Abstract
In his commentaries on Dionysius’ Mystical Theology, the Gospel of
Matthew and the Gospel of John, Albertus Magnus develops an extensive
theology of contemplative ascent. He forges an original synthesis to explain
the purification of the senses, intellect and heart, as he integrates
Aristotelian, Platonic and Peripatetic philosophies, biblical exegesis and
a monastic tradition of ascetical theology. The paper gives special attention
to Albert’s teaching on the beatitudes, his view of the function of
phantasms in the intellect’s ascent to God, and Albert’s notion of a divine
light that quiets the soul’s lower powers.
In the prologue to his Commentary on Dionysius’ Mystical Theology,
Albert the Great describes the prerequisites for students who seek
to enter into the «mystical science». In scholastic fashion, this prologue
sets out the main themes of the primary text through a commentary
on a biblical verse. Albert introduces the Areopagite’s Mystical Theology
by an explanation of Isaiah 45:15, which reads thus, «Truly God of Israel,
the Savior, you are the hidden God». Albert glosses the prophet
Isaiah in this way:
The sort of people to whom this kind of teaching is meant to be addressed
is alluded to in the word “Israel,” which means “very straight” and “a man
who sees God.” This reveals the twofold perfection which is required of
the student of this science: clarity of understanding in order to see God
and right behavior in practice, which is how we come to such clarity or
sharpness of understanding. The student should not be a child either in
years or in manners, as the philosopher says in the [Nicomachean] Ethics
about the student of political science. So Bernard [of Clairvaux] also says,
“It is presumptuous when impure people unworthily undertake holy
reading before their flesh has been tamed and subjected to the spirit by
the practice of discipline and before they have cast off and spurned the
pomp and burden of the world.”
Albert backs up his teaching by invoking three biblical passages:
“To whom will he teach knowledge and whom will he make to understand
this message? People who are weaned from milk and torn away
from the breast” (Isaiah 28:9). “We speak wisdom among the perfect …
no one with the resources merely of the human soul can grasp the things
of God’s Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:6, 14). “Do not give what is holy to dogs”
(Matthew 7:6).
In this accessible yet dense paragraph, Albert sets out a rigorous ascetical
program, one that he considers essential in order to study fruitfully
the mystical science, which is the very content of the Mystical Theology.
Various ascetical practices are necessary in order to obtain both
clarity of mind and the taming of the flesh or the passions.
This paper primarily aims to show how Albert understands the purification
of the intellect, the will and the passions. I shall give special
attention to the sources and types of arguments that Albert employs,
to demonstrate in what way doctrine shapes spiritual practice. I will
mostly focus on his theological corpus. Albert saw the philosophical
and theological disciplines as strictly distinct, and he considered theological
contemplation to be inherently superior to philosophical contemplation.
I will draw primarily from his Commentary on Dionysius’
Mystical Theology, for here, we find the most extensive treatment of
contemplation in the whole of Albert’s massive corpus. My second
key source will be Albert’s commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew
and John, two later works that have been largely ignored by Albert
scholars and medievalists, who tend to focus on his philosophical texts.
One aim of this presentation is to gain a better understanding of
Albert’s theological vision of man, partly in view of later controversial
teachings among medieval Dominicans, such as Meister Eckhart’s
ground of the soul or the semi-Eckhartian anthropologies of Henry
Suso and John Tauler.
[…]
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