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Subject: TMR 12.04.08 Coolman, The Theology of Hugh of St. Victor
(Gebert/Löffler)
Coolman, Boyd Talyor. <i>The Theology of Hugh of St. Victor: An
Interpretation</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Pp. x, 247. $90. ISBN: 978-0-52-188625-3.
Reviewed by Björn Gebert and Anette Löffler
Sankt Georgen Graduate School of Philosophy and Theology
[log in to unmask]@sankt-georgen.de
Hugh of St. Victor (ca. 1096-1141) is, along with Peter Abelard,
Peter Lombard and others, certainly one of the most significant and
influential authors of the twelfth century, and his work <i>De
sacramentis christiane fidei</i> is frequently considered to be an
early theological <i>summa </i>. [1] A rich manuscript tradition
of Hugh's numerous works has inspired a huge amount of scholarly
publications. But, of course, there are some <i>desiderata</i>,
some gaps to fill. One of those, as Boyd Taylor Coolman points out
(5), is the exploration of the theme of reform in Hugh's theology,
although this topic seems to be a matter of course, for Hugh was a
canon regular of St. Victor in Paris, one of the centres of the
reform of canons in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is the
author's goal to remedy this situation. He argues that "in
crucial, under-appreciated ways, Hugh's is a theology of
'reformation'" (29).
The book is divided into three parts with three chapters each,
accompanied by an introduction and a conclusion and supplemented by
a (surprisingly) short bibliography and an index. Coolman first
outlines his program and describes the situation in twelfth-century
Paris, the contemporary political and religious context in which
Hugh writes. He identifies <i>reformare</i> as a "leitmotif
running through Hugh's <i>oeuvre</i>" (11) and at the end of the
introduction (1-29) states that the Victorine understands
<i>reformatio</i> as "the work of restoration [of the <i>forma</i>
lost in the Fall]" and also as a <i>reformatio in melius</i> with
the rational creature exceeding the original form once given to it
at Creation (28).
"Formation in Wisdom" is the title of the first part of the book.
The first chapter (33-46) deals mainly with Hugh's conception of
Genesis. According to Coolman, Hugh interprets Creation as
<i>formatio</i>, a process accomplished by God "through the very
<i>Forma</i> of divine <i>Wisdom</i>, the second Person of the
Trinity," and as <i>Formata</i> as well as <i>Formosa</i> in the
result (46). The subject of the second chapter (47-59) is the
rational creation in particular. Coolman emphasizes that after the
"first perfection" in which man was created "in the image and
likeness of God," (50) a continuing active human formation <i>in
melius</i> was intended for the rational creature to become a
"dwelling place of God" (58-59). But impatience and greed caused
the Fall--the topic of the third chapter (60-78)--with the result
that the rational creature had to face the consequences of its
original sin: ignorance and disintegration, a corruption of the
body and a malformation of the soul (68-69, 76). Alienated from
God, unsusceptible to divine indwelling, deformed, the sinful soul
must first recognize its disorder and then reform itself, which can
only be achieved by a "re-formation in wisdom" (77-79), the topic
of the second part of Coolman's book.
Arguing in his fourth chapter (83-102) that Christ is "the Form of
Wisdom," Wisdom Himself through which God acted in the Creation
and, with Hugh's "sapiential conception of the divine nature" (85),
Coolman can point out that the necessary reformation of the soul is
actually "Christification" (84). Therefore Christ is, according to
the author, "the formal/structural center of salvation history,"
(93) as well as of the soul, being a mirror of that history (98).
So Coolman sees Hugh combining salvation with reformation and
Christ emerges as the foundation of this reform (102). In Chapters
Five (103-123) and Six (124-137) the author demonstrates that Hugh
interprets Scripture and the church as mutually related derivates
from Christ and therefore as incorporated actualities in the work
of restoration (102). In doing so, Coolman describes and
emphasizes the Victorine's architectural take on both. According
to him the author states that the ecclesial edifice has its
parallels "in the individual psyche as well as the corporate
ecclesial body" (110) and he addresses the "scriptural edifice [as
a] structure that the exegete replicates within himself" (135).
So, Coolman concludes, exegesis can become a practice of
reformation. This subject comprises the third part of his book.
Reformation is a co-operative act accomplished by God and man
together and thus different from Creation where God acts on His own
(141-142). For Hugh, again using an architectural metaphor, the
rational creature constructs a home for God within his soul. This
can be achieved by three practices: <i>memoria</i>,
<i>meditatio</i>, and <i>moralia</i> (145-146). In Chapter Seven
(148-162) Coolman first shows with Mary Carruthers that for Hugh
memory is the deeper meaning of <i>lectio</i>; reading in the
narrower sense is just the beginning since understanding and
memorization have to follow (148-149). After demonstrating that
Hugh links memory to the historical/literal sense of Scripture and
after describing his strategies for memorization, "reading-for-
memory" emerges as the foundation and the first practice of
reformation (152-162). Meditative <i>allegoresis</i>, the topic of
Chapter Eight (163-191), is next. Hugh's concept of meditation is
especially evident in his work <i>De archa Noe</i>, according to
Coolman, who observes three different kinds: meditation on created
things in and of themselves, on the divine nature and beauty
reflected within the created things, and on morals. The aim of
<i>meditatio</i> is to recover intimate, contemplative knowledge of
God, in order to remedy the alienation from Him due to the Fall.
