Theophany: The Appearing of God According to the Writings of Johannes Scottus Eriugena (Beiträge zur historischen Theologie Book 146)

Hilary Anne-Marie Mooney investigates the notion of theophany in the writings of the early medieval thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena. She focuses on the creative impulses which he draws from the Scripture and she investigates the influence of theological and philosophical thinkers of the first six Christian centuries on Eriugena. The author considers those passages of Eriugena's writings in which the precise term 'theophany' is used as well as other passages in which the term does not occur but which are nonetheless imbued with the 'notion' of a theophanic appearing of God. These traces of theophanic understanding of the revealing of God are considered within Eriugena's oeuvre as a whole, including his biblical commentaries. In her study, the author maintains that a theophanic structure characterized by four recurring facets may be unearthed in Eriugena's theology of the revealing of God. In the various contexts within which he writes about this divine revealing (in his theology of creation, his anthropology, his account of the relationship between human beings and God as seen from the perspective of a Christian spirituality), it is the notion of theophany which he uses to illuminate the relationship between that which is created and its creator. In doing so, he bequeaths a rich theological analysis of the appearing of God to subsequent generations of theologians and shows himself to be both a coherent and creative thinker. Cover Acknowledgements Table of Contents Introduction Preliminaries 1. The issue at hand and the aim of the investigation 1.1 ‘Divine appearing’ or ‘divine revelation’? 1.2 The emergence of the issue 1.3 The aim of the investigation 2. Past research: its achievements and deficits 3. The ductus of the investigation 4. A note on the methods adopted in the investigation 4.1 Historical methods 4.2 Systematic methods Chapter 1: The dynamic intellectual formation of Johannes Scottus Eriugena 1. Eriugena: the historical context within which he lived 1.1 The sources for the reconstruction of a biography 1.2 Eriugena and ninth century Ireland 1.3 Eriugena and ninth century continental Europe 2. Eriugena’s early writings 3. The encounter with the writings of the Greek ecclesiastical authors 4. Periphyseon 4.1 Periphyseon as text 4.2 Periphyseon: one source among many? 5. Eriugena’s later works 6. Conclusion on Eriugena’s intellectual formation and the methodology of this study Presentation of Eriugena’s understanding of the appearing of God Chapter 2: The question of the possibility of speaking about God 1. The parameters within which the question is raised by Eriugena 1.1 The scope of Eriugena’s academic quest 1.2 The species of nature considered in terms of creation 1.3 Modes of Understanding Existence 1.4 God appearing: Theophania 2. The Divine Nature: ea quae creat et non creatur and the God of the bible and tradition 2.1 God within the four-fold division 2.2 The problem raised by traditional ways of predicating terms of God 2.3 The resolution of the puzzle of God being made: the manifestation of God 2.4 A further biblical impulse: God one and three 2.5 The possibility of talking about God: kataphatic and apophatic theology 2.6 The possibility of predicating the ten categories of God 2.7 The biblical naming of God revisited: amor, visio, motus, facere Chapter 3: God appears in creation 1. The primordial causes: nature as “ea quae et creatur et creat” 2. The primordial causes and the biblical divine names 3. The creator God as “triune” (1) “In principio fecit deus caelum et terram”: (Gen. 1: 1). (2) The next section of a verse of Genesis (Gen. 1:2) which Eriugena expounds is “Terra autem erat inanis et uacua et tenebrae super faciem abyssi”. (3) The next section of a verse of Scripture which Eriugena comments on is “Et spiritus dei superferebatur super aquas” (Gen. 1: 2).46 4. The creator God as “good” 5. The creator God as “nothing” 6. The Creator God appears 7. Conclusion Chapter 4: God appears in manifold ways in the human creature 1. The divine trinity and the incarnation as defining parameters for understanding human nature 2. The human and the order of creation 2.1 Human nature: created nature 2.2 The human: creation within the genus of animal 2.3 The human: a unique species of animal 3. The human: created in the image of God 3.1 The human participates in the perfection