Saint Bonaventure As a Biblical Commentator: A Translation and Analysis of His Commentary on Luke, XVIII, 34-XIX, 42 by Thomas Reist (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Sa-int Bonaventure As a Biblical Commentator: A Translation and Analysis of His Commentary on L1,ke, XVIII, 34-XIX, 42. By THOMAS REIST, 0.F.M., Conv. Lanham, Md.; University Press of America, 1985. Pp. xx + 264. $21.50 (cloth); $12.50 (paper). Although scholars have recognized for many years that the Bible, not the summae of the masters, remained the basic theological text for almost all of the thirteenth century, the Biblical commentaries of the great Scholastics have remained largely unexplored territory, with only a few trials blazed through the wilderness by the pioneering studies of Spicq, Smalley, and de Lubac. Fortunately, in recent years several studies have appeared which have begun to open up a bit more of this neglected area. The present study by Thomas Reist is one such contribution, presenting to us a less examined side of the great Franciscan theologian of the thirteenth eentury, St. Bonaventure. Chenu remarked long ago that Bonaventure's Breviloquium represents "le plus beau programme d'hermeneutique sacree qu'ait propose le XIII" sieele," and there since have been several fine studies of the theological significance Bonaventure accords to Scripture. However, the rest of Chenu's statement seems to have been forgotten: "mais ce sont programme et methode d'un expositor, d'un exegete." It is to Reist's credit that he offers " not only the principles of Bonaventure's exegesis, but also an example of it.... to see, how, in fact, these principles were applied by the man who proposed and formulated them" (p. xii). The plan of the work is straightforward and logical. After two introductory chapters on Bonaventure's life and works and his general theory of Biblical hermeneutics, the central third chapter introduces us to the Commentary on Luke, his most impressive work of Biblical exposition. Reist correctly identifies one of the central concerns of this postille as showing how the Franciscan way of life is founded directly on the Gospel text and that the friars were indeed following the way of "evangelical perfection." Appropriately, then, he has selected for analysis a passage (Lk. 18 :34-19 :42) in which Bonaventure discusses the renuneiation of material goods, a subject :flowing from his exposition of the stories of the rich young man and the publican Zacchaeus. The bulk of the third chapter (pp. 79-128) is a translation of this pericope. Reist goes on in his fourth chapter to offer an exegetical, doctrinal, and pastoral analysis of the text. After a brief conclusion, a lengthy appendix (pp. 203-244) presents the selected pericope. 701 702 BOOK REVIEWS All in all, Fr. Reist has presented a very able exposition; his analysis, however, is less successful. This is evident even in the two introductory chapters. The first chapter is a good and clear summary of Bonaventure's cueer, especially the conflict between the secular and mendicant masters at the University of Paris, which was the context of the Commentary on Luke. Even here, however, the author shows himeslf overly bound to his sources to the point of inconsistency. On the top of p. 8, for example, he argues, basing himself on more recent research, that Bonaventure received the licencia docendi either towards the end of the 1254-55 school year or in the fall of 1255, yet on the bottom of the same page unhesitatingly repeats Bougerol's older chronology, dating Bonaventure's term as master from 1253. (Another strange inconsistency: the chapter headings refer to Bonaventura; everywhere else we see the normal Anglicized spelling). These are certainly minor matters, but they do reveal a certain reluctance to make independent conclusions, which will be more evident later in the work. This tendency is more pronounced in the second chapter, which summarizes Bonaventure's hermeneutical principles as he has stated them in his BreviZoquium. Again, Reist's presentation is accurate ; however, there is little attempt to go "beyond" or "beneath" Bonaventure 's own words to show where he received his ideas, how he compares with his contemporaries, etc. The third chapter, the presentation of the context of the Commentary on Luke and the translation of the pericope Reist has chosen, is the most successful. It shows clearly how...