Christopher Dyczek, OFM, Theologies of Hope in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023).
"The Irish Province of the Order of Friars Minor in Great Britain is pleased to publish a study of the medieval scholastics who wroteon the theological topic of hope. Academically trained preachers from across European cultures viewed this through the lens of a dynamic community language. Franciscan initiatives for confident, peace-seeking evangelisation are mapped out in detail in a book by Christopher Dyczek, OFM, Theologies of Hope in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023). He has translated the book on this theme written in 1985 by Jacques-Guy Bougerol. This explains how Catholic writers from Late Antiquity onwards increasingly saw the importance of this topic, and looked in more detail at the gospel language which it implies. They saw that St. Paul had definitions of faith and love, but not of hope.
How was this possible? It was greatly needed as a preaching subject, recognised above all by Franciscans. In a period after Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle, a third friar, Eudes of Rigaud (Odo Rigaldus) was the first scholar ever to develop this into a full treatise. He explores how this central theme for formation shaped an understanding of gospel imagination. This was already important because of Thomas of Celano's two views of the nind of St. Francis. In one, he is an existential announcer of integrity. In the second, a person inspired by ideals of leadership, already widely praised in the Church. Do the investigation of the two views of hope had to be made well-grounded in what was expressed in many biblical passages, as the genuine Christian outlook: hope in the Kingdom of God."
Order the book here.
