Benjamin Winter

Many are familiar with the children’s song “Dem Dry Bones.” Yet perhaps fewer are aware that the inspiration for this song comes from the book of Ezekiel. As a hallmark of prophetic literature in Hebrew Scripture, Ezekiel is notable for its poignant images and oftentimes bizarre content. The text contains many mystical experiences and visions—not the least of which is the reanimation of the “dry bones” mentioned above. Here God communicates with Ezekiel in a tangible and personal manner unmatched throughout the rest of Scripture. And yet the passage is notoriously difficult to understand, making its way into popular culture in song under the auspices of an anatomy lesson. This paper aims to present a succinct and concise analysis of Ezekiel 37:1-14 with the goal of sharing its underlying theological message with a broader audience. Highlighting five key sections of the narrative, I utilize the concept of prophetic inspiration as a jumping off point to explain the issues at stake in a close reading of the vision’s form, content, and interpretation. What deep truths about God’s faithfulness to God’s people can people of faith glean from this passage today?

Section I analyzes the reasoning behind Aristotle’s rejection of Platonic Goodness-itself in NE Book One, and discusses each of the arguments raised against Plato’s school. Section II then gives a description of practical wisdom (phronesis) in NE Book Six—which is central to the trajectory of the text as a whole—and establishes the roots of this account in the same epistemic framework that Aristotle uses to refute Plato in Book One. Finally, Section III turns to NE Book Ten, arguing that its endorsement of “divine contemplation” must be understood as the function of a completely fulfilled human being, one who satisfies the criteria for “divinity” only insofar as he happily performs the actions necessary for a virtuous daily life in the political world.  Aristotle’s exhortation to divine contemplation, then, stands as the apotheosis of a performative project aimed at instilling virtue in the minds of readers; and NE is a text that couches human happiness as the highest good in order to guide readers towards a life that balances contemplation and activity.

The roots of conflict run deep between Christians and Jews, yet these religions share a common story about the God and God’s Law. Saint Paul, who did more than anyone else to expand Christianity from Jewish cult to Gentile phenomenon, had a complex relationship with the Mosaic Law. Depending on how passages are interpreted, Paul can be seen as either advocating an abrogation or a fulfillment of the Mosaic Law. Seeking to clarify the issue, my paper first examines the Greek verb katargeo (“to veil”) within the context of 2 Cor 3. Next, it treats the reception of Paul by St. Thomas Aquinas, drawing from Aquinas’ (as yet) untranslated commentary on 2 Cor 3. Finally, the paper turns to a brief theological discussion of the Catholic Church’s present stance on Judaism. I conclude that today’s teaching breaks from the interpretation of 2 Cor 3 put forward by St. Thomas.

Any reader of Augustine’s Confessiones (conf.) will find it impossible to overlook the figure of Monica. Her presence pervades the narrative, and her influence looms over Augustine’s pivotal conversion to Catholicism. In fact, Monica is one of the most famous women of late antiquity. It is incredible that we know as much about Monica as we do—women in her position were almost never described in writing, save perhaps as stock characters in theater.  Monica was not an ascetic, like the Desert Mothers about whom various Legenda were preserved for the purpose of spiritual instruction. Monica did not wield political power. Monica was, simply put, Augustine’s mother. His writings about her are a gem of history—a fact attested to by the breadth of scholarly secondary literature on their relationship. Everything we read about Monica is filtered through Augustine; and yet, on a deeper level, everything we read from Augustine is filtered through Monica. As her son, he benefited from her financial support, maternal guidance, and (perhaps most importantly) her sincere faith. This paper will closely analyze the text of conf. in order to provide a character sketch of Monica. We will ask: What is the role and function of a mother in the ancient world? In what ways is Monica a “good” wife and mother? How is all of this colored by Augustine’s pen? To answer these questions, we will consider Monica as a child, as the domina (mistress) of her household, as a widow, a philosopher, a mystic, a saint, and a manipulator. All of these titles could, to varying extents, be predicated of Monica. In the second and final section, we will explore the theological ramifications of these roles by briefly laying out Augustine’s understanding of the marriage contract. Using Monica’s life as a lens, we will come to some conclusions about the place of motherhood and marriage in Augustine’s thought.

This study examines one of Bonaventure's letters that I found in the Reg. lat 449 codex. I give information about the format of the manuscript, its provenance, style, and content. The hand is a Gothic hybrid. Notable features of the script are outlined and details of each folio are provided. Using digital imaging technology, I was able to draw out what was not previously legible and make a complete transcription.

