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Truth and Reality: The Wisdom of St Bonaventure is a thorough study and exposition of the last work for which St Bonaventure was responsible before his death in 1274. Collations on the Hexaëmeron, also called The Illuminations of the Church, is comprised of lectures that he gave in Paris in 1273 to Franciscan and other students and masters in the university there. They were recorded by two independent witnesses, and one version, the definitive one, was prepared for publication and approved by Bonaventure.
One of the most interesting, original and important texts of medieval theology, it has been well translated and edited in a new edition. In this study, Dales examines the precise context for the approach that Bonaventure took, placing this work as the culmination of his spiritual theology and providing the reader with a lucid epitome of the contents of the text, while drawing out their significance for theology and prayer in the life of the Church today.
About the author
Douglas Dales was from 1984 to 2012 Chaplain of Marlborough College, Wiltshire, and he is now a parish priest in the diocese of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and the author of several studies in Anglo-Saxon church history and other areas of theology.
Among his other books are: Alcuin: His Life and Legacy, Alcuin: Theology and Thought, Dunstan: Saint and Statesman, Light to the Isles: Mission and Theology in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Britain and Living Through Dying: The Spiritual Experience of Saint Paul.
Summary
A study of Collations on the Hexaëmeron, the last work of Saint Bonaventure, and one of the most important texts of medieval theology.