St Albert the Great

Albert the Great’s On the Sacraments is a scholastic treatise loosely based on Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Albert treats the full range of theological issues that will be found in his later Commentary on the Sentences, although in a much leaner manner. In this work, Albert finds himself less bound to the commentary style and sometimes more free to put forward his own conclusions. For example, Albert offers his own definition of a sacrament rather than only critiquing those of others. In most cases, Albert offers the same teaching which he will later present in his more mature Commentary on the Sentences, although there are a few points on which his teaching varies. These have often been noted in the introduction and footnotes. Albert’s sacramental theology centers intensely around the idea of inner healing. Albert’s paradigm for understanding the seven sacraments is Christ the Divine Physician who applies distinct medicines to seven different wounds. Albert roots a strong theology of sacramental signification and (dispositive) causality in the life and power of Christ. He writes, "there are two things in the Son of God, namely power and wisdom, from whom every sacrament draws power, there must be two things in a sacrament corresponding to these, namely, a cause and a sign." It is partially his consistent application of the rubric of signification and causality to each sacrament that allows Albert to offer a breakthrough teaching on the sacrament of marriage as able to cause grace.

Even prior to his death on 15 November 1280, the Dominican master Albert of Lauingen was legendary for his erudition. He was widely recognized for the depth and breadth of his learning in the philosophical disciplines as well as in the study of God, earning him the titles Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus. Moreover, his authoritative teaching merited him the moniker Magnus, an appellation bestowed on no other man of the High Middle Ages. This volume contains the second half of Albert the Great's commentary On Job (on chs. 22-42), translated into English for the first time; a translation of the first half of the work appeared in an earlier volume of the Fathers of the Church, Mediaeval Continuation series (Vol. 19, 2019). Albert completed Super Iob in 1272 or 1274, when he was over seventy years old, at the Dominican Kloster of Heilige Kreuz in Cologne, where, as lector emeritus of the Order, he likely lectured on this profound biblical book. Significantly, Albert may have been inspired to produce On Job by his most famous student, Thomas Aquinas, who had written his own Joban commentary, the Expositio super Iob ad litteram, while serving as conventual lector at San Domenico in Orvieto from 1261 to 1264. Yet Albert occupies a unique position in the history of the interpretation of Job: he is the first and only exegete in history who explicitly reads the whole book as a debate in the mode of an academic or scholastic disputation among Job and his friends about divine providence concerning human affairs. Albert understands God, in the final chapters of Job, to determine the disputed question in favor of Job and against his friends, namely declaring that He (i.e., God) rules human life with no consideration of human works, but rather that divine governance is dissimilar to every mode of human rule.

"For I am certain that if anyone reaches perfection in just a single one of these virtues, they shall achieve perfection in them all. And whoever increases in one virtue, will simultaneously grow in every other virtue, too." --Saint Albert the Great What is virtue? It is not a question often asked anymore; yet throughout the centuries, philosophers have considered it one of the most important questions of human life. Coming from the Latin word for "strength," virtue denotes a steady habit of willing the good--in Christian terms, pursuing the love of God and neighbor--in some particular way. While most Catholics know the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, as well as prudence, temperance, courage, and justice, many of us are unaware of numerous other virtues, such as discretion, constancy, and holy silence. Saint Albert the Great, one of the greatest Doctors of the Church, and one of the greatest intellects of all time, recognized 42 distinct virtues. His teachings not only name and define the virtues but also direct and guide us in their fruitful exercise. Few are as qualified to teach on this subject as Albert, the Universal Doctor, best known as the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas himself. Only a man of true virtue could teach the truth of the virtues. Brimming with heavenly insights, The Paradise of the Soul teaches what it means to attain beatitude--that is, the fulfillment of all virtue. But as Saint Albert knew, since the fullness of virtues is contained in love, and because God is love, ultimately, we can only achieve true plenitude of virtue by possessing God Himself. This is the true paradise of the soul. Let Saint Albert the Great, Doctor of the Angelic Doctor, instruct you on the path to sanctity among angels.

According to 1 Cor 15.44 and 1 Cor 15.52, the human body “is sown an animal body, [but] it will rise a spiritual body” and “the dead will rise again incorruptible, and we will be changed.” These passages prompted many questions: What is a spiritual body? How can a body become incorruptible? Where will the resurrected body be located? And, what will be the nature of its experience? Medieval theologians sought to answer such questions but encountered troubling paradoxes stemming from the conviction that the resurrected body will be an “impassible body” or constituted from “incorruptible matter.” By the thirteenth century the resurrection demanded increased attention from Church authorities, not only in response to certain popular heresies but also to calm heated debates at the University of Paris. William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris, officially condemned ten errors in 1241 and in 1244, including the proposition that the blessed in the resurrected body will not see the divine essence. In 1270 Parisian Bishop Étienne Tempier condemned the view that God cannot grant incorruption to a corruptible body, and in 1277 he rejected propositions that a resurrected body does not return as numerically one and the same, and that God cannot grant perpetual existence to a mutable, corruptible body. The Dominican scholar Albert the Great was drawn into the university debates in Paris in the 1240s and responded in the text translated here for the first time. In it, Albert considers the properties of resurrected bodies in relation to Aristotelian physics, treats the condition of souls and bodies in heaven, discusses the location and punishments of hell, purgatory, and limbo, and proposes a “limbo of infants” for unbaptized children. Albert’s On Resurrection not only shaped the understanding of Thomas Aquinas but also that of many other major thinkers.

Even prior to his death on 15 November 1280, the Dominican master Albert of Lauingen was legendary on account of his erudition. He was widely recognized for the depth and breadth of his learning in the philo­sophical disciplines as well as in the study of God, earning him the titles Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus. Moreover, his authoritative teach­ing merited him the moniker Magnus, an appellation bestowed on no other man of the High Middle Ages. This volume contains the first half of Albert the Great’s commentary On Job (on chs. 1–21), translated into English for the first time; a translation of the second half of the work will appear in a subsequent volume of the Fathers of the Church, Me­diaeval Continuation series. Albert completed Super Iob in 1272 or 1274, when he was over seventy years old, at the Dominican Kloster of Hei­lige Kreuz in Cologne, where, as lector emeritus of the Order, he likely lectured on this profound biblical book. Significantly, Albert may have been inspired to produce On Job by his most famous student, Thomas Aquinas, who had written his own Joban commentary, the Expositio su­per Iob ad litteram, while serving as conventual lector at San Domenico in Orvieto from 1261 to 1264. Yet Albert occupies a unique position in the history of the interpretation of Job: he is the first and only exegete in history who explicitly reads the whole book as a debate in the mode of an academic or scholastic disputation among Job and his friends about divine providence concerning human affairs. The Introduction to this volume situates Albert’s On Job—its general approach and key exegetical features—in the broad context of Dominican theological education and pastoral formation in the thirteenth century.

On Cleaving to God is an enduring Christina Classic. Albertus Magnus better known as St. Albert the Great wrote it almost 800 years ago. In it he describes the love of god that wil help the faithful cleave to him. As pertinent today as when it was first written.