This document contains my dissertation prospectus, as well as outlines, appendices, and a bibliography. I made a few revisions since successfully defending the prospectus in May, and am now happy to share this "groundwork" for the dissertation I am currently working on! Here is a blurb from the introduction:

Bonaventure situates a "triplex error" in philosophy [eternity of the world, fatal necessity, and monopsychism] within the discourse of metaphysics and ethics, with physics serving as a lynchpin between the two. While the three errors distort natural knowledge of these three disciplines—and their relation to one another—contemplation of the triplex Verbum, by contrast, reorders knowledge and reforms human memory, will, and intellect. Contemplation of Christ—the triplex Verbum who is known through humility—resolves the triplex error by reminding us of our place in the order of the universe (macrocosm), and by rightly ordering our souls (microcosm). As Bonaventure himself summarizes: “Our purpose then is to show that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge, and that he is the center of all knowledge” (hex. 1.11).

With the meteoric rise of Aristotle in the intellectual life of thirteenth-century Europe, a series of proofs concerning the world's possible eternity took on new meaning. The recovery of various Aristotelian texts, an influx of commentaries from the Arab world, and rapid changes in the size and composition of Western academies all allowed for the radical reassessment of traditional arguments for and against an eternal world. My paper treats the six arguments against the eternity of the world provided by Bonaventure in book two of his Sentence commentary. Utilizing material from the Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ and the Breviloquium, I advance a reading of these six arguments that analyzes the philosophical and theological reasoning behind Bonaventure's rejection of the possibility of an eternal world. I also engage with the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas (who disagreed with Bonaventure on this subject), with the goal of placing the two theological giants in productive dialog. The primary issues I address are whether Aristotle's doctrine of an eternal world implies a realized actual infinity (which is logically reprehensible), and why even the possibility of a potentially infinite past conflicts with the finitude of creation. By analyzing topics such as the nature of the infinite and the doctrine of ex nihilo, I hope to show the continuing tenability of Bonaventure's view.

This paper provides a broad look at pride and humility in Bonaventure’s three collations, specifically centered on his response to three common philosophical errors of his time. First, I give brief context on the composition of the collations and how they engage these three errors—ending with notes on the structure of the Collations on the Six Days of Creation. Next, I consider pride as the origin of these philosophical errors.  Finally, I describe humility as the end of philosophical errors, and the beginning of wisdom.

My paper examines the philosophical foundations of Saint Bonaventure’s Quaestiones Disputatae de Scientia Christi (de scientia), questions 1–3, specifically in light of the Platonic philosophy of Forms.  Bonaventure owed a debt to Plato’s tripartite schema, which related the Form of the Good (G-itself) to goodness (G-ness) in particular things as Pattern, Image, and Exemplar.  Building on this triple relation, the Seraphic Doctor provides a brilliant exposition of the harmony between God and the world, via a divine idea framework that is—I will argue—at once Platonic, Augustinian, and Pseudo-Dionysian. These themes are perhaps most clearly viewed through an image (common to Plato, Augustine, and Pseudo-Dionysius) of a Sun illuminating an intelligible realm.

Within this image there are three distinct types of being and three distinct movements: (1) essential being and emanation; (2) ideal being and participation; (3) reciprocal being and consummation.  All three are implied in the vision of a self-generating sun (1) shining upon or illuminating (2) objects that are ideally rather than actually distinct (3). This essay parses out the sun metaphor by considering—in tandem—a question from the de scientia and a relevant passage from Plato’s Republic, Augustine’s De libero arbitrio, and Pseudo-Dionysius’s Divine Names. The passages were all chosen for their direct advertence to the sun metaphor, as well as for their fittingness with the tripartite theme of emergence, participation, and recapitulation (N.B. My goal in selecting these specific passages is not to argue that Bonaventure had them in mind; rather, that the passages give readers adequate insight into the complex epistemic framework within which he conducts his investigations into the relationship between Divine Ideas and created reality). Treating these subjects, the Seraphic Doctor offers a holistic synthesis of ancient learning with the language and theology of his day—an achievement we would be foolish to ignore.

My argument in this paper is that Bonaventure takes the hierarchical order of knowledge derived from the Dionysian tradition, and colors it with Augustine’s notion of a limited, creaturely participation in God that is both cognitive and affective. In the end, I aim to show that Bonaventure understands beatitude as a Christocentric state of being, and that this Christocentrism is enhanced by Augustine’s own concern to keep a separation between divine and human comprehension of things.

