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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA an Hexaëmeral Reading

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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY of AMERICA an Hexaëmeral Reading THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA An Hexaëmeral Reading of Bonaventure’s Breviloquium A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the School of Theology and Religious Studies In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Daniel Wade McClain Washington, D.C. 2016 An Hexaëmeral Reading of Bonaventure’s Breviloquium Daniel Wade McClain, Ph.D. Director: Joshua Benson, Ph.D. This dissertation examines the structure of Bonaventure’s Breviloquium, a brief synthesis of theology produced in 1257 at the end of his tenure as Master at the University of Paris.1 Previous studies of this text have complicated its structure by emphasizing a distinction in genre between the prologue and the “body,” and by reading the “body” either in terms of the Platonic scheme of procession and return, or in terms of origin, procession, and return, which is a scheme supplied by Bonaventure himself.2 While attending to Bonaventure’s unique theology of the Trinity and Christ as 1 Cf. Jacques-Guy Bougerol, Introduction à Saint Bonaventure (Paris: J. Vrin, 1988), 197; Marianne Schlosser, “Bonaventure: Life and Works,” in A Companion to Bonaventure, ed. Jay M. Hammond, Wayne Hellmann, and Jared Goff (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 24–26. 2 Pedro Bordoy-Torrents, “Técnicas divergentes en la redacción del Breviloquio de San Bonaventura,” Cientia Tomista (1940): 442-51; Paula Jean Miller, F.S.E, Marriage: the Sacrament of Divine-Human Communion (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1995); Dominic Monti, O.F.M., “Introduction,” in Breviloquium (St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2005), xlviii-xlix; and Joshua C. Benson, “The Christology of the Breviloquium,” in A Companion to Bonaventure, 247–287. medium, these studies have overlooked significant resources in Bonaventure’s use of the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest which can help further illumine the structure of the Breviloquium. Indeed, from the resources that are available today, it appears that Bonaventure drew material and inspiration from commentaries on Genesis 1–2:4a, and synthesized them with his own distinctive theological program. This at least seems to be the case from the evidence in the critical edition of Bonaventure’s works and from a comparison of the structure and content of the Breviloquium and those commentaries. This synthesis, as this dissertation argues, becomes particularly important in the relationship that Bonaventure draws between God’s operations in creation, restoration, and perfection and the division of the Hexaëmeron into creation, distinction, and adornment, formulated at least by Bede the Venerable and transmitted by theologians like Hugh of St. Victor. This study argues that this relationship helps to clarify the structure of the text and, moreover, offers to resolve the problem of the prologue’s relation to the body by appeal to the structure of the Hexaëmeron, as Bonaventure understands it. This dissertation by Daniel Wade McClain fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Systematic and Historical Theology approved by Joshua Benson, Ph.D., as Director, and by Mark Clark, Ph.D., and Robert Trent Pomplun, Ph.D. as Readers. __________________________________________ Joshua Benson, Ph.D, Director __________________________________________ Mark Clark, Ph.D., Reader __________________________________________ Robert Trent Pomplun, Ph.D., Reader ii To Kate with all my heart iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ..................................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................... x CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Reception of the Breviloquium ................................................................................................. 5 Analysis of the Structure of the Breviloquium ..................................................................... 11 Creation and Re-Creation in the Theology of the Breviloquium ....................................... 25 The Procedure of This Dissertation ...................................................................................... 31 CHAPTER TWO: BONAVENTURE’S PROLOGUE IN LIGHT OF HEXAËMERAL LITERATURE ............................................................................................................................. 34 Bonaventure’s Prologue ......................................................................................................... 38 Commentaries on Genesis 1–2:4a ......................................................................................... 47 Philo and the De opificio mundi .......................................................................................... 50 Origen and the De principiis and In Genesim homilae ...................................................... 56 Basil of Caesarea and the Homilies on the Hexaëmeron .................................................... 60 Ambrose and the Exaemeron .............................................................................................. 65 Augustine and De Genesi ad litteram ................................................................................. 68 Bede and In principium Genesis .......................................................................................... 77 Hugh of St. Victor and the De sacramentis and De tribus diebus .................................... 84 Peter Lombard and the Sentences ...................................................................................... 93 Robert Grossetste and the Hexaëmeron ............................................................................. 95 Alexander of Hales and the Summa Fratris Alexandri ..................................................... 98 Bonaventure’s Reception of the Hexaëmeral Genre ........................................................ 100 CHAPTER THREE: HEXAËMERAL ORDER IN BREVILOQUIUM II.1–2 ..................... 109 Brev. II.1–2: Exposition ......................................................................................................... 112 The Procedure and Structure of Part Two ..................................................................... 113 Brev. II.1—Divine Perfection and Created Order ......................................................... 114 Brev. II.2—The Hexaëmeron, Seminal Reasons, and Divine Perfections .................. 124 Divine Perfections in the thought of Hugh of St. Victor and Brev. II.2 ...................... 127 Hexaëmeral Operations: Creation, Distinction, Adornment ...................................... 130 The Theological Relevance of the Hexaëmeron ............................................................... 134 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 138 CHAPTER FOUR: THE HEXAËMERAL STRUCTURE OF THE BREVILOQUIUM ..... 143 The Work of Distinction: Part One—the Trinity .............................................................. 149 The Work of Distinction: Part Two—Creation ................................................................. 153 iv Creation prefigures restoration: Brev. II.5 & 12 ............................................................. 156 Adornment is Prefigured in Distinction ........................................................................ 162 The Work of Distinction: Part Three—Sin ........................................................................ 168 The Work of Adornment: Part Four—the Incarnation .................................................... 174 The Work of Adornment: Part Five—Grace ..................................................................... 190 The Work of Adornment: Part Six—Sacraments ............................................................. 201 The Work of Perfection: Part Seven—The Last Judgment .............................................. 207 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 216 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 219 Summary of the Argument ................................................................................................. 219 Objections to the Thesis ....................................................................................................... 226 Problems in the Interpretation of the Breviloquium .......................................................... 233 Bonaventure’s Synthesis ...................................................................................................... 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................... 246 v PREFACE My argument in this dissertation is that the Breviloquium, a text which is ostensibly written for the sake of theological formation, and which was written at height of Bonaventure’s career as a Master at the University of Paris and in the same year that he became minister general of the Friars minor (1257), imitates, or takes as its structure a particular rendition of the structure of the Hexaëmeron, the six days of creation and seventh day of rest in Genesis 1–2:4a. This argument can make an important contribution to the study of not only the Breviloquium
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