Figure e motivi della contemplazione nelle teologie medievali (review)

This volume collects six articles, two hitherto unpublished, about the writings of thirteenth-century theologians on contemplation. The author, a specialist in medieval theology, is as analytically skillful as are the writings she studies. The footnotes reproduce the Latin texts analyzed, making it easier to follow and evaluate her expositions. Access to the varied articles is facilitated by a helpful introduction; summary conclusions at the end of each one; general indices of names, biblical passages, and manuscripts cited; and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. In my discussion that follows, I have translated the article titles from Italian.

The article "Moses and Paul: Examples of Contemplation and of Rapture in the Theology of the Thirteenth Century" examines various perspectives on mystical visions. Some medieval authors—Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and St. Bonaventure—influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius, assert that the mystical experiences of Moses (Exod. 19:18; 33:11–23) were not as lofty as Paul's when he was snatched (raptus) to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 2–4). Others—Thomas Aquinas (who distinguishes several levels of contemplation in the biblical statements about Moses) and Matthew of Aquasparta—drawing on Augustine, identify Moses as the lawgiver of the Old Testament and Paul as the apostle of the Gentiles, and think it therefore fitting that the two seers had equivalent contemplative experiences. Matthew of Aquasparta adds the argument that for our consolation God gave both the lawgiver and the apostle a taste of the beatific vision to which their teaching and commands are meant to lead us.

The article "Active Life and Contemplative Life in William of Auxerre and Roland of Cremona" asserts the superiority of the contemplative life, with some qualifications. Roland argues against William on several points and adds the argument that the higher reason, which is the power involved in contemplation, also governs the work of the lower reason, which is concerned with the active life.

The article "Et audivit arcana verba quae non licet homini loqui. Arcana, Secrets, and Mysteries in Theology at the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century: Robert Grosseteste, William of Auxerre, and Roland of Cremona" focuses on the arcana seen by Paul. The author begins with a helpful survey of the meaning of the three terms in the title, then expounds the various thirteenth-century interpretations according to which the arcana were totally incommunicable, incommunicable only to the more advanced, or communicable in a mode other than the one in which they were seen.

The article "Pleasure and Sorrow in Contemplation" considers pleasure and sorrow in Albert the Great's question on Paul's rapture and Thomas Aquinas's on pleasure in contemplation (Sum. Theo. 2–2, 10, 1.7), but concentrates on St. Bonaventure's richer treatment, especially in the Itinerarium.

The article "Auditory Events and Mystical Experience in Some Theological Itineraries of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages" contrasts the strictly allegorical interpretation of the sound of the trumpets connected with Moses' meeting with God in Gregory of Nyssa and Pseudo-Dionysius and his medieval commentators, with the role of bells and other sounds and sensations in visionary experiences of Margaret of Cortona and Gertrude of Helfta.

The article "Aspects of the Doctrine of Contemplation in Hugh of Balma" studies the writings of a Carthusian strongly influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius's Mystical Theology as interpreted by Thomas Gallus of Vercelli, who gave it an affective emphasis, which Hugh accentuates. Hugh contrasts his understanding of contemplation with those of Augustine and Richard of St. Victor.

The book impresses the reader with the deep interest of the scholastics (and of Faes de Mottoni) in contemplation and the states of consciousness associated with it, and their subtle analysis of Scripture and the varied sources—Augustinian, Pseudo-Dionysian, and Aristotelian—on which they drew.