The Franciscan View of the Human Person: Some Central Elements

GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

vii GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION On behalf of the Commission for the Retrieval of the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition (CFIT), I present to you with great pleasure this third volume of The Franciscan Heritage Series–The Franciscan View of the Human Person: Some Central Elements by Dawn M. Nothwehr, O.S.F. The purpose of this volume, building on the reflections on the foundational themes of the first two volumes, is to elucidate in greater detail the theology of the human person as a starting point for contemporary belief and practice . The centrality in our faith tradition of the relationship between the Creator and all of creation and the reflection of the Trinity’s glory in everything that is, so fundamental to the spiritual vision of Francis and Clare, is now undergoing a renaissance in our twenty-first century world. The present volume provides a fine stimulus for further reflection in this most important area, which addresses the issues of human dignity, divine and human mediation, freedom, mutuality and ethics. Dr. Dawn M. Nothwehr, O.S.F., a sister of St. Francis of Rochester , Minnesota, is presently teaching at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, asAssistant Professor of Ethics and Director of the Master of Divinity Program. Having written extensively on the ethical category of mutuality in John Duns Scotus and edited a volume on Franciscans and the environment, she is eminently qualified to render a well founded but contemporary account of major themes in the Franciscan understanding of the person. It is our hope that readers will take this short work and, with careful and thoughtful study, perhaps under the guidance of a mentor, begin to plumb the spiritual depths of our inheritance and comprehend the important uniqueness of its intellectual expression. Through reflection, prayer, conversation and action, may we also explore these theological themes and find ways to express them in preaching, pastoral practice, the works of evangelization and community formation with friars, sisters and laity. Each chapter of the present volume contains some summary statements, and the whole concludes with questions which will aid in this process. viii Introduction The Franciscan View of the Human Person takes its place within the context of a much larger Franciscan Heritage Series. Two volumes have already been published: Kenan B. Osborne, O.F.M., The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition: Tracing Its Origins and Identifying Its Central Components (2003) and Ilia Delio, O.S.F., A Franciscan View of Creation: Learning to Live in a Sacramental World (2003). Several volumes to be published in the near future will address the magisterial approbation of this intellectual heritage as a constitutive stream in the Roman Catholic Tradition, the Johannine and cosmic scriptural vision of Francis ofAssisi and the Franciscan understanding of Trinity , Christ and sacraments. Subsequent volumes will move beyond strictly theological issues to consider the role of the laity in the articulation of the tradition, the historical evolution of the intellectual movement, the relationship between the movement’s practice of poverty and its contribution to a new economy, and notions of reform and humanism. While standing on its own, each volume is intended to identify basic themes and elaborate on those elements in the Franciscan intellectual synthesis that, in the judgment of the authors, can make a significant contribution to contemporary issues. No attempts are made to conflate the distinctive experiences of Francis and Clare, Bonaventure, the lay practitioners, Duns Scotus and others, but rather to present the major insights of each as they might appeal to a contemporary reader in the language of the twenty-first century. Adeeper and more self-consciously academic penetration of the themes may be found in the series of volumes sponsored by CFIT and containing the papers delivered at the annual Franciscan symposium at the Washington Theological Union. The contours of the whole project and the role of CFIT in the retrieval of the tradition may be further discovered at CFIT-ESC-OFM.org. The Third Volume In this larger context, I would like to call attention to the important interface between Dr. Nothwehr’s volume, so well founded in the tradition’s voice, and one pressing contemporary concern: the exercise of freedom. ix The Franciscan View of the Human Person In his encyclical letter of 1993, Pope John Paul II calls attention to the importance of freedom as a constituent element of human dignity: Human freedom belongs to us as creatures; it is a freedom which...