Presentated at the 51st Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo)

Parsing out the circumstances that brought us to the present moment is no easy task. Assuming that this task is fundamental to the vocation of the historical theologian, my paper seeks to refine that vocation by telling a narrative of the rise of historical consciousness in Western Christianity (Part I). This narrative makes no presumption of objectivity. Rather, it is written from a Catholic perspective, by a student of history and theology, for the purpose of piquing the interest of readers and bettering the author’s own understanding of a complex subject. In organizing this narrative, I begin with 1) an exposition of the Reformation, insofar as it fostered a widespread perception of discontinuity between the Catholic Church and the primitive church. Then, I proceed through 2) a more detailed treatment of the tools and practices that advanced and qualified this sense of discontinuity with the past, contributing to what has been termed “the rise of historical consciousness.” Finally, I complete the narrative arc by 3) considering the historical scholarship of two major figures: Newman and Nietzsche.

In her novella Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard draws from the deep tradition of Christian spirituality to probe the nature of human existence. The work chronicles the events of a three day period, yet as the poetic expression of Dillard’s innermost thoughts it addresses a lifetime’s worth of philosophical questions. Dillard’s method of writing involves turning the eye of her mind toward the smallest details of her environment. In doing so she finds an Incarnational peace of contemplative solitude. But a horrific, accidental plane crash shatters this peace and leaves a young girl named Julie Norwich permanently disfigured. The event forces Dillard to rethink whether a logos exists for creation, to cry out into the darkness of God, to test the crushing limits of human temporality. The tragedy of Julie Norwich is an apt lens through which to view the problem of theodicy in the life of prayer. What has the apparent passivity of contemplation to say in the face of real human suffering? Why is something as temporary, changeable, and embodied as a human being worthy of love? My paper analyzes Holy the Firm as a meeting place for Christian spirituality and ethics. I argue that the novella’s form (structure) and content (events and imagery) convey deep spiritual truths about the relationship between the material world and the work of God in Christ. Tracing Dillard’s matrix of poetic imagery through the novella’s three chapters, I find a symbolic journey of faith that parallels three major events in the life of Christ—His Baptism, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. Dillard’s personal tone urges the reader to follow along, to join her in discovering a metaphysical key that makes sense of the apparent dichotomies between “body” and “soul” and the “immanence” and “eminence” of God. Can humans achieve the “peace that passes understanding” through contemplation in a world that appears increasingly chaotic, arbitrary, and distant from God?

The advent of the internet has brought tremendous new possibilities and problems for contemporary society. Specifically, the church has struggled to confront the accessibility of pornography on the web. Because radical technological development has made this unique temptation possible, preexistent theological frameworks are difficult to utilize when making a case for its immorality. This paper focuses on the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, whose theory of the passions exposes the inner workings of lust. I systematically analyze the various faculties of the soul involved in the choice to click a link to pornography by tracing the origin of temptation from the passive potencies (sense powers) to its culmination in the sensitive appetite. I conclude that when reason alone cannot curb appetitive passions, moral virtue must be imbued in the sensitive appetite through the formation of ethical (virtuous) habits that direct one's soul towards the ultimate good of eternal life.

The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick is a literary puzzle composed of Judaic, Christian, and Gnostic source materials. It is important to conduct a literary analysis of The Divine Invasion because its allegorical plot provides a Gnostic exegesis of several major themes within the Christian Bible. A pivotal concern in Christianity, and in most world religions, is how to bridge the gap between man and God. As science fiction writer chiefly concerned with ontology, Dick’s radical focus on direct revelation eschews the traditional role of the church. Instead, his later novels espouse a Gnostic revision of Christianity. While The Divine Invasion’s plotline contains numerous Biblical allusions, Dick’s characters reach enlightenment only through personal gnosis, or knowledge of the fragmented Godhead as the origin of evil. Dick’s futuristic universe reinterprets Biblical doctrines on judgment and liberation and his characters symbolize the fulfillment of religious ideals. Thus, Yah (Judaic) sends Emmanuel (Christian) to fight the allegorical final battle depicted in St. John’s Revelation. This mission is soon altered by the influence of Zina (Gnostic), who represents the earthly link to salvific wisdom. Drawing on Biblical narrative structures, Dick creates his own Old Testament in Chapters 1-5 and formulates his own prophecies of a final Messiah. Then, he explores the key role of the human psyche in the redemption of the living cosmos. The salvation story unfolds from the perspective of one Herb Asher, unwitting pawn in the hand of Yah and key participant in the defeat of the archenemy, Belial. But in Herb’s universe, time and space are not static, and reality may not be what it seems.

