Peter Olivi

Petrus Johannis Olivi OFM ( Peter John Oliva, * 1247/48 in Sérignan (Languedoc -Roussillon ), † March 14, 1296 /98, Narbonne ( Aude department) region ) was a French theologian.

Life

To 1260/1261 Olivi entered the Franciscan Order in Béziers (Languedoc -Roussillon ). After completing his schooling, he studied from about 1267 to 1272 in Paris - among other things he was a student of the theologian Bonaventure of Bagnoregio -, where he acquired but not the baccalauréat and master's degree.

Influenced by the movement of the southern French Spirituals Olivi made ​​acquaintance with the teachings of Joachim of Fiore and then came into conflict with his order. Especially in matters of evangelical perfection and the poverty of the Order itself Olivi could not agree with his religious superiors. These tensions led in 1278 to the first display to the Order General Girolami d' Ascoli, who later became Pope Nicholas IV. Olivi not only could be justified, but later became Pope Nicholas III. invited to participate at the papal bull Exiit qui SEMINAT in which, inter alia, the interpretation of religious rules was discussed.

With the indulgence of Pope Martin IV, a further trial of Olivi was in 1282 in Paris intently because he was suspected because of individual statements of his Sentences commentary of heresy. Olivi publicly recanted his views, but he could not prevent the fact that three years later the Franciscan General Chapter in Milan Olivi's entire written works banned. After a long dispute over the interpretation of his writings Olivi was fully rehabilitated in 1287 by the General Chapter of Montpellier again. In the same year, the then Minister General, Cardinal Matteo d' Acqua Sparta appointed him to the Order of the College to Florence, where he taught for two years as a lecturer. 1289 Olivi was in the same position then to Montpellier, where he taught until shortly before his death. At the age of about 56 years, Petrus Johannis Olivi died 1296/1298 in Narbonne.

After his death, they went back violently against his teachings, writings and students before, especially the Superior General Giovanni de Minio Murovalle, who had forbid his writings again. The Spiritual quarrel lasted, and the movement of the Beguines, who appealed to Olivi, became stronger and increasingly alienated from the Church of Rome. The Council of Vienne ( 1311-12 ) tried in vain to reach his condemnation as a heretic, but was at least his Apocalypse Postille 1326 by John XXII. rejected as heretical. Meanwhile the increasing veneration Olivi had been fought. 1318 his grave was destroyed and buried his body elsewhere.

Teaching

Olivi's extensive body of work often treads new paths. He stressed among others, the active alignment of the intellect and the will, their record back to an internal movement of consciousness and thus took a turn from object to subject. He stressed the importance of freedom, which he sees as the essence of the will, and self- reflection. In the natural philosophy is he is the first scholastic representatives of the anti- Aristotelian impetus theory, which is accompanied by a new scientific concept of force. Relates to his impetus theory is Olivi's novel conception of the relationship of body and soul, in which also the many rezipierte in Christianity Stoic doctrine of " rationes seminales " ( " germinal forces " ) plays a role.

His Tractatus de contractibus (1293 - 1295) is considered an important milestone in the history of economic thought. In it Olivi formulated for modern conditions at that time theory of price and the capital (as opposed to money). The capital has, according to Olivi about his core value addition, "a certain seed -like determination to profit generation " ( " quandam racionem seminalem lucri "). The capital has, like the throwing object in the impetus theory and the germ forces, a "dynamic " factor. Practically speaking, it's something else to invest capital in a long-distance trading and for this to expect a risk premium, as a fellow human being in a community of solidarity money leihen.Dem capital is not just the simple value to report, but also an added value ( valor superadiunctus ). Through this concept, the scholastic prohibition of interest is placed mentally in question.

Theological classification and aftermath

Thinking of Peter Johannis Olivi is profoundly arrested the ideas of the Franciscan Spirituals. The goal of the Christian life is the evangelical perfection, the way there the contemplatio, the depression in God and the contemplation all created beings of God's light out, which made him come to a rejection of purely worldly culture and knowledge concept. His writings have influenced biblical and deal with the dependence of man on God's work of salvation in the participation in the sacraments and the consequent obedience in love. The problem for the church at that time were mainly based on its Joachim of Fiore apocalyptic time teaching that. Perfection and a refor the Church should lead towards a non-hierarchical, completely dominated monastic church

A modified version of his ideas with Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, as well as in Martin Luther can be found; his ascetic views, however, in John of Capistrano and Bernardine of Siena.

A wide audience is Petrus Johannis Olivi certainly known by the treatment of the Spiritual dispute in Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose".

Comments

Expenditure

• About human freedom. Latin / German. Translated and introduced by Peter Nickl, Freiburg 2006 ( Quaestio 57 for the second book of the Sentences )
• Traité des contrats, ed Sylvain Piron, Paris 2012