Light and Glory: The Transfiguration of Christ in Early Franciscan and Dominican Theology by Aaron Canty (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 166 Light and Glory: The Transfiguration of Christ in Early Franciscan and Dominican Theology. BY AARON CANTY.Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011. Pp. xi + 266. $69.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-8132-1795-6. An oft-repeated distinction between Eastern and Western Christian theology has it that Western Christians tend to focus their soteriological reflection upon the Cross and satisfaction, while Eastern Christians tend to emphasize divinization (theosis) and thus are more interested in scriptural loci such as the Transfiguration.Unfortunately, this distinction is often invoked with a polemical, anti-Western tilt, and, insofar as it implies that the West is one-dimensionally dependent upon a satisfaction model of atonement, has the disadvantage of being untrue or at least overly simple. However, it does seem to be the case, as Aaron Canty tells us in this solid and informative volume, that in the West the Transfiguration attracted not much attention for most of the early medieval period and still less in the later middle ages and early modern periods. For one brief shining moment, it seems, and among a happy, mendicant few, this rich scriptural event attracted attention, and Canty sets for himself the task of offering us a detailed account of this work among Franciscan and Dominican theologians of the early- to mid-thirteenth century. The results in this volume are a valuable reference tool for scholars interested in medieval Christology and soteriology. This volume appears to be a kind of transfiguration of Canty’s doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Notre Dame, and it bears both the virtues and limits of the original genre. The virtues are clear: Canty gives us a patient, thorough examination of seven great theologians’ treatments of the Transfiguration in every place they arise. (Hugh of St. Cher, Alexander of Hales, Guerric of St. Quentin, John of La Rochelle, Albert the Great, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas each receive a chapter). The research extends beyond readily available published materials, delving into manuscripts to capture insights from those theologians who have received less treatment (Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle). The translations from Latin are solid and readable, with the original Latin provided in the notes. Each chapter gives the reader an exhaustive picture of each mendicant scholar’s various explorations in and around the Transfiguration, exploring both exegetical and nonexegetical genres, and examining change, when discernible, across a scholar’s career. Canty is sensitive to the ways in which exegetical literature begs to be read in a different light than other Scholastic writing, but he shows clearly that he has the theological and philosophical chops to deal with the substantive metaphysical and epistemological questions with due Scholastic rigor. He treats each text of each scholar in turn, and provides a helpful conclusion in each chapter. The chapters are arranged chronologically, and Canty is interested in exploring relationships between sources— who has taken up what from whom; where Albert the Great, for example, departs from Hugh of St. Cher and brings his own insights to bear. This book is thus an exemplary case of careful, diligent research, and will become BOOK REVIEWS 167 a solid point of reference in studies of medieval Christology or for anyone undertaking to study any of the figures treated herein. The volume does bear some of the limitations of a dissertation project, however. Missing, at least for this reader, is a wider sweep and perhaps the ambition to explore the significance of this study for historical theology more generally. Why is it, in fact, that the Transfiguration takes on such significance for these few mendicant thinkers, for so brief a time? How does this attention fit with other dimensions of high Scholastic Christology? What factors in Christological reflection specifically, or in the practice of Scholastic theology more generally, after 1280 contribute to dwindling interest in the Transfiguration? Does this attention to the Transfiguration in the thirteenth century contribute to our understanding of the development of doctrine? Such questions (and many more, I am sure) beg to be addressed precisely because Canty has uncovered what seems to be an anomaly in Western medieval theology with such clarity and precision. But the five...