Light and Glory: The Transfiguration of Christ in Early Franciscan and Dominican Theology

Introduction

1 INTRODUCTION The Christian tradition, from a very early period, recognized in the transfiguration of Jesus an event of inexhaustible doctrinal and spiritual richness. The Fathers of the Church examined the scriptural passages that describe the event from a number of vantage points and highlighted several Christological, soteriological, eschatological, and ascetical themes that emerge. Patristic reflections on the transfiguration were recorded in exegetical works and in doctrinal and spiritual treatises, and they were incorporated into the liturgies of the Early Church. Although the Christian tradition in the East gave a more central place to Christ’s transfiguration than the tradition in the West, not only in theology but also in liturgy, art, and architecture, it is nevertheless true that Christian theologians in the West also appropriated the transfiguration for various theological purposes and commented on its significance numerous times. This fact may be somewhat surprising given that the soteriological interests of many of the Latin Fathers laid the foundation for the medieval emphasis on Christ’s atoning passion. The medieval emphasis on Jesus’ death, however, did not preclude sustained contemplation of those events in Christ’s life that manifested His divinity, such as His transfiguration, miracles, and resurrection. The monastic tradition in the West, for as long as it maintained its vigor, kept the theophanic dimensions of Christ’s divinity firmly in mind. With the rise of scholasticism, however, Christ’s transfiguration and the events of Christ’s life in general lost the centrality they had possessed earlier. This trend of scholastic theology—at least as articulated in those systematic treatises that have been printed or edited— continued throughout the Middles Ages with only a few exceptions. 2 INtroDuCtIoN The most notable exception to this trend was Thomas Aquinas,1 but there were other theologians as well, who found Christ’s life and the transfiguration in particular to be important subjects for theological reflection. This study will explore how one epoch of scholastic theology, that of the early Franciscans and Dominicans, addressed the theological significance of Christ’s transfiguration. The period under consideration extends from the first scholastic theologians to address the transfiguration, Hugh of St. Cher and Alexander of Hales, whose reflections on Christ’s transfiguration were written roughly between 1230 and 1240, to Thomas Aquinas, who died in 1274.2 The study will examine seven theologians who addressed the transfiguration through synthetic works, biblical commentaries on the synoptic gospels, or sermons on the transfiguration. Three of these theologians, Alexander of Hales, John of La Rochelle, and Bonaventure of Bagnoregio were Franciscans; and four were Dominicans, namely Hugh of St. Cher, Guerric of St. Quentin, Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas. This study will examine similarities and differences among the theologians as well as the relative continuity and discontinuity of their output with the patristic era and with later medieval scholasticism. Special attention will be paid to the differences between the theologians under consideration and the scholastic theologians of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. As precise dates of most of the works under consideration are not available, the chronological outline of this study is approximate. Still, 1. Le Christ en ses mystéres: la vie et l’œuvre de Jésus selon saint Thomas d’Aquin, 2 tt. (Paris : Desclée, 1999), t. 1, 14–20, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, vol. 1: The Person and His Work, translated by R. Royal (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1996), 261–66; Inos Biffi, I misteri di Cristo in Tommaso d’Aquino (Milan: Jaca Book, 1994), 23–29, and “I misteri della vita di Cristo nei Commentari biblici di S. Tommaso d’Aquino,” Divus Thomas 79 (1976): 217–54; Leo Scheffczyk,“Die Stellung des Thomas von Aquin in der Entwicklung der Lehre von den Mysteria Vitae Christi,” in Renovatio et Reformatio: Wider das Bild “finsteren” Mittelalter, edited by M. Gerwing and G. Ruppert, 44–70 (Münster, Ger.: Aschendorff, 1985); Gerd Lohaus, Die Geheimnisse des Lebens Jesu in der Summa theologiae des heiligen Thomas von Aquin (Freiburg im Breisgau, Ger.: Herder, 1985), 14–20; Alois Grillmeier , Mit ihm und in ihm: christologische Forschungen und Perspektiven (Freiburg, Ger.: Herder, 1975), 725–26. 2. Although Albert the Great died in 1280, works examined in this study antedate the last writings of Aquinas. INtroDuCtIoN 3 it will provide the reader a sense of the Christological and exegetical developments in the middle of the thirteenth century. This approach also...