Two thinkers who became embroiled in the ongoing controversy surrounding justice ad bellum were Erasmus of Rotterdam and Francisco Suarez. Building on the same traditional frameworks (of Natural Law and Just War Theory), these two intellectuals nonetheless came to different conclusions about the role of rational calculation in a prince’s preparation for war. It is not the value of calculation itself that they disagreed upon, nor is it the idea that a war can never be just (both allowed that it might be). Rather, it is upon the weight of ad bellum calculation that the two theologians radically differed. Using selections from Erasmus’ The Education of a Christian Prince and Suarez’s The Three Theological Virtues: On Charity, I first point out congruence between the treatises with regard to the horror of war. Next, I discuss how the theologians diverge on the costs and just causes of war. I conclude by highlighting their respective views on the nature of justice, and illustrate how this fundamental difference in attitude informs their treatment of ad bellum calculations.

This study focuses primarily not on just war but on the connection in Christian thought between justice and love. In order to reach a point where the rich significance of passages like 1 Cor 13 can be better understood, I begin with the Platonic understanding of justice and explicate its ideal relation to communal society and the individual soul. Next I show how Plato’s focus on the psychology of justice gives way to a familial conceptualization of society and note the later contributions of Augustine to this subject. Finally I incorporate the work of two theologians who expand these ideas in the modern context: Kenneth R. Himes and John Howard Yoder. In sum this paper explores the convergence of justice and love in Christian thought and reflects upon the social duties of Christians who seek that peace which passes all understanding (Phil 4:7).

The aim of this concise and timely book is to present Saint Monica in cultural, historical, and theological context. Gillian Clark draws from her extensive previous scholarship on Augustine and Roman society in order to examine the everyday
life of Monica, who is “one of the best known women of classical antiquity” (1).

“It is impossible,” Bonaventure claims, “to arrive at knowledge of a creature except by that through which it was made.”  A cursory reading of the Itinerarium mentis in Deum establishes as much: the soul journeys to God through contemplation of things without, within, and above. The corporal, composite, and spiritual come together in a beautiful (and concise!) vision that unites the seemingly disparate parts of created order. But how does this movement of the soul play out in Bonaventure’s complex final work, Collationes in Hexaëmeron (hex.)? My paper argues that Bonaventure adds a new element to the leitmotif of the soul’s journey by framing contemplation within a twofold narrative of descent and ascent. The vision of understanding imparted by nature (Conferences 4-7) traces movement from the highest to the lowest, as the soul descends from the science of metaphysics to its application in art (ars). That vision, however, cannot stand on its own. Bonaventure laid a foundation with his treatment of philosophy in Conferences 4-7, but this foundation must be built up or “elevated” by faith in Conferences 8-12.  Here, and indeed in the entirety of the hex., Bonaventure impresses upon his audience that the goal of his discourse is to foster the ascent of the soul from the depths of humility to the heights of divine contemplation. Yet the soul’s ascent is easily hindered by the darkness of error and the blindness of pride. Prudence enables both the proper application of science, as it descends to art, and the safe passage of the soul, as it ascends to wisdom through understanding. The prudent soul knows its place (status) in the hierarchy of created order—and is thus transformed by beauty through the harmonization of things without, within, and above. Prudence, then, guides the soul’s journey to Christian wisdom (sapientia Christiana) and aids in the transformation of the mind as it is reformed in the image of Christ. As Bonaventure summarizes in the very first sentence of the hex.: “The Lord will open one’s mouth and will fill one with the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and will clothe one with a robe of glory (Sir 15:5). In these words the Holy Spirit instructs the prudent person to whom the speech ought to be addressed, where to begin, and where to end."

Presentation for the Patristics, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference at Villanova University, 2015. My method is to examine each chapter of the Breviloquium VII, showing how Bonaventure uses proportionality and rationality to describe the justice of God’s judgment. This presentation is an outcropping of my research for a co-authored chapter in the forthcoming Companion volume to the Breviloquium (Franciscan Institute Publications).

This presentation begins to answer four questions:

1) Why did Bonaventure write the Legenda Maior?
2) Which narratives in this hagiographical text deal with suffering and death?
3) How does Bonaventure’s theology inform these narratives?
4) What are some applications to pastoral care of the sick today?

