Eleonore Stump's work on the atonement comes as a salutary entry into a discourse that is breaking down the barriers between what counts as philosophical and what counts as theology.Stump herself is well positioned to do this, for her previous work has often gone beyond what might be termed philosophy of religion into theological reflection proper, and it has done so with competence and sensitivity.Seen from this perspective, the present work stands as something of a magnum opus, both in its scope and in its achievement.It is a detailed and lengthy project, and would defeat any attempt to give a comprehensive overview in a short space.I will therefore focus on just three things: the nature of her account of the atonement, the main challenge she sets herself, and what I consider the most important contribution this work makes to reflection on the Christian doctrine of atonement in general.At the outset, Stump divides most atonement theories into two models: those of an Anselmian sort, and those of a Thomistic sort.These are broad categories, populated by many different atonement theories, and Anselm and Aquinas themselves represent but one example of each.The choice between them represents the first great choice in the developing of a theory of the atonement.Anselmian doctrines of the atonement are those that see "the chief obstacle to the remedy for human sin […] in something about God" (21).Therefore, what needs to be addressed for humans to be saved is this situation in God: for example, that God's justice must be satisfied, or that God must be paid what God is due, etc.One problem Stump sees with such views is that they do not explain why there should be anything required from the particular human to be saved: if the obstacle to union is on God's part, and this is satisfied in the death of Christ, why is salvation not self-acting for all humans (25)?It is easy to see this problem as resulting from an account of Anselmian doctrines that is insufficiently nuanced.Stump herself says that the chief obstacle is something about God; that does not impede that there be other obstacles that are real and that must be dealt with.One such obstacle might be precisely the need for the sort of higher order willing of what God wills that figures so prominently in Stump's own version.Such an answer is, of course, lacking in Anselm (unless by deep implication); but this does not mean that all Anselmian versions lack something of this sort.It is possible to feel that there is something of a reduction of all Anselmian theories, as if the common objections to Anselm's satisfaction theory are problems for all such theories.But Stump feels justified in rejecting this entire camp out of hand,

Modern TheologyVolume 37, Issue 3 p. 834-838 Book Review Bonaventure, the Body, and the Aesthetics of Salvation by Rachel Davies ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), xii + 187 pp. Junius Johnson, Corresponding Author Junius Johnson junius.johnson@gmail.com orcid.org/0000-0002-9232-1295 Junius Johnson Academics, Memphis, TN, USASearch for more papers by this author Junius Johnson, Corresponding Author Junius Johnson junius.johnson@gmail.com orcid.org/0000-0002-9232-1295 Junius Johnson Academics, Memphis, TN, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 May 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12713Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume37, Issue3July 2021Pages 834-838 RelatedInformation

Unlocking Bonaventure:The Collationes in Hexaëmeron as Interpretive Key Junius Johnson JAY HAMMOND'S new translation of Bonaventure's Collationes in Hexaëmeron1 fills a critical gap in the availability of the Seraphic Doctor's works in English and forms the capstone of the Works of St. Bonaventure series by Franciscan Institute Publications. This text is arguably the most important of Bonaventure's works, and yet no English translation of it was in print prior to the publication of the current version. Hammond's translation is based on the text of the Opera omnia, but the hundreds of footnotes track, among other things, all the places where the competing edition of the Latin text, published by Marie Ferdinand Delorme in 1934 and surviving in only one manuscript, departs from the critical edition. The apparatus alone makes this translation a huge advance over its out-of-print predecessor by José de Vinck.2 This does not exhaust the importance of this new translation, however. In order to cause that importance to appear, it is necessary to look at several factors: (1) the importance of the text within the Bonaventurean corpus and Bonaventure scholarship, (2) the content of the text, (3) its relevance for [End Page 277] contemporary scholarly discussion, and (4) the merits of the translation itself. What follows is an attempt at a sketch that will at least convey the significance of this publication. I. The Importance of the Text The Hexaëmeron is a text whose genre is not easy to fix and whose style is striking and, for most readers, unfamiliar. Various factors contribute to this situation, and several of them are crystallizations of what is so peculiar to Bonaventure himself, namely, his ability to move easily from one genre to another and to synthesize disparate material in surprising ways. The particularities of the text combine to define its importance. First, it must be said that though this text ranges over a wide variety of topics, in most cases it does not represent Bonaventure's most complete discussion of these questions. For example, topics in philosophical theology are more fully addressed in both the Breviloquium and the commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences, and the path to holiness is more clearly spelled out in the Threefold Way. And yet, the form of the discussions we get in the Hexaëmeron are of critical importance, for two reasons. The first is that, because they were composed in the last year of Bonaventure's life, they constitute his most mature reflection on these topics. Discussions in the Sentences commentary have to be compared to the positions Bonaventure takes here, and texts such as the Itinerarium mentis in Deum must be considered in light of passages in the Hexaëmeron where Bonaventure returns to the very parts of Dionysius the Areopagite with which the Itinerarium ends. Second, this text fulfills a unifying role within the Bonaventurean corpus, linking the work of his early years at the University of Paris with the spiritual treatises of his years as minister general of the Franciscans. It performs this task by means of its own genre and style, which resume something of the Scholastic manner of discourse, but in a mode that is changed by the intervening years. Consider, for example, conference 21, which belongs to the fourth vision (understanding elevated by contemplation). Here Bonaventure is [End Page 278] concerned with the celestial hierarchy, corresponding to the creation of the sun on the fourth day. He begins with a consideration of the Trinitarian persons, who may each be considered as they are or as they are related to the other persons. To each of these ways of thinking about the Trinitarian persons belongs an illumination: three illuminations as they are considered in themselves, and six as they are considered in relation to each other (the Father in the Son and in the Spirit, the Son in the Father and in the Spirit, the Spirit in the Father and in the Son). The six relational considerations are correlated to the six days of creation specifically through the divine speaking of "let it be; and there was made."3 Bonaventure will detail...

