Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection: Works of St. Bonaventure - Softcover

Robert J. Karris; OFM

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1576591468 ISBN 13: 9781576591468

Publisher: Franciscan Inst Pubs, 2008

Synopsis

On the surface, St. Bonaventure's Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection seems like another scholastic exercise until one realizes four things. First, of the 81 pages in the critical edition 40 of those pages deal with poverty and 19 pages deal with obedience. Second, of the 19 pages dedicated to obedience almost half of those pages deal with obedience to the Pope. Third, at the end of this treatment of Question II, Article II on begging, Bonaventure devotes 6 pages to refuting those who attack the mendicant way of life. Finally, in Question II, Article II (on begging) and Question V 9on obedience) Bonaventure cites cannon law with great frequency. When these internal pieces of evidence are taken together with events at the University of Paris during the period 250-1256 and with the eschatological mood of the era, we begin to realize that this work of Bonaventure is not just a scholastic exercise that will help form young friars minor in their evangelical style of life. It is also an eschatological document with a sharp polemical bite. If readers today can capture just one spark of Bonaventure's eschatological fervor and vision in this writing, they will have surely warmed their hearts at its center.

About this title

About the Author

Fr. Robert J. Karris, OFM, is a Franciscan priest of the Sacred Heart Province whose headquarters are in St. Louis. He earned an STL from Catholic University of America and a Th.D. from Harvard University in New Testament and Early Church History. Fr. Karris is a former professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a former Provincial Minister of Sacred Heart Province and General Councilor of the Order of Friars Minor. Currently, he is research professor at The Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University. He has been widely published and his most recent books include, St. Bonaventure
s Defense of the Mendicants (translation and introduction), John: Stories of the Word and Faith and Eating Your Way through Luke's Gospel. He is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America and for the last four years he has preached in over 60 churches in the United States on behalf of the poor served by Food for the Poor.

Edition details

• Publisher: Franciscan Inst Pubs
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1576591468
• ISBN 13: 9781576591468
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 360
• Editor: Robert J. Karris, OFM