Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2009 The Art of Trinitarian Articulation: A Case Study on Richard of St. Victor's _de Trinitate_ Todd D. Vasquez Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.edu/luc_diss Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Vasquez, Todd D., "The Art of Trinitarian Articulation: A Case Study on Richard of St. Victor's _de Trinitate_" (2009).edu/luc_diss/40 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact ecommons@luc. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3. Vasquez LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO THE ART OF TRINITARIAN ARTICULATION: A CASE STUDY ON RICHARD OF ST.
VICTOR’S DE TRINITATE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM IN THEOLOGY BY TODD DAVID VASQUEZ CHICAGO, ILLINOIS AUGUST 2009 Copyright by Todd D. Vasquez, 2009 All rights reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is the hallmark of good, theological scholarship to pursue one’s research in godly leisure. Whether that leisure comes through voluntary poverty undertaken for the sake of maintaining a simple life or through the generosity of others who make that leisure possible, it always comes at great cost and sacrifice. This is as true for the monk as for the priest, but I am neither monk nor priest.
I am a husband, a son, and a father, though. And as anyone who enjoys the blessings of husbandry, sonship, and fatherhood can attest, they afford an added dimension of sacrifice—especially on those with whom you bear the most significant personal relations. For this reason I would like to first thank my wife, Lisa, who has taught me—in word and deed—what the fullness of charity looks like in the every day. She has been the primary financial support of our family for the past twelve years; and without her longsuffering love and grace, this work would have remained only a possibility in the mind rather than something in actuality.
She has worked hard; and her encouragement, patience, and love have nurtured and tempered me as a husband and a father. I have nothing but gratitude in my heart for the hardships she has had to endure as we worked year after year towards this milestone. She has given more than she has ever received; a truly gratuitous love I will forever be indebted to. I would also like to thank my parents, Dave and Linda, who have been champions of family life and service to others; a heritage I am very proud of.
It was from that nurturing of life and spirit that helped cultivate in me a love for the Scriptures and the iii traditions that have been built up from them. My parents have always been there for me and picked me up during times when I was ready to give up. Without their steadfast encouragement and care I would never have come to know those “ancient paths” or that “narrow way” by which one seeks and finds the face of God. I would also like to thank my advisors who took the seed of an insight I began with a number of years ago on the triadic dimensions in Richard of St.
Victor’s De Trinitate to give it the cast and shape that it has today. Dennis Martin, the director of the dissertation, was among the first to recognize the valuable contribution this thesis might make to scholarship on Richard of St. Victor; and I am indebted to him for helping me take those insights further with weekly readings of Richard’s work in the original Latin. His expertise as an historian and medievalist have greatly enriched the work.
I am also grateful for Dr. Mark McIntosh’s keen insights that helped reorient the dissertation from its focus on the structural dimensions of Richard’s work towards how those dimensions are used by Richard for formative purposes. His wealth of knowledge in the Christian mystical tradition and his discipline as a writer and theologian have made many places in this work much richer as well as more concise. Andrew Gallwitz’s great knowledge of the patristics and his attention to etymological detail have helped me avoid some potential pitfalls and for that reason have given the thesis a clearer focus it would not have had otherwise.
I could not ask for three better minds to perfect this one endeavor. I would also like to thank those Richardian and Victorine scholars whose scholarship has been invaluable to me and without whom this work would not have been possible: Grover Zinn, Dale Coulter, Hugh Feiss, Nico den Bok, Chris Evans, Margot Fassler, and Steven Chase. iv Finally, I would like to thank my two-year-old daughter, Trinity, who in the little things she does every day has taught me so much about divine life. I fondly remember the day I took her to the park, when she tried to carry all of her dolls and stuffed animals with her up on the slides and swings.
Try as she might, she could not climb and carry them all at the same time. It is this picture I carry with me and contemplate when I wish to see the abundance of a genuine love that wants nothing more than to embrace and share that joy with others. She has been our joy—our condilectum. And in moments like this, she has proven that the greatest scholarly insights often come on the knee of Jesus.
There, imbued with the simple faith of the ‘little ones,’ we discover that the special privilege of the theologian is not knowledge but wonder. v To Lisa My love, my life, my joy. because in no other subject is error more dangerous, or inquiry more laborious, or the discovery of truth more profitable. — Augustine, De Trinitate I.3 in hac ergo verborum varietate intelligenda est veritas una What matters is the one truth be understood in this variation of words.
