Bibliography

Adrian
Guiu

3 publications between 2014 and 2019 indexed

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Works edited

Guiu, Adrian (ed.), A companion to John Scottus Eriugena, Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, 86, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019.

abstract:

John Scottus Eriugena (d. ca. 877) is regarded as the most important philosopher and theologian in the Latin West from the death of Boethius until the thirteenth century. He incorporated his understanding of Latin sources, Ambrose, Augustine, Boethius and Greek sources, including the Cappadocian Fathers, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Maximus Confessor, into a metaphysics structured on Aristotle’s Categories, from which he developed Christian Neoplatonist theology that continues to stimulate 21st-century theologians. This collection of essays provides an overview of the latest scholarship on various aspects of Eriugena’s thought and writings, including his Irish background, his use of Greek theologians, his Scripture hermeneutics, his understanding of Aristotelian logic, Christology, and the impact he had on contemporary and later theological traditions.

abstract:

John Scottus Eriugena (d. ca. 877) is regarded as the most important philosopher and theologian in the Latin West from the death of Boethius until the thirteenth century. He incorporated his understanding of Latin sources, Ambrose, Augustine, Boethius and Greek sources, including the Cappadocian Fathers, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Maximus Confessor, into a metaphysics structured on Aristotle’s Categories, from which he developed Christian Neoplatonist theology that continues to stimulate 21st-century theologians. This collection of essays provides an overview of the latest scholarship on various aspects of Eriugena’s thought and writings, including his Irish background, his use of Greek theologians, his Scripture hermeneutics, his understanding of Aristotelian logic, Christology, and the impact he had on contemporary and later theological traditions.

Contributions to edited collections or authored works

Eriugena reads Maximus Confessor: Christology as cosmic theophany

Guiu, Adrian, “Eriugena reads Maximus Confessor: Christology as cosmic theophany”, in: Adrian Guiu (ed.), A companion to John Scottus Eriugena, 86, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2019. 296–325.

‘Reading the two books’: exegesis and natural contemplation in the Periphyseon

Guiu, Adrian, “‘Reading the two books’: exegesis and natural contemplation in the Periphyseon”, in: Willemien Otten, and Michael I. Allen (eds), Eriugena and Creation: proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Eriugenian Studies, held in honor of Edouard Jeauneau, Chicago, 9–12 November 2011, Turnhout: Brepols, 2014. 263–290.

abstract:

This essay weaves together a variety of threads: its main thread is to attempt to connect the scriptural exegesis to the contemplation of nature through the lens of Maximus Confessor’s idea that the two books, Scripture and creation, are both Incarnations of the Logos, Christ; thus we hope to grasp why for Eriugena ‘Texterklärung’ leads to ‘Welterklärung’. A second thread follows how this metaphysical geography, underlying both scripture and creation, is crucial for a better understanding of the structure and goal of the Periphyseon: based on the correspondence between the levels of knowledge, the levels of scriptural meaning and the hierarchy of sciences, I will explain how the progression between different levels is achieved in the great dialogue. Thus, as a Neoplatonist, Eriugena knows that the highest level of viewing the cosmos is that of the intellect, but as a follower of Maximus and student of Augustine, he knows that mediation is also crucial : in other words, the level of the intellect, theoria and theologia, can only be achieved by passing through, by transiting through the lower levels. For Eriugena physiologia is about passing through the thickness of creation and of scripture in order to discern the theophanic presence of the Logos. So the goal of the Nutritor and his pupil is to reach the highest level of knowledge, that of theology, but only after patiently tilling the ground of scripture, by treading the path of reason through the physiologia of creation and scripture.

abstract:

This essay weaves together a variety of threads: its main thread is to attempt to connect the scriptural exegesis to the contemplation of nature through the lens of Maximus Confessor’s idea that the two books, Scripture and creation, are both Incarnations of the Logos, Christ; thus we hope to grasp why for Eriugena ‘Texterklärung’ leads to ‘Welterklärung’. A second thread follows how this metaphysical geography, underlying both scripture and creation, is crucial for a better understanding of the structure and goal of the Periphyseon: based on the correspondence between the levels of knowledge, the levels of scriptural meaning and the hierarchy of sciences, I will explain how the progression between different levels is achieved in the great dialogue. Thus, as a Neoplatonist, Eriugena knows that the highest level of viewing the cosmos is that of the intellect, but as a follower of Maximus and student of Augustine, he knows that mediation is also crucial : in other words, the level of the intellect, theoria and theologia, can only be achieved by passing through, by transiting through the lower levels. For Eriugena physiologia is about passing through the thickness of creation and of scripture in order to discern the theophanic presence of the Logos. So the goal of the Nutritor and his pupil is to reach the highest level of knowledge, that of theology, but only after patiently tilling the ground of scripture, by treading the path of reason through the physiologia of creation and scripture.