Mystic · Medieval

Joachim of Fiore

c. 1135–1202 · Apocalyptic exegesis

Catholic · censured Latin

Died in communion; his treatise against Peter Lombard on the Trinity was condemned by Lateran IV (1215), and his Three Ages were condemned in their Franciscan-Spiritual form (Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, 1255).

Calabrian abbot and founder of the Order of Fiore, Joachim read history as a Trinity of ages: of the Father (the Law), the Son (the Gospel and the Church), and a coming age of the Holy Spirit in which a contemplative, monastic Church would live by the “eternal Gospel” without need of the sacramental and clerical order. His concordances of Old and New Testament were admired by popes, his theology of history became a seedbed of radical movements.

Why he matters: He is the source of every later “third age” utopia, religious and secular. The Church's rejection of his scheme, while honoring his piety, is her refusal to let the age of Christ and the Church be superseded.

Where to be careful

Lateran IV condemned his accusation that Lombard's doctrine made a “quaternity” and his own collective account of the divine unity. His Three Ages imply that the Church of the sacraments is provisional; Henri de Lubac traced the “spiritual posterity” of this error through Hegel and Marx.

Reading

Apocalyptic Spirituality (Joachim selections)

ed. Bernard McGinn · Translated extracts from the Book of Concordance and Expositio in Apocalypsim.

Journal
The Calabrian Abbot: Joachim of Fiore in the History of Western Thought

Bernard McGinn · The best single study.

Journal
La postérité spirituelle de Joachim de Flore

Henri de Lubac, SJ · What happened to the Three Ages after Joachim.

Journal

Documented positions

Where this thinker stands on each dispute the test covers.

Settled teaching Its center Open question Beyond teaching, not condemned Condemned error

God and Being · What is, and whence it is.

Can reason know that God exists? Natural theology

Fideism or agnosticism Natural theology

How is God related to the world? Creation from nothing

Pantheism or emanation Creation from nothing

Is the world governed by purpose? Providence and final causes

Chance and mechanism Providence and final causes

Do natures and essences really exist? Realism

Nominalism Realism

God's essence and His energies Between

Essence–energies distinction Absolute simplicity

How should we speak of God? Apophatic (negative) way

Apophatic (negative) way Cataphatic (analogical) way

How does creation speak of God? A book of signs and vestiges

Natures studied in their own right A book of signs and vestiges

Faith, Reason and Truth · How we know, and whom we trust.

Faith and reason: who has the last word? Fideism

Rationalism Fideism

Where does knowledge begin? Illumination and innate ideas

Senses and abstraction Illumination and innate ideas

Is truth objective? Objective truth

Relativism and pragmatism Objective truth

Who interprets revelation? Living Tradition and Magisterium

Private judgment Living Tradition and Magisterium

How should Scripture be read? Fundamentalist literalism

Critical reductionism Fundamentalist literalism

What is theology for? A wisdom ordered to loving

A science ordered to knowing A wisdom ordered to loving

Does doctrine develop? A living development

Always the same, in the same words A living development

Are the world's learning and arts a danger or a gift? Between

A danger: Athens has nothing to do with Jerusalem A gift to be baptized

III

The Human Person · Soul, body, freedom and the Fall.

Is there a spiritual soul? Immortal spiritual soul

Mind is brain Immortal spiritual soul

Is the body really you? Between

Dualism Body–soul unity

Are you free? Free will

Determinism Free will

How fallen is human nature? Between

Totally depraved Basically good

Does nature desire God? Natural desire for the vision of God

Pure nature Natural desire for the vision of God

The body and its desires Contempt for the flesh

Contempt for the flesh Desire as its own law

Person and community Collectivism

Individualism Collectivism

Marriage, sex and the body's meaning Given by nature and grace

Given by nature and grace Defined by consent and identity

What is suffering for? A share in the Cross

An evil to be relieved A share in the Cross

The Moral Life · Law, virtue, conscience and the good.

Is morality objective and knowable? Natural law

Relativism Natural law

Why is the good good? Between

Divine command (voluntarism) Eternal law (intellectualism)

Are some acts always wrong? Intrinsically evil acts

Consequentialism Intrinsically evil acts

Rules or character? Morality of virtue and beatitude

Morality of obligation Morality of virtue and beatitude

What is conscience? Conscience bound to truth

Autonomous conscience Conscience bound to truth

In doubtful cases Rigorism

Rigorism Laxism

What is happiness? Beatitude in God

Earthly flourishing Beatitude in God

What is heaven's happiness, at its heart? The will's love and enjoyment of God

The intellect's vision of God The will's love and enjoyment of God

Grace and Salvation · How God saves, and whom.

How does grace move the will? Molinist

Thomist (Bañezian) Molinist

How are we made right with God? Infused, transforming grace

Forensic imputation Infused, transforming grace

Who can be saved? Strict exclusivism

Strict exclusivism Indifferentism

What is salvation for? Deification

Pardon and escape Deification

Hell and hope Between

The many are lost All will be saved

Would the Word have become flesh had Adam not sinned? Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)

Christ came to redeem sinners Christ was willed first (absolute primacy)

Where does your eye rest in Christ: His divinity or His humanity? The eternal Word made flesh

The eternal Word made flesh The man Jesus of Nazareth

Church and Society · Authority, the state, wealth and the nation.

Church and state Social kingship of Christ

Laicism Social kingship of Christ

Where does authority come from? Authority from God

Social contract Authority from God

Reform or tradition? Remake by reason

Remake by reason Guided by tradition

The nation and the Church Nation does not matter

Nation or race first Nation does not matter

May the state restrain false religion? The confessional state: error has no rights

The confessional state: error has no rights Civil liberty for every religion

Which form of government best suits a Christian people? Monarchy and hierarchy

Monarchy and hierarchy Democracy and participation

May a Christian take up the sword? Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty

Never: the way of the Cross is nonviolence Yes: war can be just and sometimes a duty

VII

Worship, Prayer and the Two Lungs · Liturgy, icons, the Spirit, and the See of Peter.

Liturgical development Receive and develop organically

Reconstruct and innovate Receive and develop organically

Icons and images Veneration of images

Iconoclasm Veneration of images

The way of prayer Between

Stillness and the Jesus Prayer Discursive meditation

The procession of the Holy Spirit From the Father and the Son (Filioque)

From the Father through the Son From the Father and the Son (Filioque)

The office of Peter Universal and immediate primacy

Conciliarism Universal and immediate primacy

What do the sacraments do? Efficacious ex opere operato

Signs only Efficacious ex opere operato

When the Pope speaks Resist and judge

Resist and judge Every word binds

Should the faith take the forms of each culture it enters? Between

One form everywhere The Gospel in each people's own forms

What are the Eastern Catholic Churches? Sister Churches with their own rights and theology

Rites of the one Roman Church Sister Churches with their own rights and theology

Contemplation or action? Contemplation: the one thing needful

Action: the apostolate and the works of mercy Contemplation: the one thing needful