The Hermeneutic of Continuity

In his General Audience address today, the last before his summer break, the Holy Father returned to the figure of the Blessed John Duns Scotus, commenting that "in this great Christocentric vision, the Incarnate Word appears as the centre of history and the cosmos." Such an affirmation from the Holy Father is always music to the ears of those of us in the Faith Movement who promote just such a vision of Christ as centre and Lord of history and of the cosmos. As Sandro Magister has commented in his Italian language blog Settimo Caelo , the question of the primacy of the will in Scotist theology raises the question which the Holy Father himself brought up with regard to Islam in his Regensburg lecture. An absolute and innate freedom opens up the possibility of a God who is not tied to the true and the good. However, Pope Benedict points out that the desire to preserve an absolute transcendence of the impenetrable will of God does not take account of the fact that God is re...

Another theme in today's General Audience was the motive of the incarnation. here is a passage which I have translated from the address: Like other theologians of the Middle Ages, Rupert also asked: why was the Word of God, the Son of God, made man? Some, many, responded, explaining the incarnation of the Word with the urgency of repairing the sin of man. Rupert on the other hand, with a christocentric vision of the history of salvation, enlarged the perspective, and in a work of his entitled “The Glorification of the Trinity” held the position that the Incarnation, the central event of all history, was foreseen from all eternity, even independently of the sin of man, so that all creation could give praise to God the Father and love Him as a unique family gathered around Christ, the Son of God. He therefore saw in the pregnant woman of the apocalypse the whole history of humanity which is oriented to Christ, just as conception is oriented to birth; a perspective which would be deve...

This morning after breakfast, Fr Peter Damien Fehlner gave a lecture on the sources of Scotus' theology in tradition. Fr Fehlner has been teaching theology from a Scotist perspective since before the second Vatican Council and is immensely learned. Having always favoured the Scotist view of the Incarnation and the primacy of Christ in creation, it was fascinating to hear this position spoken of by someone who has such facility with the sources. My paper had to follow that! I spoke of the development of the consensus on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception between the death of Blessed John Duns Scotus and the 1854 definition. My paper was therefore of necessity a summary overview. I also looked at the way in which the object of the feast of the conception of Mary became more specifically determined, and how intemperate opposition to the "pious belief" in the Immaculate Conception always seemed to result in a step forward for the general acceptance of the doctrine. The...

When I arrived at Grey College, Durham, yesterday evening in time for supper, the participants in the Conference were returning from an afternoon trip to Duns in the Borders of Scotland, the birthplace of the Blessed John Duns Scotus whose Mariology was the subject of the Conference. Cardinal O'Brien, Archbishop of Edinburgh graciously gave an afternoon to celebrate Mass in the parish Church of Duns, and to meet the Friars, the Sisters and all those taking part in the pilgrimage. The next picture shows him with Fr Stefano Manelli FI, the founder and Minister General of the Franciscans of the Immaculate. And here is a photo of His Eminence with the whole group: One or two of the Friars said to me that the Cardinal seemed quite moved by the gathering. A gathering of this number of Friars and Sisters is relatively rare in Britain nowadays. To have a choir of sisters singing the chants for the Mass and a genuine pilgrimage of devotion in honour of one of Scotland's most influential...

I met Fr Peter Damien Fehlner FI (Franciscans of the Immaculate) when I was giving a lecture to the Co-Redemption Conference on the Immaculate Conception in England in the middle ages. Fr Fehlner has been teaching theology from a Scotist perspective for over 40 years and I was awed by his comprehensive knowledge and subtlety as befits a devotee of the Doctor Subtilis . Fr Fehlner has been suffering from eye ailments for a while and is to undergo some major surgery. Helen has posted some Novena prayers which can be said for Fr Fehlner and indeed for the canonisation of Blessed John Duns Scotus. I would particularly encourage undergraduates and Masters of Oxford university in this and especially members of Merton College - also devotees of Fr Faber, the Faith Movement, and keen Scotists everywhere. ( Castle of the Immaculate: Novena in honor of Bl. Duns Scotus )