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136 6 ALBERT THE GREAT While Alexander of Hales, Hugh of St. Cher, Guerric of St. Quentin , and John of La Rochelle were teaching at the University of Paris, another friar was teaching as lector in Dominican schools in Cologne, Hildesheim, Freiburg, Regensburg, and Strassburg during the 1230s. After teaching for about ten years, this friar, Albert, was sent to Paris to become a master of theology. Albert studied in Paris from 1241 to 1245. After he completed his studies, he taught in Paris until 1248. During the time in Paris Albert began writing his first summa. One of its treatises, the treatise De resurrectione, is important for this study because it contains a question on Christ’s transfiguration.1 Albert also wrote commentaries on the synoptic gospels in his later career. This chapter will explore Albert’s teaching on the transfiguration in the De resurrectione and in his scriptural commentaries, with particular attention given to the unique characteristics of his teaching and methodology. Since Albert’s theological articulation of Christ’s transfiguration differs not only according to its literary genre, but also according to the time period of its articulation, this chapter will discuss the significance of both these categories, in addition to highlighting Albert’s application of philosophical terms and categories. 1. For more on Albert’s early career, see Heribert Christian Scheeben, Albertus Magnus (Cologne, Ger.: J. P. Bachem, 1955), 21–58. For an introduction to his life and works, see Wilhem Kübel et al.,“Albertus Magnus,” LexMA: 294–99. The best guide to Albert’s works is Winfried Fauser, Die Werke des Albertus Magnus in ihrer handschriftlichen Überlieferung (Aschendorff, Ger.: Monasterii Westfalorum, 1982). ALbert the greAt 137 De resurrectione Albert probably began to write the De resurrectione in the mid-1240s. Judging by his own comments, this treatise, which remains incomplete, was conceived as part of a larger summa of six treatises, which was never finished.2 Albert outlines the plan for this treatise in the brief prologue to the work.A study of the resurrection,Albert says, follows the investigation of the Incarnation, and it is to be divided into five parts. The first part is“of the Head, members, and those who are evil together; then of the Head alone; the third is only of those who are evil; the fourth is only of those who are good; and the fifth is of those things which accompany the resurrection, that is the judgment and renewal of the world.”3 Albert finished only the first three sections of the treatise and completed only a part of the fourth section. Albert’s discussion of the transfiguration occurs in the second part of the treatise, on what pertains to the Head alone. Although ten questions constitute the second tractate, Albert divides the investigation of Christ’s resurrection into eight separate inquiries: And because we now consider what Christ’s resurrection is, what is asked first is whether it is the cause of our resurrection; second, what causality it may have in those who are good and in those who are evil; third, whether it is the cause of the resurrection of souls and what is the resurrection of souls; fourth, why the resurrection of all was not related to the resurrection of Christ as an effect to its cause; fifth, why the resurrection of souls is successive and the resurrection of bodies is simultaneous, since they are from one cause; sixth, what is to happen to all of us in the measure of the time of Christ’s fullness; seventh, what are the proofs of His resurrection or of His 2. See Wilhelm Kübel’s introduction to t. 26 of the Cologne edition of Albert’s Opera omnia (De sacramentis, De incarnatione, De resurrectione), edited by A. Ohlmeyer, I. Backes, and W. Kübel, v–xix (Monasterii Westfalorum, Ger.: Aschendorff, 1958). For the relationship of Albert’s De bono to the De resurrectione and the four other treatises, see Bernhard Geyer’s introduction to Albert’s De bono, in Opera omnia, t. 28, edited by H. Kühle, C. Feckes, B. Geyer, and W. Kübel, ix–xxii (Monasterii Westfalorum, Ger.: Aschendorff, 1951). 3. “primo communiter ex parte capitis et ex parte membrorum et ex parte malorum; deinde ex parte capitis tantum; tertio ex parte malorum tantum; quarto ex parte bonorum tantum; quinto de his quae comitantur resurrectionem, idest de iudicio et innovatione mundi ,” De resurrectione, prol. [3.145.131.238] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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