Bonaventure Revisited
Companion to the Breviloquium
Dominic Monti, OFM
Katherine Wrisley-Shelby
9781576594193
334 pages
The Franciscan Institute
Overview
The goal of this collaborative commentary on Bonaventure's Breviloquium is twofold. First, it aims to make the text of the Breviloquium itself more accessible to a wider udience, including those who have had no prior introduction to the Seraphic Doctor's theology. In addition to providing substantive theological commentaries on each of the Breviloquium's seven parts, as well as the text's Prologue, essays also consider the theological and historical contexts that shaped the text with respect to both its composition and reception. Second, in so doing, this Companion to Bonaventure's short theological summa also aims to provide an introductory window into his systematic theology in a more general way, using the topics treated by the Seraphic Doctor within the Breviloquium as an entrée into key aspects of his thought, such as his Trinitarian theology, Christology, and Eschatology, as well as his teachings on creation, sin, grace, and the sacraments. The project is the fruit of an ongoing conversation between a community of emerging and established Bonaventurean scholars, who hope through it to shed light upon the historical significance and enduring theological legacy of the Breviloquium.
Author Bio
Dominic Monti, OFM, a native of Bradford, Pa., has served as provincial vicar of Holy Name Province, the largest province of Franciscan friars in the United States, since 2005. He is widely respected as a Franciscan history scholar. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from St. Bonaventure University and a bachelor of sacred theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Fr. Dominic received a master's degree in sacred theology from Union Theological Seminary, New York, and a PhD. with a concentration in the history of Christianity from the University of Chicago's Divinity School. He was ordained in 1971. From 1979 until 2002 he was a faculty member at Christ the King Seminary and the Washington Theological Union, while maintaining his contacts with SBU by teaching in some summer sessions. In 2002 he returned to St. Bonaventure and was a member of the faculty as a professor of theology. In March of 2003, Fr. Dominic was appointed interim president of St. Bonaventure University. He edited Breviloquium: Works of St. Bonaventure (2005).Katie is a doctoral candidate in historical theology at Boston College, where she is writing her dissertation, tentatively entitled, "The Vir Hierarchicus: St. Bonaventure's Theology of Grace." Prior to coming to Boston College, Katie received a B.A. in Religion/Philosophy from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, where she received Departmental Awards in Liberal Studies and English. She then pursued a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, where she was awarded the Presidential Scholarship. Her publications include two articles appearing in the Franciscan spirituality journal, The Cord, as well as a chapter on Thomas Gallus, entitled, "Thomas Gallus' Explanatio and Dionysian Thought," to appear in "Restoration through Contemplation: New Approaches to the Victorines," ed. by David A. Orsbon and Robert J. Porwoll (Brepols, forthcoming).
