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Pope Benedict XVI- General Audiences |
General
Audience
On John Scotus Erigena
"His Theology Proceeds … by Asserting Primarily
What God Is Not"
H.H. Benedict XVI
June 10, 2009
www.zenit.org
Dear brothers and sisters:
Today I would like to speak of a notable thinker of the
Christian West: John Scotus Erigena, whose origins are
obscure. He certainly came from Ireland, where he was
born at the beginning of the 9th century, but we don't
know when he left his island to cross the English
Channel and thus fully become a part of that cultural
world that was being reborn around the Carolingians, and
in particular, around Charles the Bald, in France of the
9th century. Just as we don't know the exact date of his
birth, we also do not know that of his death, which
according to the experts, must have been around the year
870.
John Scotus Erigena had a firsthand patristic culture,
as much Greek as Latin: He directly knew the writings of
the Latin and Greek fathers. He knew well, among others,
the works of Augustine, Ambrose, Gregory the Great,
great fathers of the Christian West; but he also knew
the thought of Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, John
Chrysostom, and other fathers, no less important, of the
East. It was an exceptional man who in that epoch also
dominated Greek. He showed particular attention to St.
Maximus the Confessor, and above all, to Dionysius the
Areopagite. Under this pseudonym is hidden an
ecclesiastical writer of the 5th century from Syria, but
like everyone in the Middle Ages, John Scotus Erigena
was convinced that this author was a direct disciple of
St. Paul, spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles (17:34).
Scotus Erigena, convinced of the apostolicity of the
writings of Dionysius, classified him as "divine author"
par excellence; his writings were, therefore, an eminent
source for his thought. John Scotus translated his works
to Latin. The great medieval theologians, such as St.
Bonaventure, got to know the works of Dionysius by way
of this translation. He was dedicated during his whole
life to going deeper into and developing his thought,
paying recourse to these writings, to the point that
still today, sometimes it can be difficult to
distinguish when we find the thought of Scotus Erigena
and when he is doing nothing more than presenting the
thought of Pseudo Dionysius.
In truth, the theological work of John Scotus did not
have much success. The end of the Carolingian era
brought about the forgetting of his works, and a censure
on the part of the ecclesiastical authority cast a
shadow over his person. In truth, John Scotus represents
a radical Platonism, which on occasions seems to
approach a pantheistic vision, even if his personal
subjective intentions were always orthodox. Some of the
works of John Scotus Erigena are still in existence
today, among which the treatises "On the Division of
Nature" and "Expositions on the Celestial Hierarchy of
St. Dionysius" deserve to be particularly mentioned.
In them, he develops stimulating theological and
spiritual reflections, which could bring about
interesting developments, even for contemporary
theologians. I refer, for example, to what he writes on
the duty to exercise an appropriate discernment about
that which is presented as "auctoritas vera," or on the
commitment to continue seeking the truth as long as an
experience of the silent adoration of God is not
attained.
Our author says: "Salus nostra ex fide inchoat: Our
salvation begins with faith." That is, we cannot speak
of God starting from our inventions, but rather from
what God himself says about himself in sacred Scripture.
Given that God only speaks the truth, Scotus Erigena is
convinced that authority and reason should never be in
contraposition one against the other. He is convinced
that true religion and true philosophy coincide.
From this perspective, he writes: "Any type of authority
that is not confirmed by true reason should be
considered weak. … Only that authority is true that
coincides with the truth discovered in virtue of reason,
even if it is an authority recommended and transmitted
for the usefulness of coming generations by the holy
fathers" (I, PL 122, col 513BC). Thus he cautions, "May
no authority frighten you or distract you from what you
understand from the persuasion obtained thanks to an
upright rational contemplation. In fact, authentic
authority does not contradict right reason, and the
latter never contradicts true authority. Both one and
the other proceed without a doubt from the same source,
which is divine wisdom" (I, PL 122, col 511B). We see
here a courageous affirmation of the value of reason,
founded on the certainty that true authority is
reasonable, given that God is creative reason.
Even Scripture is not exempt, according to Erigena, from
the need to apply the same criteria of discernment. In
fact Scripture, affirms the Irish theologian, taking up
again a reflection already presented by John Chrysostom,
would not have been necessary if man had not sinned.
Therefore, it must be deduced that Scripture was given
by God with a pedagogical intention and lowering himself
so that man could recall all that had been stamped on
his heart from the moment of his creation "in the image
and likeness of God" (cf. Genesis 1:26) and that the
original fall had made him forget.
