Articles

Signified but Not Contained: The (Limited) Power of the Sacraments in the Thought of Albert the Great

Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP

Issue 3

Volume 2

pp. 609 - 631

https://doi.org/10.65172/jfh18Q624BEFJRyi

Abstract

Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP, analyzes Albert the Great’s novel sacramental category of res significata et non contenta in light of concerns about the nature of sacramental healing. Surmanski argues that Albert’s category illuminates the way in which sacraments more often than not change and transform their recipients gradually rather than instantaneously.

Citations

Joseph Martos, Honest Rituals, Honest Sacraments: Letting Go of Doctrine and Celebrating What’s Real (Resource Publications, 2017), 83.

Sr. Albert Marie Surmanski, OP, “Sacramental Wisdom: Humilitatio, Eruditio, Exercitatio in the Scholastics and Today,” Nova et Vetera (English) 21, no. 4 (2023): 1391–413, at 1412.

Stefano Perfetti, “Covenant Lawsuits and Repentance: Albert the Great on Isaiah 1–3,” Theoria: Rivista di filosofia fondata da Vittorio Sainati, Back to Ancient Questions 38, no. 1 (2018): 61–74, at 66.

Ian Christopher Levy, “Contrition, Confession, and the Power of the Keys in the Summa Halensis,” in The Summa Halensis: Doctrines and Debates, ed. Lydia Schumacher (De Gruyter, 2020), 281.

Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatecheses, 5.

Albert, De sacramentis 1.6 ad 4.

Marcia L. Colish, Peter Lombard, vol. 1 (Brill, 1994), 25.

Coleman E. O’Neill and Romanus Cessario, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments, rev. ed. (Alba House, 2019), 133.

Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum super sententiis 4.8.1.4, qc 3, obj. 2.

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.8.12 ad 1.

Mikołaj Olszweski, “The Nature of Theology According to Albert the Great” in A Companion to Albert the Great, ed. Resnick, 69–104, at 71.

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Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.4.11 ad 2.

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Albert Marie Surmanski, “Resurrection and Sacraments in the Systematic Theology of Albert the Great,” Franciscan Studies 79, no. 1 (2021): 57–80.

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Heinrich Denzinger et al, Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, ed. Peter Hünermann, 43rd ed. (Ignatius, 2012), no. 700.

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Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.1.2.

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Albert, De sacramentis 1.1.2

Albert Marie Surmanski, “Adoring and Eating: Reception of the Eucharist in the Theology of Albert the Great,” Antiphon Journal 20, no. 3 (2016), 213–40.

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Albert Marie Surmanski, “The Literal Sense of Scripture in Albert and Aquinas’s Eucharistic Theology,” Studium: Filosofía y Teología 24, no. 48 (2021): 39–64, at 42–43.

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 1.1.5.

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.1.2.

James A. Weisheipl, “The Life and Works of St. Albert the Great,” in Albertus Magnus and the Sciences: Commemorative Essays 1980, ed. James A. Weisheipl (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1980), 13–51, at 21–23.

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Albert, De sacramentis 1.1 ad 2, in Alberti Magni Opera omnia, vol. 26, ed. Albertus Ohlmeyer, Cologne ed. (Aschendorff, 1958).

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.9.13.

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.8.11.

Albert, Super quatuor libros Sententiarum 4.13.36 sol.

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