The Early Franciscan Doctrine of the Knowledge of God

Between Augustine’s Authority and Innovation

Bibliographic Data

ID7210211
AuthorsLydia Schumacher (0000-0001-5092-6512, Institute of Religious Studies, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume6
Issue1
Pages1-28
Publication date2016-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Mediaeval Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2033-5385 • E-ISSN: 2033-5393
PublisherBrepols (PUBLISHER • BE)
DOI10.1484/j.tmj.5.110978
OpenAlexW2555011190
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

The collaboratively authored Summa Halensis is widely regarded as the first attempt to articulate a distinctly Franciscan intellectual tradition. This paper will examine one of its initial sections, on the knowledge of God, which lays the conceptual foundation for the rest of the work. While the Summa, like most scholastic texts, invokes many authoritative sources in this context, it gives pride of place to the work of Augustine. Nevertheless, it employs Augustine’s thought inconsistently, to argue both for and against the same position. On this basis, the paper will seek to elucidate the method whereby scholastic thinkers manipulated authoritative sources for their own ends. By the same token, it will demonstrate that the Summa’s authors, far from attempting to ‘systematize’ the thought of Augustine as some have supposed, were engaged in an effort to develop an innovative tradition of their own, which reflected their unique spiritual and ministerial vision as Franciscans

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Doctrine · Epistemology · Foundation (evidence · Political science · Pride · Sociology · Theology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy

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