The Light of Thy Countenance: Science and Knowledge of God in the Thirteenth Century (Studies in the History of Christian Thought)

633 Pages·2001·34.04 MB·English

by  Steven P. Marrone

THE LIGHT OF THY COUNTENANCE
VOLUME ONE
STUDIES IN THE HISTORY
OF
CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
EDITED BY
HEIKO A. OBERMAN, Tucson, Arizona
IN COOPERATION WITH
ROBERT J. BAST, Knoxville, Tennessee
HENRY CHADWICK, Cambridge
BRIAN TIERNEY, Ithaca, New York
ARJO VANDERJAGT, Groningen
VOLUME XCVIII
STEVEN P. MARRONE
THE LIGHT OF THY COUNTENANCE
VOLUME ONE
THE LIGHT OF
THY COUNTENANCE
SCIENCE AND KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IN
THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
VOLUME ONE
A DOCTRINE OF DIVINE ILLUMINATION
BY
STEVEN P. MARRONE
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON • KOLN
2001
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marrone, Steven P., 1947-
The light of Thy countenance : science and knowledge of God in the thir-
teenth century / by Steven P. Marrone.
p. cm. — (Studies in the history of Christian thought, ISSN
0081-8607 ; v. 98)
Includes bibliographical references (v. 2, p.) and indexes.
Contents: v. 1. A doctrine of divine illumination—Gods at the core of
cognition.
ISBN 9004119477 (set: alk. paper)
1. Knowledge, Theory of (Religion)—History. 2. God—Knowableness—
History of doctrines. 3. Religion and science—History. 4. Thirteenth
century. I. Title. II. Series.
BT50 .M28 2000
261.5'5'09022—dc21 00-046862
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufhahme
Marrone, Steven P.:
The light of thy countenance : science and knowledge of god in the
thirteenth century / by Steven P. Marrone. - Leiden ; Boston ; Koln :
Brill
(Studies in the history of Christian thought; Vol. 98)
ISBN 90-04™11947-7
Vol. 1. A doctrine of divine illumination. - 2001
ISSN 0081-8607
ISBN 9004 11947 7 (set)
© Copyright 2001 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
To Ellen
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CONTENTS
VOLUME ONE
A DOCTRINE OF DIVINE ILLUMINATION
Acknowledgments ix
Sigla xi
Introduction 1
PART ONE
BIRTHPANGS OF A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION 1210 1245
ROBERT GROSSETESTE AND WILLIAM OF AUVERGNE
Introduction to Part One 29
Chapter One Certitude of Knowledge 38
Chapter Two The Origin of Knowledge and its
Reference 60
Chapter Three Knowledge of Immutable Truth 84
Chapter Four Mind's Road to God 97
PART TWO
THE CLASSIC AUGUSTINIANS 1250-1280
BONAVENTURE, GILBERT OF TOURNAI, JOHN PEGHAM AND
MATTHEW OF AQUASPARTA
Introduction to Part Two Ill
Chapter Five Truth and the Certitude of Knowledge 122
Chapter Six The Object of Knowledge and the Noetic
Process 152
Chapter Seven Immutability of Knowledge and the
Cognitive Object 186
Chapter Eight A Natural Way to Know God 201
Conclusion to Volume One 247
Vlll CONTENTS
VOLUME TWO
GOD AT THE CORE OF COGNITION
Introduction to Volume Two 251
PART THREE
A PARTING OF THE WAYS 1275-1295
HENRY OF GHENT AND VITAL DU FOUR
Introduction to Part Three 259
Chapter Nine Truth, Certitude and Science 270
Chapter Ten Mind's Object and the Road to God 299
Chapter Eleven Essence and the Ontology of the Mental
Object 335
Chapter Twelve Aristotle and Augustine Revisited 359
PART FOUR
THE NEW DISPENSATION 1290-1310
WILLIAM OF WARE AND JOHN DUNS SCOTUS
Introduction to Part Four 391
Chapter Thirteen Rejection of Illumination and a Worldly
Theory of Knowledge 401
Chapter Fourteen Noetics and the Critique of Henry's
Ontology of Essence 444
Chapter Fifteen Fully Natural Knowledge of God 489
Chapter Sixteen What about Augustine? 537
Conclusion 565
Bibliography of Works Cited 575
Indices
Index of Names 599
Index of Places 604
Index of Subjects 605
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
By the time a book like this reaches print the author has typically
gone over the arguments and analyses so often it is impossible to
remember where ideas originated or exactly what influences shaped
the ordering of thoughts from the start. The prudent course is there-
fore simply to thank those who have been personally involved in the
work's preparation, cite borrowings in the notes, and leave it to read-
ers to apportion credit among all the scholars whose pioneering
efforts have left traces in the final product.
In the present instance, however, I have taken so long — over
fifteen years - to produce and polish this single narrative that the
enormity of my debt to others has had time to lay itself open to my
own eyes. Often, while undertaking a new line of research for a
paper or article or rereading the standard literature with students in
classes and seminars, I have come upon lines of analysis so deeply
ingrained among my own habits of mind that I had begun to regard
them as attributable peculiarly to me. In each instance, I have been
forced to recognize that I was fortuitously revisiting the original state-
ment of the case that, in some by-then-forgotten moment of earlier
investigation, had initially set me thinking.
These unnerving moments of illumination have occurred so fre-
quently with regard to the writings of three historians that I suspect
my own work might well be described as virtually a distillation of
theirs. The three are Camille Berube, Efrem Bettoni and the late
Fernand van Steenberghen. All, of course, are recognized masters in
the interpretation of high-medieval philosophy. But for me they have
also served as guides for how to think historically. If this book makes
any contribution to understanding the dynamics of thought among
thirteenth-century scholastics, it is due largely to techniques of inter-
pretation picked up from them. Camille Berube is the only one of
the three I ever met, but I feel I have known them all quite well.
My mentors and intellectual companions, they have contributed the
imaginative capital out of which these two volumes have emerged.
There is, moreover, a fourth scholar whose work has profoundly
affected my thinking but who has in addition actively supported
my efforts. I can scarcely consider medieval Scholasticism without