medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
looks like an important edition of some of the works of my favorite
Cistercian.
Bernie's "rhetorical verve" notwithstanding.
c
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Received: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:24:22 AM EDT
From: The Medieval Review <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TMR 10.06.20 Verdeyen, Guillelmus, Opera Omnia (Mews)
Verdeyen, Paul, ed. Guillelmus a Sancto Theoderico. <i>Opera Omnia</i>, IV-V.
Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis 89-89A.
Turnhout: Brepols, 2005-2007. Pp. xix, 139. ISBN: 2503038913, and pp.
215, ISBN: 250303893X.
Reviewed by Constant J. Mews
Monash University
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William of Saint-Thierry is a thinker who has tended to languish in the shadow
of his more well-known friend, Bernard of Clairvaux. Yet the edition of his
<i>Opera Omnia</i> by Paul Verdeyen provides the opportunity for scholars to
revisit this author, perhaps most often
remembered for having asked Bernard to intervene against Peter Abelard.
Verdeyen introduced this project with his edition of William's commentary on
Romans, CCCM 86 (1989), prefaced with a useful introduction to this author,
born around 1075 (thus fifteen years younger than Bernard) and abbot of
Saint-Thierry in Reims from Lent 1121 until 1135 when he joined the Cistercian
Order at Signy. There
followed a volume (CCCM 87, 1997), containing his important brief commentary
on the Song of Songs (from around 1130), and his compilation from both Ambrose
and Gregory on that text, and another (CCCM 88, 2003) containing editions of a
range of smaller treatises, <i>De contemplando Deo</i> and <i>De natura et
dignitate amoris</i> (from 1121-24), <i>De sacramento altaris</i> (addressed
to Rupert of Deutz around 1127), the <i>De natura corporis et animae</i>
(around
1138) and the <i>Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei</i> (1144-1145).
Part IV of the <i>Opera Omnia</i> provides an edition of his
<i>Meditationes devotissimae</i>, probably written while he was still at
Saint-Thierry, but completed soon after he came to Signy in 1137. These are
philosophical meditations, in the spirit of St Anselm. They move from
reflection on the wisdom and knowledge of God, to reflection on <i>amor</i>,
as the goal of the spiritual life. It is hard to translate the intense way in
which he plays on the term. Speaking of
those who love God, he writes: "Amo ergo eos quia te amant, et multum amo,
sicut amo amorem quo amaris, quem in ipsis amo" (<i>Meditatio</i> XII, p. 79).
This is mystical writing directed to transforming the soul rather than
engaging in analytic discussion. More material insight into the conditions of
monastic life are also supplied in this
volume with editions by the late Stanislas Ceglar of the letter of Matthew of
Albano, addressed to the Benedictine abbots of Reims, identifying many serious
problems in the Order, and the response of William of St-Thierry. It was the
failure of the Benedictine Order to initiate these reforms that eventually led
William to join the Cistercians.
The fifth volume of the <i>Opera omnia</i> provides editions of William's
writings against Peter Abelard (his letter to Bernard, his <i>Disputatio</i>
against Abelard, the response of Bernard and his letter on the errors of
William of Conches) and of his two major treatises about faith, the
<i>Speculum fidei</i> and the <i>Aenigma fidei</i>, both written subsequently.
The historical background given
to the treatises against Abelard and minimal, and follows an older chronology
that dates the Council of Sens to 1140 rather than 1141. William's
<i>Disputatio</i> is important because it provides much greater analysis of
Abelard's <i>Theologia</i> and the book of sentences of his teaching than the
corresponding treatise of Bernard, which focuses with more effect on just a
few main themes. The edition
provides useful reference both to the texts of Abelard under dispute and the
texts of Augustine from which he drew inspiration. In many ways, it was
Abelard's desire to detach himself from Augustinian tradition that provoked
William's ire. His treatise on the errors of William of Conches follows a
similar tack, but is less effective because he had little understanding of the
natural science in which
William had most interest.
The editions of William's <i>Speculum fidei</i> and <i>Aenigma fidei</i> are
similarly supplied with the minimum of introductory matter. William was not
concerned to analyse specific points of doctrine, in the fashion of Abelard.
Rather, his focus is on faith as a theological virtue, through which man could
conform himself to the nature of the Trinity. Thus rather than speak about
terminology
applied to God, his focus on the interior virtues provoked by
reflection on faith, which he sees as one form of knowledge. While faith
belongs to this world, <i>amor</i> provides a form of knowledge that is
eternal. Much more than Bernard of Clairvaux, William seeks to provide his own
answer to Abelard's discussion of faith with his own reflection on how faith
leads to love. In the <i>Aenigma fidei</i>,
William goes further in attempting to write for himself about the doctrine of
the Trinity. It is clear that he is concerned about the extent of contemporary
discussion of those who speak about God, and is more aware than in the
previous treatise about how knowledge does proceed from names. Much more than
Bernard, William was a speculative
thinker who was prompted by Abelard to come up with his own theology of the
Trinity. Yet his concern is with the moral qualities that must accompany such
discussion. Verdeyen's edition identifies the significant role played by
Augustine in the formulation of William's ideas. It deserves to be studied by
those concerned with the evolution of medieval thought. It enables us to
appreciate William as a theologian of no small originality, even if he does
not have the
rhetorical verve of Bernard of Clairvaux.
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