— Richard of St. Victor, De Trinitate IV.20 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.iii LIST OF FIGURES. Introduction & Background INTRODUCTION .1 The Levels of De Trinitate .2 Survey of Literature on Method and the Organization of this Work.9 CHAPTER ONE: The Influence of Augustine and Anselm .16 The Heritage of Augustine .16 The Guidance of Anselm.26 CHAPTER TWO: The Road to Richard’s De Trinitate.40 The Canons Regular .40 The Religious Life of the Victorines .46 The Educational Program at St.53 The Road to Richard’s De Trinitate .58 Discovering a Moral-Mystical Duality.61 Seeing the Moral-to-Mystical Sequence.65 The “Formative” Order of Richard’s Main Works.72 CHAPTER THREE: The Role of Reason in Theological Contemplation .78 Richard’s fides quaerens intellectum a plenitudine ad plenitudinem .78 Richard’s Objective: ‘Necessary Reasons’ (rationes necessariae).85 Ascending “Above & Beyond” Reason. Articulating the Trinity “Trinitarianly” for the Formation of Souls CHAPTER FOUR: Articulating the Trinity “Trinitarianly” .106 Inventional, Ordering Devices.108 Breadth: Beginning with the End in Mind.112 Depth: Richard’s Trinitarian Structures in Book III.115 ‘Micro’-Use #1: Greatest Love at the Summit of Perfect Goodness (summa).119 ‘Micro’-Use #2: Most Integral Love in the Purest Happiness (integritas).125 ‘Micro’-Use #3: Fullest Love Out of the Most Abundant Glory (plenitudo).130 Perspective: Additional Trinitarian Structures and Triads .136 Book VI and Discovering De Trinitate “In Relief”.157 viii CHAPTER FIVE: Forging These “Trinitarian Dimensions” in the Faithful .166 Shaping the Trinitarian Consciousness of the Individual.167 Consummating Trinitarian Love in the Community.
Objections & Response CHAPTER SIX: Objections and Response .200 Objection #1: Triads as Common to 12th Century.201 Objection #2: The Meditative Practice of collatio .203 Objection #3: Richard’s Penchant for “Harmonizing Opposites”.207 Response to Objection #1: Triads Common to 12th Century.207 Response to Objection #2: Meditative Practice of collatio .209 Response to Objection #3: Harmonizing of Opposites .210 CONCLUSION: Richard: Theologian and Craftsman.215 APPENDIX A: Discerning the Textual Development of Richard’s De Trinitate.220 APPENDIX B: Comprehensive Diagram of Richard’s De Trinitate .234 APPENDIX C: List of Triads in Richard’s De Trinitate by Book.256 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 2.1 Relation of Augustine’s Three Mnemonic Loci to the Formative Chronology of Richard’s Main Works .1 Richard’s Six Modes of Contemplation .1 Bird’s-Eye-View of Richard’s De Trinitate .2 Richard’s Use of the Goodness-Happiness-Glory Triad in Book III .3 Richard’s ‘Macro’ & ‘Micro’-Uses of the Goodness-Happiness-Glory Triad .4 Triads in the Prologue of Richard’s De Trinitate .5 Uncreated-Eternal-Immeasurable Chiasm in II.6 Triads in Book VI of Richard’s De Trinitate .1 Taxonomy of Properties in Richard’s De Trinitate II.2 Richard’s “Focus & Magnify” Method of Expansion .230 x ABSTRACT Richard of Saint Victor deliberately constructs his treatise De Trinitate with trinitarian structures to sustain the hearts and shape the minds of his readers with the contemplation of the Trinity. His work fits within a genre of writing in the Middle Ages where the formation of the theological apprentice was at the heart of crafting one’s theological work. And while probably not unique among other compositions on the Trinity, Richard imbues his treatise with some “trinitarian dimensions” that make us appreciate the level of his creativity as a theologian and the impact these further dimensions had upon his readers’ spiritual formation. Richard’s work has three major levels.
Level one is a linear argument for the Trinity. It begins by establishing that God is one substance, then that God is three persons, and finally how the unity of divine substance fits with the triunity of persons. That is one level. And to read the work the first time is to encounter and be taken by this argument.
Level two is the style and structure with which that argument is made. In addition to arguing for the Trinity, Richard argues for the Trinity “trinitarianly”; and to discover Richard’s deliberate use of triads and an organization to his treatise reflective of its main subject matter is to find delight in another dimension of the work. It is to read the work again—a second time—with a view to how this linear argument is designed and organized. Finally, in addition to the linear argument and its structure, there are also “allusions” such as Richard’s attempt to make his triadic structures appropriate to each person of the Trinity.
So while at the level of (a) argument/content he makes a case for xi the Power, the Wisdom, and the Goodness of the Divine, and at the level of (b) structure he builds with triads, he also appropriates the (c) significance for each person of the Trinity: Power of the Father, Wisdom of the Son, and Goodness of the Spirit. The dissertation consists of three sections: Section I, “Introduction & Background,” establishes the context for the thesis; Section II, “Articulating the Trinity ‘Trinitarianly’ for the Formation of Souls,” argues the main thesis; and Section III, “Objections & Response,” handles objections and is followed by a brief conclusion. The introductory section answers questions leading up to a detailed study of the structuring of Richard’s De Trinitate. Section II develops the substance of the thesis in chapters 4 and 5.
Chapter 4 argues for the structural dimension of the thesis and is divided into five parts. Part one, “Inventional, Ordering Devices,” shows how Richard structures his written works in accordance with their main objects of study in order to aid his readers’ contemplation. Part two, “Breadth: Beginning with the End in Mind” looks at the broader horizon of Richard’s De Trinitate by showing how the Power-Wisdom-Goodness triad structures the linear layout of the treatise. Part three, “Depth: Richard’s Trinitarian Structures in Book III,” looks at the detail of Richard’s work in book III where his trinitarian structuring is the most ornate.
In part four, “Perspective: Additional Trinitarian Structures and Triads,” we show the declining intricacy of these trinitarian structures and triads in the rest of the work.