of God: a basic presupposition of the divine imaging 3.2 God and the human as carriers of mutually exclusive predication: a first approach to creation in the image of God 3.2 God and the human: in all things and beyond all things: a second approach to creation in the image of God 3.3 Ignorance and the imaging of the divine: a third approach to the human created in the image of God 3.3.1 The extent of human ignorance of what the human is 3.3.2 The imaging of the divine mind in the human experience of ignorance 3.3.3 Ignorance and its ontological root in infinity 3.3.4 Human knowledge of the self in Eriugena 3.3.5 Human and divine knowledge of all things 3.4 How the soul images the divine: a fourth approach to the imaging of God 3.5 Human willing: a fifth approach to the imaging of the divine 3.6 Imaging in terms of triads in the mind: a sixth approach to the imaging of the divine 3.7 The imaging of God within the economy of salvation 3.8 The liberality of God: why is the human created in the image of God? Chapter 5: God appears in Jesus Christ 1. Scriptural impulses for Eriugena’s Christology 2. Christ as key to the intelligibility of all 2.1 The Word was made flesh 2.2 Jesus Christ as perfect human 2.3 Return in Christ 2.3.1 Basic scheme of analysing return: the general return and the special return 2.3.1.1 The general return: Christ revealed in the return of all creation 2.3.1.2 The special return: Christ revealed to the elect 2.3.2 Complementary schemes of analysing return 2.3.2.1 First complementary scheme 2.3.2.2 Second complementary scheme 2.3.2.3 Third complementary scheme 2.3.2.4 Fourth complementary scheme 2.3.2.5 Conclusion 3. God revealed in Jesus Christ: theophanic Christology 3.1 Stories of encounter 3.1.1 The ten virgins 3.1.2 The parable of the prodigal son 3.1.3 Conclusion on the stories of encounter 3.2 Appropriation of the appearing of God in Christ 3.2.1 Aesthetic appropriation of the knowledge of God 3.2.2 Hierarchic appropriation of the knowledge of God 3.2.3 Christocentric appropriation of the knowledge of God 3.3 Theophany: provisional observations Reflection on Eriugena’s understanding of the appearing of God Chapter 6: Reflection on Eriugena’s understanding of the appearing of God 1. Historical reflection: Eriugena’s appropriation of the theological tradition 1.1 Augustine 1.2 Pseudo-Dionysius 1.3 Gregory of Nyssa 1.4 Maximus 2. Methodological reflection: Eriugena’s academic methods 2.1 Eriugena’s hermeneutic of the Scriptures 2.2 Eriugena and the plurality of theological authorities 2.3 Eriugena’s system as theology and philosophy 3. Systematic reflection: The appearing of God according to Eriugena 3.1 The appearing of God in all reality 3.1.1 First key characteristic: ‘because of the divine goodness’ 3.1.2 Second key characteristic: ‘with aesthetic mediation’ 3.1.3 Third key characteristic: ‘from above’ 3.1.4 Fourth key characteristic: ‘towards the infinite’ 3.2 The appearing of God in Jesus Christ 3.2.1 The first key characteristic: ‘because of the divine goodness’ 3.2.2 The second key characteristic: ‘with aesthetic mediation’ 3.2.3 The third key characteristic: ‘from above’ 3.2.4 The fourth key characteristic: ‘towards the infinite’ 3.2.5 Conclusion 3.3 The appearing of God to the human creature: the subjective pole of the appearing of God 3.4 The appearing of God in the human created in the image of God 3.4.1 The first key characteristic: ‘because of the divine goodness’ 3.4.2 The second key characteristic: ‘with aesthetic mediation’ 3.4.3 The third key characteristic: ‘from above’ 3.4.4 The fourth key characteristic: ‘towards the infinite’ 3.5 Theophanic encounter with God Epilogue Bibliography Abbreviations Works of Johannes Scottus Eriugena Other Ancient and medieval authors Secondary literature Index of Biblical References Index of Ancient and Medieval Persons Index of Modern Persons Index of Subjects HauptbeschreibungHilary Anne-Marie Mooney investigates the notion of theophany in the writings of the early medieval thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena. She focuses on the creative impulses which he draws from the Scripture and she investigates the influence of theological and philosophical thinkers of the first six Christian centuries on Eriugena. The author considers those passages of Eriugena's writings in which the precise term 'theophany' is used as well as other passages in which the term does not occur but which are nonetheless imbued with the 'notion' of a theophanic appearing of God. T