Mar 16, 2021
Join Shawn Colberg of St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary, who is hopeful for the future as he notes that the overarching goal of theological study is growth in love for God and others. Listen as he considers study in relation to spirituality and contemplation in relation to action, reflecting as well on intersections between Franciscan, Benedictine, and Dominican traditions.
Shawn describes his surprise that “the Christian life is one of greater tension and newness then I probably want it to be....I now realize that things are ever ancient, ever new, and there's always a newness that's gonna require some death to other things, some dying away from the way I assume things had to be or should be.”
“They call him [Bonaventure] the Seraphic doctor. I love thinking about him as someone who is all about building up desire and love for God and for others. Theology should be an exercise which inflames in us a love for God and for others.”
“One of the great values I draw from folks like Francis and Clare and Bonaventure is that mendicancy ought not to be a burden, but an opportunity...or a pathway into a fuller realization of who we are as children of God So often what keeps us from communion with God and others, is our self-interest, our distraction with stuff, our worry about honor or affirmation. The beauty of the mendicant way, the beauty of the Franciscan Wisdom is that it tells us...if you're willing to let go of these things, you create new space in yourself and in the world for deeper communion with God, for deeper communion with sisters and brothers. I do think that it's the heart of the gospel of Jesus' own self-revelation. But then it's one of the most enduring gifts of Franciscanism. Poverty isn't merely about not having stuff. It's about how do I create a space in myself through self-emptying that can be filled with a love and a desire and a joy and a peacefulness that I wouldn't otherwise have space for.”
“The beauty of the Franciscan and the Dominican [mendicants], is that they're committed to both [action and contemplation]. It's always a both/and.” Bonaventure gives admonitions in the Prologues to his writings where he gives guidance, such as “prefer Wisdom to knowledge, simplicity to curiosity, devotion to investigation.”
References:
Darwin twine ball—learn more: https://www.darwintwineball.com/twineball.html
Mendicancy: “for Franciscan women and men, mendicancy, which is in some ways, very different from [Benedictine] stability, creates the condition for daily conversion and growth into something new.” A readable essay: https://www.chausa.org/publications/health-progress/article/march-april-2017/'begging-without-shame'-medieval-mendicant-orders-relied-on-contributions.
Shawn Colberg’s book about Saints Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure: https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/the-wayfarers-end-colberg/.
Studium generales founded by Thomas Aquinas who wandered around setting up little schools for beginning Dominicans.
Saint Bonaventure: an introduction: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit-blog/st-bonaventure-a-franciscan-heart; a more detailed exploration: https://www.franciscan-archive.org/bonaventura/
Libers: Shawn states that Bonaventure writes “these spiritual works, helping his fellow Franciscans try to rediscover the charism of Francis. And to do that, he draws upon all these different books. He sometimes calls them libers: the book of nature, the book of scripture, the book of Jesus and the book of Francis, to name just a few.” They include writings such as the Legenda Maior (Major Legend biography of Saint Francis; the Itinerarium mentis in Deum (Journey of the Soul into God); the Lignum Vitae (the Tree of Life, a journey through the Scriptural story of Jesus). Shawn goes on to say that these “journeys that he puts us on are meant to be journeys that build that flame or that desire inside us. I really love that about, him and about the mendicant life.”
Conversatio morum (“daily conversion of death to some things and birth to new things”) and stability (“the condition of the possibility for the tension and transformation”) in the Benedictine tradition; see: https://abbeyvocations.org/monastic-glossary and for more on Conversatio morum, see: http://idahomonks.org/manual_sections/sect805.html.
“Vestigia” or footprint: listen for the story (found at 27:56) regarding nothing going to waste, and what was found among the used file folders at the Monastery!
How study translates to everyday spiritual life: “That's really what theology is about is engaging modern women and men's questions about themselves and about God's presence in the world.... the work of study is the work of building up the intellect, of building up the mind. Not so much with facts and figures or content, but with Wisdom. It's to help the mind grow wise by studying the scriptures, by engaging the tradition, by listening to the stories of women and men, particularly women and men at the margins of our world and letting us become wise....growth in Wisdom allows us to use our love to will things and desire things in the right direction....The goal of contemplative theology is to give us a space in which to take those questions and form them. In other words, shape them into a direction that builds up the kingdom of God.”
