A Summary on Peter Lombard
Title: A Summary on Peter
Lombard
Date: 23rd
April, 2013.
Peter Lombard was born between the 11th and
12th centuries near Novara, in Northern Italy. He began his studies in Bologna
and then went to Rheims and lastly to Paris. From 1140 he taught at the
prestigious school of Notre-Dame. Esteemed and appreciated as a theologian,
eight years later he was charged by Pope Eugene II to examine the doctrine of Gilbert
de la Porrée that was giving rise to numerous discussions because it was held
to be not wholly orthodox. Having become a priest, he was appointed Bishop of
Paris in 1159, a year before his death in 1160.
Like all theology teachers of his time, Peter wrote
discourses and commentaries on Sacred Scripture. His masterpiece consists of
the four Books of the Sentences. A text which came into being for
didactic purposes. According to the theological method in use in those times,
it was necessary first of all to know, study and comment on the thought of the
Fathers of the Church and of the other writers deemed authoritative. Peter Lombard
therefore collected a very considerable amount of documentation, which
consisted mainly of the teachings of the great Latin Fathers, particularly St
Augustine.
In his first book Lombard treated on God and the Blessed
Trinity, of God's attributes, of Providence, of predestination, and of evil; in
the second, he addressed the issue of creation, the work of the six days, the angels,
the demons, the fall, grace, and sin; the third, of the Incarnation, the
Redemption, the virtues, and the Ten Commandments; the fourth, of the sacraments
in general, the seven sacraments in particular, and the four last things,
death, judgment, hell, and heaven. The "Book of Sentences" was
written about 1150.
Peter Lombard's most famous and most controversial doctrine in the
Sentences was his identification of charity with the Holy Spirit in Book I.
According to this doctrine, when we love God and neighbor, this love literally
is God; we become divine and are taken up into the life of the Trinity. This
idea was never declared unorthodox, but few theologians have been prepared to
follow Peter Lombard in his audacious teaching. Lastly, Peter Lombard was the
first to give what is now the standard Roman Catholic list of seven sacraments.
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