All participants in late medieval debates recognized Holy Scripture as the principal authority in matters of Catholic doctrine. Popes, theologians, lawyers―all were bound by the divine truth it conveyed. Yet the church possessed no absolute means of determining the final authoritative meaning of the biblical text―hence the range of appeals to antiquity, to the papacy, and to councils, none of which were ultimately conclusive. Authority in the late medieval church was a vexing issue precisely because it was not resolved. Ian Christopher Levy’s book focuses on the quest for such authority between 1370 and 1430, from John Wyclif to Thomas Netter, thereby encompassing the struggle over Holy Scripture waged between Wycliffites and Hussites on the one hand, and their British and Continental opponents on the other. Levy demonstrates that the Wycliffite/Hussite “heretics” and their opponents―the theologians William Woodford, Thomas Netter, and Jean Gerson―in fact shared a large and undisputed common ground. They held recognized licenses of expertise, venerated tradition, esteemed the church fathers, and embraced Holy Scripture as the ultimate authority in Christendom. What is more, they utilized similar hermeneutical strategies with regard to authorial intention, the literal sense, and the appeal to the fathers and holy doctors in order to open up the text. Yet it is precisely this commonality, according to Levy, that rendered the situation virtually intractable; he argues that the erroneous assumption persists today that Netter and Gerson spoke for “the church,” whereas Wyclif and Hus sought to destroy it. Levy’s sophisticated study in historical theology, which reconsiders the paradigm of heresy and orthodoxy, offers a necessary adjustment in our view of church authority at the turn of the fifteenth century.

Holy Scripture and the Quest for Authority at the End of the Middle Ages (ND Reading the Scriptures)

History

Levy, Ian Christopher

Europe

University of Notre Dame Press

All participants in late medieval debates recognized Holy Scripture as the principal authority in matters of Catholic doctrine. Popes, theologians, lawyers--all were bound by the divine truth it conveyed. Yet the church possessed no absolute means of determining the final authoritative meaning of the biblical text--hence the range of appeals to antiquity, to the papacy, and to councils, none of which were ultimately conclusive. Authority in the late medieval church was a vexing issue precisely because it was not resolved. Ian Christopher Levy's book focuses on the quest for such authority between 1370 and 1430, from John Wyclif to Thomas Netter, thereby encompassing the struggle over Holy Scripture waged between Wycliffites and Hussites on the one hand, and their British and Continental opponents on the other. Levy demonstrates that the Wycliffite/Hussite "heretics" and their opponents--the theologians William Woodford, Thomas Netter, and Jean Gerson--in fact shared a large and undisputed common ground. They held recognized licenses of expertise, venerated tradition, esteemed the church fathers, and embraced Holy Scripture as the ultimate authority in Christendom. What is more, they utilized similar hermeneutical strategies with regard to authorial intention, the literal sense, and the appeal to the fathers and holy doctors in order to open up the text. Yet it is precisely this commonality, according to Levy, that rendered the situation virtually intractable; he argues that the erroneous assumption persists today that Netter and Gerson spoke for "the church," whereas Wyclif and Hus sought to destroy it. Levy's sophisticated study in historical theology, which reconsiders the paradigm of heresy and orthodoxy, offers a necessary adjustment in our view of church authority at the turn of the fifteenth century.

Holy Scripture and the Quest for Authority at the End of the Middle Ages

This is the second volume of The Bible in Medieval Tradition (BMT), a series that aims to reconnect the church with part of its rich history of biblical interpretation.Ian Levy, Philip Krey, and Thomas Ryan's Letter to the Romans presents the history of early and medieval interpretations of Romans and gives substantial translations of select medieval commentaries. Written by eight representative medieval interpreters between the ninth and fourteenth centuries, these commentaries have never been translated into English before.This valuable book will enhance contemporary reading of the Bible even as it lends insight into medieval scholarship. As Levy says, the medieval commentaries exhibit "qualities that many modern commentaries lack: a spiritual depth that reflects their very purpose, namely, to read Holy Scripture within the sacred tradition under the guidance of the Holy Spirit."

The Bible in Midieval Tradition: The Letter to the Romans (The Bible in Medieval Tradition)

Religion & Spirituality

Ryan, Thomas F.

Krey, Philip

Christian Books & Bibles

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

This work on Galatians is the inaugural volume in a significant new commentary series, The Bible in Medieval Tradition, which seeks to reconnect today's Christians with part of the church's rich tradition of biblical interpretation. Ian Christopher Levy has brought together six substantial commentaries on Galatians written between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries. Levy's clear, readable translations of these major texts -- previously unavailable in English -- are augmented by his in-depth introduction, which locates each author within the broad context of medieval scholarship.

The Letter to the Galatians (The Bible in Medieval Tradition (BMT))

This study offers an appraisal of John Wyclif's eucharistic theology within the context of some larger medieval developments, none of which can be isolated from one another.

John Wyclif: Scriptural Logic, Real Presence, and the Parameters of Orthodoxy (Marquette Studies in Theology)

Marquette Univ Pr