Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Introduction

3 INTRODUCTION Significance Peter Abelard’s commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans is one of the more notorious works of medieval biblical exegesis and theology, on account of both its content and its methodology. Both of these made it different from other commentaries on Romans, both those written long before and those contemporary with it; and both these factors were significant in making it a controversial work, one that led to Abelard’s second condemnation at the Council of Sens in 1140. Its heavy use of dialectics , especially in the numerous quaestiones to be found in it, and its pronouncements on redemption, original sin, intention, and the Trinity, added fuel to the fire already set by Abelard’s other theological works. But it is also significant for its spirituality and theology of love, which were not controversial, but which rather show great insight and depth of religious experience. This significance was recognized by both medieval and modern scholars. The commentary was read throughout the Middle Ages, as evidenced by its being copied as late as the fourteenth century,1 and modern analyses of Abelard and his thought routinely refer to it.2 In spite of this acknowledged importance on a variety of topics, the commentary has never been translated 1. See the discussion below on manuscripts and editions. 2. These analyses are, of course, numerous; and some of them deal very heavily or even exclusively with the Romans commentary. Most importantly, these include the studies of Rolf Peppermüller: Abaelards Auslegung des Römerbriefes (Münster: Verlag Aschendorff, 1972); “Exegetische Traditionen und theologische Neuansätze in Abaelards Kommentar zum Römerbrief,” in Peter Abelard. Proceedings of the International Conference, Louvain, May 10–12, 1971, edited by Eligius M. Buytaert (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1974), 116–26; “Zum Fortwirken von Abaelards Römerbriefkommentar in der mittelälterlichen 4 INTRODUCTION Exegese,” in Pierre Abélard, Pierre le Vénérable. Les courants philosophiques, littéraires et artistiques en occident au milieu du XIIe siècle. Abbaye de Cluny, 2 au 9 Juillet 1972 (Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1975), 557– 68; and “Zur kritischen Ausgabe des Römerbrief-Kommentars des Petrus Abaelard ,” Scriptorium 26, no. 1 (1972): 82–97; and the introduction to his critical edition and German translation of the commentary, Expositio in Epistolam Pauli Ad Romanos: Römerbriefkommentar, Fontes Christiani (Freiburg: Herder, 2000), v. 1, 7–59. Others that must be mentioned include: Constant J. Mews, Abelard and Heloise, Great Medieval Thinkers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); A. J. Minnis and A. B. Scott, eds., Medieval Literary Theory and Criticism, c. 1100–c. 1375: The Commentary-Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988); M. T. Clanchy, Abelard: A Medieval Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1997); Richard E. Weingart, The Logic of Divine Love: A Critical Analysis of the Soteriology of Peter Abailard (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970); J. G. Sikes, Peter Abailard (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1932; repr., 1965); A. Victor Murray, Abelard and St. Bernard: A Study in Twelfth Century ‘Modernism’ (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1967); D. E. Luscombe, The School of Peter Abelard: The Influence of Abelard’s Thought in the Early Scholastic Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969); John Marenbon, The Philosophy of Peter Abelard (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997); Jean Cottiaux, “La conception de la théologie chez Abélard,” Revue d’Histoire Ecclésiastique 28 (1932): 247–95, 533–51, 788–828; R. O. P. Taylor, “Was Abelard an Exemplarist?” Theology 31 (1935): 207–13; Jean Jolivet, “Sur quelques critiques de la théologie d’Abélard,” Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Litt éraire du Moyen Age 38 (1963): 7–51; idem, Arts du langage et théologie chez Abelard, Études de Philosophie Médiévale, Vol. 57 (Paris: Librarie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1969); Julius Gross, “Abälards Umdeutung des Erbsündendogmas,” Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistegeschichte 15, no. 1 (1963): 14–33; Paul C. Kemeny, “Peter Abelard: An Examination of His Doctrine of Original Sin,” Journal of Religious History 16, no. 4 (1991): 374–86; Constant J. Mews, “On Dating the Works of Peter Abelard,” Archives d’Histoire Doctrinale et Littéraire du Moyen Age 52 (1985): 73– 134; Hastings Rashdall, The Idea of the Atonement in Christian Theology, Bampton Lectures for 1915 (London: MacMillan and Co., 1925); H. Lawrence Bond, “Another Look at Abelard’s Commentary on Romans 3:26,” in Medieval Readings of Romans, ed. William S. Campbell, Peter S. Hawkins, and Brenda Deen Shildgen, Romans Through...