Modern TheologyVolume 34, Issue 1 p. 115-119 Review Rationality as Virtue: Towards a Theological Philosophy by Lydia Schumacher ( Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015), x + 228 pp. and Theological Philosophy: Rethinking the Rationality of Christian Faith by Lydia Schumacher (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2015), x + 210 pp. Junius Johnson, Junius Johnson junius_johnson@baylor.edu Great Texts Program, Honors College, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97144, Waco, TX 76798-7144, USASearch for more papers by this author Junius Johnson, Junius Johnson junius_johnson@baylor.edu Great Texts Program, Honors College, Baylor University, One Bear Place #97144, Waco, TX 76798-7144, USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 04 September 2017 https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12373Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume34, Issue1January 2018Pages 115-119 RelatedInformation

The category of exemplarity, which holds a central place in Bonaventure’s thought, is in many ways a certain type of solution to the problem of the many and the one. Bonaventure’s account of the relationship between the created many and the uncreated original on which they are all based is in many ways like the account that Augustine gives; but he both greatly expands upon the Augustinian account and expands it in directions that prepare for the Christocentrism that will mark the rest of his theological work. This article will explicate Bonaventure’s treatment of this issue on the basis of his two most extended conversations, in the first book of his commentary on Lombard’s Sentences and in the Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ.

C.S. Lewis' Cosmic trilogy borrows extensively from Lewis' training as a medievalist in the construction of its narrative world. This fact invites a close comparison of the relationship of Lewis' fictional universe to medieval cosmology. This article attempts such a comparison, using as its medieval example St. Bonaventure, one of the greatest of the medieval Platonists. Bonaventure's theologically-driven cosmology and Lewis' fictional setting will be compared on three themes: 1) the use of the image of light, 2) imago dei theology, and 3) possible worlds. The result is an illumination of themes and commitments in the theology underlying the Cosmic Trilogy.

The notion of atonement, a process by which humans are made right before God, is central to the logic of Christian theology. In spite of this, major thinkers in the Christian traditions have held vastly different understandings of both the way atonement works and what it means. These differing accounts have become intellectual traditions which continue to influence both academic theology and spiritual practice today. In spite of the strong dependence of much contemporary thought on early ideas, linguistic and cultural barriers often preclude serious study of the original materials. Patristic and Medieval Atonement Theory takes a close look at the doctrines that depend on and influence views of atonement in order to make clear what place atonement occupies within the larger system of Christian theology. Junius Johnson also considers key concepts and tensions within the doctrine of atonement itself, which may be emphasized or glossed over to create the shape of particular doctrines. Johnson's guide briefly discusses major figures in the development of Christian doctrines of atonement to the end of the Middle Ages. Johnson then turns to the major primary and secondary sources and provides an orientation to the rich literature existing on this topic. The attention given to the anatomy of the concepts involved, the introduction to the ideas of major thinkers, and the survey of available literature makes this an essential guide for students and scholars of Christian theology of any period, as well as those who research the Middle Ages but are not specialists in theology.