Erigena writes in the "Expositions": "Man was not
created for Scripture, of which he would not have had
necessity if he wouldn't have sinned, but rather
Scripture -- interwoven with doctrine and symbols -- has
been given to man. Thanks to it, in fact, our rational
nature can introduce itself into the secrets of the
authentic pure contemplation of God (II, PL 122, col
146C). The word of sacred Scripture purifies our rather
blind reason and helps us to return to the memory of
what we, as image of God, carry in our hearts,
unfortunately violated by sin.
From here, some hermeneutical consequences are derived
regarding the way to interpret Scripture, which can
indicate still today the just path for a correct reading
of sacred Scripture. It is a matter, in fact, of
discovering the meaning hidden in the sacred text and
this supposes a particular interior exercise thanks to
which reason opens itself to the sure path leading to
truth. This exercise consists in cultivating a constant
readiness for conversion. To arrive deeply to the vision
of the text, it is necessary to advance simultaneously
in the conversion of the heart and in the conceptual
analysis of the biblical page, whether it be of cosmic,
historical or doctrinal character. Only thanks to the
constant purification, as much of the eyes of the heart
as of the eyes of the mind, can the exact understanding
be achieved.
This arduous path, demanding and exciting, made up of
continuous conquests and relativations of human
knowledge, brings the intelligent creature toward the
threshold of the divine Mystery, where all notions
verify their own weakness and incapableness and lead,
therefore, to going beyond -- with the simple, free and
sweet force of the truth -- all that is continuously
reached. The adoring and silent recognition of the
Mystery, which flows into unifying communion, is
revealed therefore as the only path for a relationship
with the truth that is at the same time the most
intimate possible and the most scrupulously respectful
of the otherness. John Scotus, also utilizing in this a
term appreciated by Christian tradition in the Greek
language, called this experience to which we tend "theosis"
or divinization, with daring affirmation to the point
that he was suspected of falling into heterodox
pantheism.
In any case, texts like the following cause intense
emotion, texts in which, paying recourse to the ancient
metaphor of the melting of iron, he writes: "Therefore,
as all incandescent iron becomes liquid to the point
that it appears only as fire, and nevertheless the
substances of the one and the other remain distinct, in
the same way it must be accepted that, after the end of
this world, all nature, both corporal and incorporeal,
will manifest only God, and nevertheless will remain
integral, in such a way that God could be in a certain
sense understood despite remaining incomprehensible, and
the creature itself would be transformed, with ineffable
marvel, into God" (V, PL 122, col 451B).
In reality, all of the theological thought of John
Scotus turns into the clearest demonstration of the
attempt to express the explainable of the
inexplicableness of God, basing itself solely on the
mystery of the World made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
The numerous metaphors used by him to indicate this
ineffable reality show up to what point he is aware of
the absolute incapacity of the terms with which we speak
of these things. And, nevertheless, there remains this
enchantment and this atmosphere of authentic mystical
experience in his texts that sometimes can almost be
tangibly felt.
It is enough to cite, as proof, a page of the book "On
the Division of Nature," which deeply touches our spirit
as believers in the 21st century: "The only thing that
must be desired," he writes, "is the joy of the truth,
which is Christ, and the only thing that must be avoided
is the absence of him. It should be considered that this
[absence] is the only cause of total and eternal
sadness. Take Christ from me and no good whatsoever
remains for me; there is nothing that terrifies me as
much as his absence. The worst torment of a rational
creature is the privation and the absence of him (V, PL
122, col 989a).
These are words that we can make our own, converting
them into a prayer to him who also is the longing of our
hearts.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[The Holy Father then greeted the people in various
languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today we consider the figure of John Scotus Erigena, an
influential Christian thinker of the Carolingian period.
Erigena’s interest in Eastern patristic theology,
especially that of Dionysius, led him to study the
latter’s works thoroughly and to translate them into
Latin. According to Erigena, a believer is to seek the
truth until he or she reaches a silent adoration of God
in whose nature we participate by theosis, or
"divinization". Since this experience can never be
expressed fully in words, his theology proceeds by
apophasis – that is, by asserting primarily what God is
not. Yet he also holds that reason is indispensable in
the human quest for God. Sacred Scripture, in fact,
allows man to recall the truth which was impressed upon
his soul at the beginning of time, but which had been
forgotten through original sin. By reading the Bible, we
can uncover the secrets of a pure, authentic
contemplation of God. Let us therefore pursue the path
of continual conversion in order to mine the riches of
God’s word in our daily prayer and meditation.
I warmly greet all the English-speaking visitors present
today. In a special way, I welcome seminarians from the
United States participating in The Rome Experience
Program, as well as pilgrims from the Archdiocese of
Karachi in Pakistan. God bless you all!
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