Strongly linked to the tropological sense of Scripture, the
cultivation of morals is the third and final practice of
reformation (Chapter Nine, 192-224). When Coolman points out that
Hugh prefers justice to lore, he emphasizes the high value of
morals for the Victorine (192-193). Referring particularly to
Hugh's understanding of morals, compared to the modern meaning, the
author describes this as a disciplined and virtuous way of life.
He notes that both moral <i>scientia</i> from exposing the
tropological sense of Scripture and exterior <i>disciplina</i> by
learning, imitating and practicing good behaviour "facilitate the
formation of interior <i>bonitas</i>, goodness within the soul"
(204). Virtuous and beautified, the human soul recovers its lost
integrity and corrects its deformation (210-219). It is now ready
to become a dwelling place for God and the rational creature is
capable of the ultimate practice: <i>contemplatio</i> (223-4).
Concluding his study, Coolman sums up Hugh's <i>opus
restaurationis</i> and the character of his "theology of
reformation" by marking differences between Hugh and Augustine or
(pseudo)-Dionysius. He emphasizes that the meaning of reform was
not a simple return to the <i>forma</i> lost in the Fall; the work
of restoration is, for Hugh, a <i>reformatio in melius</i>.
The author succeeds. Through his analysis of Hugh's works Coolman
demonstrates clearly the importance of reform in Hugh's thinking
and the notion of a "reform for the better." Yet there are a few
things to note. Within Coolman's extensive introduction, an
irritating inaccuracy occurs. In equating canons regular with
"Augustinian canons" (8)--the second term should not be used for
the Middle Ages without great care anyway-- he disregards that
communities of regular canons did not necessarily follow the rule
of St. Augustine from their beginnings. It is not until 1125,
several years after Hugh joined St. Victor in Paris, that the
observance of the rule in the abbey can be proved. [2]
Furthermore, Coolman observes a number of architectural analogies
in Hugh's works, but this is not an entirely new discovery.
Already in 1994 Rainer Berndt pointed out that architectural
metaphors can be found in numerous theological writings of the
Middle Ages and goes into detail regarding authors from Hugh of St.
Victor to Thomas Aquinas. [3] Finally, it seems a bit astonishing
that, in an analysis of Hugh's concept of Creation (Chapter One)
Coolman refers only two times to Hugh's <i>Notulae in Genesim</i>,
part of the <i>Adnotatiunculae elucidatoriae in Pentateuchum</i>.
He actually seems to ignore a couple of Hugh's genuine and probably
genuine works. [4] Moreover, he disregards important secondary
works on the writings of the Victorine. [5] These omissions might
confuse the reader of a book entitled "The Theology of Hugh of St.
Victor." So, when Coolman states in his introduction that he is
not attempting to write a comprehensive overview of Hugh's
theology, why does his study bear that misleading title? But given
the works of Hugh analyzed in this study, the argument of the
author is convincing. The present study can thus be strongly
recommended.
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Notes:
1. For the most recent critical edition, see <i>Hugonis de Sancto
Victore De sacramentis Christiane fidei</i>, ed. Rainer Berndt,
Corpus Victorinum, Textus historici 1 (Aschendorff, 2008).
2. See the following confirmation charter by Pope Honorius II:
<i>Ad hoc universalis</i>, in <i>Papsturkunden in Frankreich. N. F.
Bd. 8. Diözese Paris I. Urkunden und Briefsammlungen der Abteien
Sainte-Geneviève und Saint-Victor</i>, ed. Dietrich Lohrmann
(Göttingen, 1989), p. 145, no. 3. Cf. Rainer Berndt, "Scriptura
sacra magistra fidei: Zur Augustinus-Rezeption und der Einführung
der vita regularis in Sankt Viktor zu Paris," in <i>Regula Sancti
Augustini: Normative Grundlage differenter Verbände im
Mittelalter</i>, ed. Gert Melville and Anne Müller, Publikationen
der Akademie der Augustiner-Chorherren von Windesheim 3 (Paring,
2002), pp. 105-125, at pp. 114-116.
3. Cf. Rainer Berndt, "La Théologie comme système du monde: Sur
l'évolution de la structure des sommes de théologie de Hugues de
Saint-Victor à saint Thomas," <i>Revue des sciences philosophiques
et théologiques</i> 78 (1994): 555-572.
4. For example, <i>Epitome Dindimi in philosophiam, Adnotatiunculae
elucidatoriae in librum Iudicum, Adnotatiuncula una in librum Ruth,
Adnotatiunculae elucidatoriae in quosdam psalmos David,
Institutiones in Decalogum legis dominicae, Super orationem
dominicam, De Trinitate et de reparatione hominis, Confessio ad
abbatem</i>.
5. Most important among them is probably Rudolf Goy, <i>Die
Überlieferung der Werke Hugos von St. Viktor: Ein Beitrag zur
Kommunikationsgeschichte des Mittelalters</i> Monographien zur
Geschichte des Mittelalters 14 (Stuttgart, 1976).
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