Abstract
This chapter seeks to use St. Bonaventure’s theory of cognition to illuminate the idea of the “seeds of the Word” in other religions as articulated by Jacques Dupuis, S.J. The conciliar documents provide the framework to address the question, “In what mode are these seeds of the Word present in other religions?” We must ask, if God works positively through all religions, what makes Christianity unique? This chapter demonstrates that it is through the illumination of natural reason by the Logos that the seeds of the Word are made present in other religions and distinguishes between illumination outside the Christian tradition and within it.
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Notes
- 1.
How to interpret this “openness” is one of the key debates in the post-conciliar period. Gavin D’Costa has attempted to specify precisely what the Council did and did not teach vis-à-vis the tradition of theological notes, wherein different teachings have various levels of authority (de fide, fides ecclesiastica, etc.). In a similar vein, Ralph Martin argues that Lumen Gentium’s acknowledgment that non-Christians might be saved depends upon certain conditions that de facto are often not met; he chides theologians who elide possibility into probability and show unwarranted confidence in the salvation of others while neglecting the effects of sin. On the other side, Gerald O’Collins, S.J., insists that theologians today need not restrict themselves to the original meanings of conciliar texts in the minds of the bishops present at the Council. Like the texts of Scripture, conciliar texts “allow for a plus value that goes beyond original meanings but without opposing them.” The ambiguity of the Council on this point thus adheres not only to meaning of the texts themselves in their historical context, but to a larger methodological debate about how conciliar texts should or could be interpreted. Gavin D’Costa, Vatican II: Catholic Doctrines on Jews & Muslims (Oxford: University Press, 2014); Ralph Martin, Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches and its Implications for the New Evangelization (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012); Gerald O’Collins, S.J., The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions (Oxford: University Press, 2013), vii.
- 2.
Jacques Dupuis, S.J., Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997), 126.
- 3.
Jacques Dupuis, S.J., Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991), 128. This article will concentrate on Dupuis’ most important books; for a complete bibliography, see “A Bibliography of the Writings of Jacques Dupuis, S.J.,” in In Many and Diverse Ways: In Honor of Jacques Dupuis, ed. Daniel Kendall and Gerald O’Collins, S.J. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2003), 231–270.
- 4.
Jacques Dupuis, S.J., Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002), 87–95, 255–58, 263; for further discussion, see Terrence Merrigan, “Jacques Dupuis and the Redefinition of Inclusivism,” in In Many and Diverse Ways, 60–71.
- 5.
See also Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, AAS 68 (1976): 5–76, no. 53.
- 6.
Cf. for example: Justin Martyr, First Apology, in Apologies, ed. Denis Minns and Paul Parvis (Oxford: University Press, 2009), 44.10; St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Oration and Panegyric Addressed to Origen, arg. 17.
- 7.
See Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, esp. Chapter 2, “The Cosmic Christ in the Early Fathers,” 57–83.
- 8.
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 46.3.
- 9.
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, AAS 85 (1992), 414–446, no. 17.
- 10.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration Dominus Iesus, AAS 92 (2000): 742–65, no. 2.
- 11.
On this point, John Paul II advanced the reflections of his predecessors in his description of the universal presence and activity of the Holy Spirit, which affects not only individuals but “society and history, peoples, cultures and religions.” Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, AAS 83 (1991): 249–340, no. 28; for discussion, see O’Collins, The Second Vatican Council on Other Religions, 175–6. For a concise summary of the conciliar and post-conciliar Church teaching on the pneumatological and trinitarian aspects of the seeds of the Word, see the general audience given by John Paul II on September 9, 1998.
- 12.
Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions, 49.
- 13.
Dupuis, Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions, 120.
- 14.
Ibid., 144.
- 15.
Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions, 139.
- 16.
Ibid., 140.
- 17.
Ibid., 139.
- 18.
John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 6; CDF, Dominus Iesus, 10.
- 19.
CDF, Dominus Iesus, 10, citing Leo the Great, Tomus ad Flavianum, DS 294.
- 20.
Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions, 143.
- 21.
Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., “Clement of Alexandria on Justification through Philosophy,” in In Many and Diverse Ways, 101.
- 22.
Dupuis, Towards a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, 60.
- 23.
Ibid., 243.
- 24.
Ibid., 247.
- 25.
Ibid., 243.
- 26.
Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ, trans. Zachary Hayes, OFM (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 2005), 115; for an alternative translation of the passage, see Augustine of Hippo, De Magistro, in Understanding Teaching and Learning: Classic Texts on Education by Augustine, Aquinas, Newman and Mill, ed. T. Brian Mooney and Mark Nowacki (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2011), XI.38.
- 27.
John White, “Divine Light and Human Wisdom: Transcendental Elements in Bonaventure’s Illumination Theory,” International Philosophical Quarterly 48, no. 2 (2008): 175–185.
- 28.
Andreas Speer, “Illumination and Certitude: The Foundation of Knowledge in Bonaventure,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 85, no. 1 (2011): 131.
- 29.
Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions, 147.
- 30.
Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on the Knowledge of Christ, 134. Contuition (contuitio) is a term of art for Bonaventure, distinct from intuition. For discussion, see R.E. Houser, “Bonaventure’s Threefold Way to God,” in Medieval Masters: Essays in Memory of Msgr. E.A. Synan, ed. R.E. Houser (Houston: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1999), 101–2; Ilia Delio, Simply Bonaventure (Hyde Park, NY: New City, 2001), 63, 199.
- 31.
Wendy Petersen-Boring, “Revising Our Approach to ‘Augustinian Illumination’: A Reconsideration of Bonaventure’s ‘Quaestiones disputatae de scientia Christi IV’,” Franciscan Studies 68 (2010): 64.
- 32.
Ibid., 65.
- 33.
Bonaventure, Collations on the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit , trans. Zachary Hayes, O.F.M. (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 2008), 85.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Ibid., 99.
- 36.
Ibid., 86.
- 37.
Dupuis, Jesus Christ at the Encounter of World Religions, 144.
- 38.
Ibid.
- 39.
Dupuis, Christianity and the World Religions, 127.
- 40.
Justin Martyr, First Apology, 46.2.
- 41.
Bonaventure, Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, trans. Zachary Hayes, O.F.M. (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 2000), 116–117.
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Girardin, R. (2018). St. Bonaventure’s Illumination Theory of Cognition as the Framework for the Logos Spermatikos in Jacques Dupuis’ Inclusive Pluralism. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Engaging Other Faiths. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98584-8_10
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