Beatific enjoyment in medieval scholastic debates : the complex legacy of Saint Augustine and Peter Lombard / Severin Valentinov Kitanov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kitanov, Severin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Happiness--History.

Happiness.

History.

Philosophy, Medieval.

Pleasure--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Pleasure.

Augustine, of Hippo, Saint, 354-430.

Augustine.

Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, approximately 1100-1160. Sententiarum libri IV.

Peter Lombard.

Pleasure--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Physical Description:

xix, 285 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2014]

Summary:

Beatific Enjoyment in Medieval Scholastic Debates examines the religious concept of enjoyment as discussed by scholastic theologians in the Latin Middle Ages. Severin Valentinov Kitanov argues that central to the concept of beatific enjoyment (fruitio beatifica) is the distinction between the terms enjoyment and use (frui et uti) found in Saint Augustine's treatise On Christian Learning. Then Peter Lombard, a twelfth-century Italian theologian, chose the enjoyment of God to serve as an opening topic of his Sentences and thereby set in motion an enduring scholastic discourse. Kitanov examines the nature of volition and the relationship between volition and cognition. He also explores theological debates on the definition of enjoyment: whether there are different kinds and degrees of enjoyment, whether natural reason unassisted by divine revelation can demonstrate that beatific enjoyment is possible, whether beatific enjoyment is the same as pleasure, whether it has an intrinsic cognitive character, and whether the enjoyment of God in heaven is a free or un-free act. Even though the concept of beatific enjoyment is essentially religious and theological, medieval scholastic authors discussed this concept by means of Aristotle's logical and scientific apparatus and through the lens of metaphysics, physics, psychology, and virtue ethics. Bringing together Christian theological and Aristotelian scientific and philosophical approaches to enjoyment, Kitanov exposes the intricacy of the discourse and makes it intelligible for both students and scholars. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Aurelius Augustine and Peter Lombard on Beatific Enjoyment-The Starting Point of the Debate 1

St Augustine on Things to Enjoy and Things to Use 2

St Augustine on the Passions, Will, and Enjoyment 7

The Importance of Peter Lombard 13

Lombard on Enjoyment and Use 16

Conclusion 18

Notes 18

2 The Thirteenth Century-Setting Up the Key Issues in Debate 29

The Object of Enjoyment 30

Alexander of Hales 30

Albert the Great 32

St Bonaventure 33

St Thomas Aquinas 35

Peter of Tarantaise 38

Robert Kilwardby 38

Richard of Middleton 40

The Eternal Res of Enjoyment 41

The Proper Faculty of Enjoyment 43

Alexander of Hales 43

Albert the Great 44

St Bonaventure 46

St Thomas Aquinas 48

Peter of Tarantaise 50

Robert Kilwardby 51

William de la Mare 53

Giles of Rome 55

Richard of Middleton 57

Enjoyment and Volitional Quiescence 58

The Enjoyment of Animals 58

Conclusion 60

Notes 60

3 The Early Fourteenth Century-The High Point of the Debate Regarding the Object and Psychology of Beatific Enjoyment 73

Voluntarist Psychology and the Condemnation of 1277 74

Duns Scotus on Enjoyment and Use 75

The Liber propugntorius of Thomas Anglicus-an Early Thomistic Critique of Scotus 78

Peter Auriol on Enjoyment and Use 80

Francis of Marchia on the Different Acts and Passions of the Will 82

William of Ockham on Enjoyment and Use 85

Walter Chatton on Enjoyment and the Love of God 90

Robert Holcot on Enjoyment and Use 93

Adam Wodeham on Enjoyment, Cognition and Volition 95

Beatific Enjoyment in the Sentences Commentaries of Some Less-Known Fourteenth-Century Theologians: Robert Graystones O.S.B. and the Secular Richard FitzRalph at Oxford, and John Baconthorpe O. Carm. & Gerard of Siena O.E.S.A. at Paris 100

Enjoyment and Pleasure 107

Durandus of Saint Pourçain on the Object of Beatific Enjoyment 114

Conclusion 119

Notes 121

4 Early Fourteenth-Century Views of the Enjoyment of the Holy Trinity 143

The Trinity, Logic and the Limits of Theological Explanation 143

Duns Scotus's Exploration of Diverse Enjoyment Standpoints 145

Peter Auriol on Enjoying the Trinity as a Numerically Indistinguishable and Complete Unity 148

Gerard of Siena on the Objective Unity of Beatific Enjoyment 151

John Baconthorpe on Essential and Notional Acts of Cognition and the Challenge of Differentiated Enjoyments 153

William of Ockham's Ars obligatoria Elimination Strategy 156

Walter Chatton's Way with Trinitarian Syllogisms 158

Richard FitzRalph on the Possibility of Differentiated Enjoyments in this Life and the Life to Come 161

Robert Holcot's Logic of Faith 162

Adam Wodeham on Possible and Impossible Enjoyments 163

Conclusion 165

Notes 166

5 Early Fourteenth-Century Views of the Contingency of Beatific Enjoyment 175

Contingency, Obligation, Covenant and Divine Power 177

Duns Scotus on the Contingency of Enjoying the Ultimate End in via and in patria, with and without Charity's Assistance 178

The Liber propugnatorius on Scotus's Destruction of Moral Philosophy 192

Peter Auriol on the Psychological Irresistibility of the Ultimate End and the Voluntariness of Beatific Enjoyment 194

Francis of Marchia on Kinds of Freedom, Volitional Suspension, Kinds of Volitional Necessitation and the Contingency of Beatific Enjoyment 196

William of Ockham on Volitional Indifference, Rejecting Beatitude and the Passivity of the Will of the Blessed 201

Walter Chatton on Vision-Based and Abstraction-Based Enjoyment, and on Hating God and Beatitude 210

Richard FitzRalph on Freedom per se, Freedom per accidens and the Security of the Blessed 214

Robert Holcot on the Contingency, Causation and Security of Enjoyment, and on Volitional Suspension and Necessitation 216

Adam Wodeham on Apprehension-Based and Deliberation-Based Beatific Enjoyment 223

Robert Graystones on the Compatibility of Freedom and Necessity and the Contingency of Enjoyment through Personal Experience 225

Conclusion 229

Notes 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739174159

0739174150

OCLC:

869065408