be a simple misunderstanding: liber vitae suae may very well refer to the actual life of Beatrice as a ‘book’ of which she herself was the real author. In fact, the biographer does say explicitly that he used Middle Dutch texts (‘prout in cedulis suscepi, oblata verba vulgaria latino eloquio coloravi’): one of these is obviously the Seven Manners. The assumption of a (now lost) Middle Dutch autobiography written by Beatrice implies that the entire ‘reworking’ of the Seven Manners in the Vita may have been done by Beatrice herself. 3 For literature on the theological theme of deification, see Édouard des Places, Irénée-H. Dal- mais, Gustave Bardy, and others, ‘Divinisation,’ Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, Ascétique et Mysti- que: Doctrine et Histoire, 3 (1957), 1370-1459; Daniel Keating, Deification and Grace (Napels, FL: Sapientia Press, 2007); John Arblaster & Rob Faesen, eds., Theosis/Deification: Christian Doctrines of Divinization East and West, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovanien- sium, 294 (Leuven: Peeters, 2017); John Arblaster & Rob Faesen, eds., Mystical Doctrines of Deification: Case Studies in the Christian Tradition, Contemporary Theological Explorations in Christian Mysticism (Abington: Routledge, 2018). 4 Jean Leclercq, Études sur le vocabulaire monastique au Moyen Âge, Studia anselmiana, 48 (Rome: Herder 1961), p. 79. Ons Geestelijk Erf 89(3-4), 317-336. doi: 10.2143/OGE.89.3.3287359 © Ons Geestelijk Erf. All rights reserved. 318 ROB FAESEN It is more correct to see how different authors, in the period one is investigating, understand the term. For our period – the thirteenth century – one notices that ‘theology’ is more or less synonymous with doctrina sacra.5 A stimulating des- cription, taken from the Summa Halesiana (an early representative of the genre of theological summae, from the first half of the thirteenth century6) can be useful for our examination of the Vita Beatricis, because of its brevity and clarity: Doctrina sacra dicitur divina, seu theologica, quia a Deo est et de Deo et ductiva ad Deum. [The sacred doctrine is called divine, or ‘theological’, because it is from God, about God, and leads toward God.]7 This pithy description about the levels of meaning of the word ‘theological’ contains elements that can be useful for our topic.8 Firstly, doctrina sacra (i.e. ‘theology’) is a doctrine – a coherent form of insight – ‘about’ God [de Deo]. This insight is ‘from God’ [a Deo]. Indeed, it is fundamentally a revealed insight, which the human person can never reach by human effort, but which is given to the faithful, out of pure grace. Only God’s freely given self-revela- tion grants the human person insight concerning God. Giulo d’Onofrio sum- marizes the question thus: The philosophical reasoning of antiquity had shown its inability to understand a truth it had only been able to glimpse over the centuries. Yet converts to Christia- nity […] believed that they possessed the truth through God’s unmerited gift […].9 Every correct knowledge about God is therefore a gift, since it relies on this self-revelation of God.10 And, d’Onofrio continues, from the very beginning, 5 Abundant bibliography in the three-volume standard work Storia di teologia nel Medioevo, ed. by Giulio d’Oniofrio (Casale Monferrato: Piemme, 1996). 6 Alexander of Hales (c. 1185-1245) was the first to use Peter Lombard’s Sentences in his theo- logical teaching. He is an early and important contributor to the application of the genre of summa to the field of theology. Since this work was edited critically, however, we know that he was not its only author, and it is therefore called the Summa Halesiana. 7 Alexander of Hales [Alexander de Hales], Summa theologica, ed. Bernardinus Klumper, 5 vols in 4 bks (Ad Claras Aquas [Quaracchi]: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1924-1948).of Hales, Summa theologica, ed. by Bernardini Klumper, 4 vols (Clarae Aquae: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1924- 1948), I (1924), tract. introd., q. 1, II, ad obj., p. 5B, quoted in Aimé Solignac, ‘Théologie. II: Le mot et sa signification’, in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, Ascétique et Mystique: Doctrine et His- toire, 15 (1990), 463-487 (col. 479). (My translation.) 8 For a more extensive discussion of the consequences, see the chapter ‘The Principles of Medie- val Theology’ in Giulio d’Oniofrio, History of Theology. II: The Middle Ages (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2008), pp. 1-24. Obviously, we do not suggest that there is a textual connection with the Vita Beatricis. We simply use this description because it is clear, concise, and it sum- marizes many similar contemporaneous understandings of the term. 9 d’Onofrio, History of Theology, p. 4. 10 Bernard McGinn has brought to the fore a quote from Henry of Ghent, who argues that women can certainly be ‘doctors in theology’ – albeit not ex officio, but ex beneficio (see The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism 1200-1350, The Presence of God: A History BEATRICE AS A THEOLOGIAN OF DEIFICATION 319 Christians have considered it their task to express this freely given insight in a coherent doctrine: Paul himself confirms this outlook when he urges the unification of the faith in the form of ‘sound doctrine’ (Titus 1. 9), a solid intellectual organization that is able to stand up to the doubts of unbelievers and the deceits of heretics. The people of the Middle Ages started with the presupposition that the Fathers of the Church (Augustine chief among them) had already completed that task and had made them heirs of ‘sound doctrine’, the truth of which was guaranteed by two proofs: its revealed origin and the permanence given to it by reason.11 Next, the quote from the Summa Halesiana says that doctrina sacra is ‘theo- logical’ because it leads to God. It is a ‘logos’ that leads the human person to the encounter with God [ductiva ad Deum]. Misconceptions about God alienate the human person from God; correct doctrine brings the human person closer to God. This is obviously a basic principle in the entire history of Christian doctrina sacra, and it is a topos in countless medieval religious texts. Moreover, ductiva ad Deum announces the theme of deification, as we will see below. In the following, we will examine how the author of the Vita Beatricis des- cribes Beatrice as a ‘theologian’ – and specifically in the aforementioned mul- tivalent meaning. That the author implies that Beatrice is a theologian, has already been suggested before, e.g. in the three-volume study by Bardo Weiß, in which the Vita Beatricis is analyzed along with various other vitae.12 We will focus on how the author does this, and especially how this doctrina sacra is, in his understanding, ductiva ad Deum for Beatrice. It may be useful to call to mind that in 1957, Jean Leclercq argued, in line with Étienne Gilson, that monastic authors ought to be studied along with the scholastic authors as real theologians, and in 1994 Bernard McGinn and Nico- las Watson (independently of each other) argued for the recognition of the ‘vernacular’ theological tradition.13 These three traditions are now generally accepted as genuine theological discourse – which do not necessarily need to be different as to their theological content. The Vita Beatricis is an interesting text in this regard because the three genres come together: the anonymous author seems to have had a good scholastic education (see below), he writes for monastic readers about a Cistercian nun, and he integrates texts from the vernacular tradition, of which one has been identified (the Seven Manners).
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