Richard of Saint Victor
Richard of St. Victor (* 1110, † March 16, 1173 in Paris) was Augustinian Canons and his time one of the most important theologians in Paris.
Life
About the early life Richards nothing is known. It knows neither birthplace nor an exact birthday. Although he is in a work on the monastery of St. Victor in Paris, which was written in the second half of the 16th century, called the Scot, he himself wrote several letters to the then Bishop of Hereford in England, in his home. Therefore, must be assumed that he was Anglo-Saxon and came from present-day England.
Between 1114 and 1141, he entered Paris in said Augustinian pen. When exactly was, and is, like so many things, not known in his life. Both the monastery founder, Guildan, as well as his teacher Hugo were both still alive.
After the death of his theological teaching master he became his successor in the faculty. In 1162 they finally appointed him as prior of the convent, a fact which proves that he already enjoyed a high reputation within the monastic community of Victorines at this time.
But Richard's fame was, apparently, about the monastery walls beyond. So he followed the current political affairs and fought on the side of Thomas Beckett ( Becquet ) against the English King Henry II, and supported Bernard of Clairvaux in the fight against Abelard. Also in the monastery, Richard turned out to be pugnacious personality. With vehemence he was going against his " contentious " Abbot Ervis, but could not do anything alone, so that Pope Alexander III. had to be turned on.
Although presented the then newly elected abbot Guérin the old order restored, but Richard did not get on well with the successor Ervis ' altogether: " He takes the words out of his mouth and the pen from his hand ." Less than a year after taking office Guérins Richard died in the monastery.
For Richard of St. Victor, the convent school is a unit of theological mode of thought and religious life. It thus combines scientific knowledge and spiritual experience.
Works
From the introductions and preambles of his books we learn that he wrote in an unusually large number of copies, in order to comply with the request of his students and colleagues, which shows that he must have been unlikely popular with his contemporaries. The high level of awareness Richards is certainly connected with its basic theme. Like his teacher Hugo he was of the opinion that the Holy Scripture is distinguished by its multi-layered ambiguity of the text of profane works. Everything was metaphor, allegory and symbolism with him. He recognized a moral sense even then, if the rates were through the centuries only traditions.
Its main objective was to build up the kingdom of God in the souls of men. He was, like his teacher, in the tradition of Augustine and Pseudo-Dionysius ' with his Neoplatonism, but also in that of Anselm of Canterbury. But unlike Hugo, located Richards works a wider audience enjoyed. In all likelihood, that hung together in large part with his writing style, for the correct understanding is guaranteed by the fact that God reveals himself as an author, what not to say, that Richard had divine visions.
Besides, he always tried to establish contact with reality, and went to the question of the significance of the relationship between God and creation after. His mode of cognition is therefore the view in which the symbolic content of reality is reliably determined.
His principal work is the " Tractatus Exceptionum " with comments on nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament. This book he is following Hugo's " didascalicon " and reveals his methods in reflection: Scripture and Creation convey insights that need to back up the science.
These and numerous other works made from a sustainable Richard unsurpassed teacher of the spiritual life. His writings have influenced subsequent turn, theologians and philosophers such as Alexander of Hales, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus.
Theological Relevance
In today's theology in particular, the Trinitarian theology is taken from the teachings of Richards, which he presents in his work De Trinitate. His concept of the Trinity is based on the model of interpersonal love. Unlike Augustine, and following him tradition, he sees the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit not in parallel with the trinity of the lover, 's lover and the bond of love that connects the two, but in the Trinity of the lover, dearly loved and " Mitgeliebtem " ( condilectus ). He argues such a way that in the divine love to be perfect, the lover with the beloved all parts, and therefore also his own divinity, which is why God the Father and God the Son are equally God. At the same time the perfect love can not remain in their togetherness, but must unconditionally to a third party, open to the Holy Spirit as Mitgeliebten, so as to come to completion.