Peter Damian’s epistle 28, usually called Dominus vobiscum, shows a complex theological discussion. In fact, the author intertwines different subjects: the reform of the Church, the exaltation of monasticism, and, in particular, the primacy of the eremitical life. However, what is central in Peter Damian’s discourse is the Eucharistic sacrament, which the author considers from the standpoint of a theological sensitivity centered on the liturgical dimension of the celebration and on its spiritual and religious value. This contribution analyses Peter Damian’s (...) treatment of the Eucharistic sacrament, placing it in the historical-theological and doctrinal context of the disputes on the sacrament that animated the Church since the mid-eleventh century. (shrink)

In the last years, starting from the study of the foundations of human rights, Pier Cesare Bori has focused his research on the exegesis of Genesis 1, 26-28, according to which man is created in the image of God. In the Christian framework the imago Dei has led to different interpretations: a charismatic and eschatological, an ontological and a functional one. To solve the contradictions between these different exegesis of imago Dei Bori has suggested to consider a larger context, looking (...) not only at the Christian tradition, but also at the other monotheisms, cultures and religions. The proceedings here presented are the result of this attempt to develop new approaches to the study of the topic of imago Dei. It has been undertaken by an international group of scholars from different research fields (history, theology, hermeneutics, philosophy, exegesis) during a few days of scientific exchange and dialogue. (shrink)

Introduction : questions and research -- Objectivity versus subjectivity -- The foundation of political and moral order -- The long road to a common lexicon -- Breaks, continuities, and shifts -- Highlights and shadows of a portrait -- Conclusion.

The decades which go from Peter Lombard’s death to the mid of the thirteenth century represent a key period for the building and the development of the Parisian university milieu. The masters who t...

The decades which go from Peter Lombard’s death to the mid of the thirteenth century represent a key period for the building and the development of the Parisian university milieu. The masters who thought in the city defined the basis of the theological culture inherited by the great Scholastic authors such as Bonaventure, Albert the Great and Aquinas, but they also contribute to the development of the teaching practices through which the theological doctrines were analysed and discussed. All along the (...) twentieth century several studies have been devoted to this period, focusing on the writings and doctrines of the masters between 1160 and 1250, but a great amount of texts remains still unpublished and unstudied. This contribution aims to offer a survey of the researches dedicated, since the early twentieth century, to the texts and doctrines of the Parisian masters between the last decades of the twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth centuries. Considering the different historiographical trends and methodologies, the article tries to establish the basis for some considerations and remarks on the kind of research approach which will be developed to deal with these texts and authors and their role in the development of the European culture in late Middle Ages. (shrink)

Bulletin de Philosophie Médiévale, Volume 62, Issue, Page 15-89, January 2020.

The Summa Alexandrinorum is an epitome of the Nicomachean Ethics, probably composed in Late Antiquity, translated into Arabic and then into Latin by Hermannus Alemannus . The first part of the article reconstructs its history and its circulation in the Arabic and Latin worlds. The second part is an analysis of the philosophical background to the Summa, particularly the obvious influences of Peripatetic and Neoplatonic philosophy. An appendix offers an edition of an interesting part of the Summa, the so-called «seventh (...) book» , based on the most important manuscripts. (shrink)

Natural law is a crucial subject in the twelfth-century debates among Roman and canon lawyers, but also among the exegetes and theologians. Starting from two verses of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, the masters debated the natural capability of human being to achieve a moral knowledge and the features of the universal moral principle, that is the lex naturalis, which natural reason can understand. Through the analysis of Gilbert of La Porrée’s Glossa in epistolas Beati Pauli and of Ps. Hugh (...) of St. Victor’s Quaestiones in epistolas Beati Pauli, this essay examines the exegetical developments in the Parisian milieu of the mid-twelfth century. It shows how the doctrinal positions of Gilbert and the Ps. Hugh stand in their intellectual landscape and which influence they have in the development of the theological debate on natural law. (shrink)

One of the most significant aspects of twelfth-century theological development is the success of Peter Lombard’s Sententiarum libri quatuor. Since 1160 this text became the subject of fierce debates but also of an increasing use in the teaching activity of the Parisian masters. Peter Comestor, one of Peter Lombard’s pupils and his successor as master, composed an introitus to the Sentences whose contents were immediately seen as the proper perspective to understand Lombard’s work. The essay provides a study of Comestor’s (...) introitus whit a critical edition of the text. A special attention is also devoted to the literary and doctrinal influence of the text, whit the edition of two texts connected with it, namely the prologue of ps.-Peter of Poitier’s Glossae and the prologue to Hugh of Saint-Cher’s commentary on the Sentences. (shrink)