Ibn Arabi and Bonaventure both articulate a metaphysics governed by the analogy of an unbegotten divine knower. Furthermore, a threefold division of “out/in/above” lies at the heart of each thinker’s epistemology. Finally, the two mystics see the goal of human life through the cosmic lens of a journey back to God. These three startling conjunctions, however, must be qualified and refined by taking the following differences into account: 1) the relationship of God’s ideas to creation; 2) the constitution of the human soul; 3) the mediation of the return to God.

Throughout the centuries, Christian theologians have pondered doubt and salvation in relationship to spiritual blindness. Such reflection is prompted by the fact that mystical knowledge of God is by nature ineffable. The kenotic self, the Christlike “new man” of St Paul, lives “by faith, not by sight” (cf. Eph 4:17-24, Col 3:1-11). In Itinerarium mentis in Deum, St Bonaventure uses the symbol of blindness to probe the theological mysteries revealed by Scripture. The text’s prologue includes an admonition to examine one’s conscience, “lest perchance you fall into a lower pit of darkness.” The work’s final chapter exhorts readers to ask for wisdom from “darkness, not clarity.” These references to darkness form the boundaries of Bonaventure’s theological inquiry—but what is it that enables readers to avoid one type and embrace the other? For Bonaventure, human blindness is in fact the key to mystical transportation into God. The Itinerarium qualifies this assertion via two opposing “blindness” narratives. The first is an implied descent, through distracting actions and thoughts, into
impenetrable spiritual darkness. The second is an ascent, through prayer and humility, into superabundant spiritual darkness. I argue that the reader who comes to understand both narratives participates in an exercise of the mind. Through this exercise, the reader gains the ability to express doubt in a manner that reflects praise, honor, and eminence back to God. Instead of viewing knowledge as a bulwark to be constructed against all forms of uncertainty, the Itinerarium aims to cultivate the inner disposition of humble “blindness” that opens human hearts to the enkindling fire of the Holy Spirit.

The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick is a literary puzzle composed of Judaic, Christian, and Gnostic source materials. It is important to conduct a literary analysis of The Divine Invasion because its allegorical plot provides a Gnostic exegesis of several major themes within the Christian Bible. A pivotal concern in Christianity, and in most world religions, is how to bridge the gap between man and God. As science fiction writer chiefly concerned with ontology, Dick’s radical focus on direct revelation eschews the traditional role of the church. Instead, his later novels espouse a Gnostic revision of Christianity. While The Divine Invasion’s plotline contains numerous Biblical allusions, Dick’s characters reach enlightenment only through personal gnosis, or knowledge of the fragmented Godhead as the origin of evil. Dick’s futuristic universe reinterprets Biblical doctrines on judgment and liberation and his characters symbolize the fulfillment of religious ideals. Thus, Yah (Judaic) sends Emmanuel (Christian) to fight the allegorical final battle depicted in St. John’s Revelation. This mission is soon altered by the influence of Zina (Gnostic), who represents the earthly link to salvific wisdom. Drawing on Biblical narrative structures, Dick creates his own Old Testament in Chapters 1-5 and formulates his own prophecies of a final Messiah. Then, he explores the key role of the human psyche in the redemption of the living cosmos. The salvation story unfolds from the perspective of one Herb Asher, unwitting pawn in the hand of Yah and key participant in the defeat of the archenemy, Belial. But in Herb’s universe, time and space are not static, and reality may not be what it seems.

Drawing from as many regional, lingual, and theological contexts as possible, this exhibit introduces viewers to the practice of liturgy in the medieval period. At this time in Western European history, the celebration of mass was seen as an essential function of society. For more than a millennium the daily lives of religious, canonical, and lay people were ordered by liturgy’s sacred rhythm and ritual.

Manuscripts with liturgical calendars and manuscripts related to the cult of saints are exhibited in Case A. These documents show how liturgy dictated the rhythm of time and set the boundaries of humanity’s relationship to God. These aspects are evident in the universal celebration of events in the “Church Year,” and in the particular and highly varied practices of local communities with their unique feasts and cults.

Case B examines the effects of liturgical ritual on communities. It displays liturgical manuscripts that include performance instructions—examples of how worship practices were shaped by the abilities and resources of participants. The relationships between various types of mass books (such as antiphonals, breviaries, and graduals) are also explored, as a tribute to the complexity of the manuscript tradition within which these treasures of medieval life are preserved.

http://www.slu.edu/319-ongoing-liturgy-in-the-middle-ages-exhibit