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2 books match the query 'Surmanski, Albert Marie'

cover of On the Body of the Lord

On the Body of the Lord

Albert Albert the Great

Catholic University of America Press, 2017

Albert the Great wrote On the Body of the Lord in the 1270s, making it his final work of sacramental theology. A companion volume to his commentary on the Mass, On the Body of the Lord is a comprehensive discussion of Eucharistic theology. The treatise is structured around six names for the Eucharist taken from the Mass: grace, gift, food, communion, sacrifice, and sacrament. It emerges from the liturgy and is intended to draw the reader back to worship.

The overall movement of the treatise follows the order of God’s wisdom. Albert begins by discussing the Eucharist as a gift flowing from the goodness of the Trinity. He touches on its relation to redemption and the Church, including a rigorous Aristotelian analysis of Eucharistic change and presence before ending with a discussion of Mass rubrics. The most significant theological emphasis is on the Eucharist as food given to feed the people of God.

The style varies to suit the content: certain sections are terse; others are devotional, allowing the reader to enter the saint’s own prayer. Perhaps most characteristically Albertine is an extended meditation that compares the process of digestion to the incorporation of the Christian into the Body of Christ. The mixed style allows this work to integrate rigorous aspects of scholastic thought with a fervent love for God, making On the Body of the Lord one of Albert’s most human as well as one of his most beautiful works.

On the Body of the Lord was well received, particularly in areas that came to be influenced by the devotio moderna. By 1484, three separate Latin editions had been printed, two of which were the inaugural works on new presses. In the following century the Protestant Reformation brought an end to its popularity. On the Body of the Lord is here translated into English for the first time.
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cover of On the Sacraments

On the Sacraments

Albert Marie St. Albert the Great

Catholic University of America Press, 2027

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.
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