Franciscan Mariology-Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure - by Peter Damian Ofm Conv Fehlner & Charles Anthony Mary Fi Robinson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In this third volume of Collected Essays, Peter Damian Fehlner traces the Franciscan Marian-ecclesiological vision and mission back to its sources in Francis and Clare of Assisi. Fehlner shows how the quintessentially Franciscan theological themes and their elaboration down the centuries find their roots in the Poverello, the ""Man totally Catholic and Apostolic,"" as well as in Clare, the ""imprint of the Mother of God."" In thoroughly Trinitarian fashion, Fehlner unveils Francis's understanding of Mary--type and exemplar, mother and member of the church--as the firstborn daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Mary is, therefore, primordially the Virgin-made-Church. Flowering out into the Franciscan theological tradition, this volume features two studies where Fehlner unpacks this Franciscan, Marian-ecclesiological tradition in systematic and mystical theology. Fehlner takes St. Francis Anthony Fasani, his Conventual predecessor, as his guide in the spiritual exegesis of Scripture and Catholic devotion, unveiling the ecclesiological and Marian implications of the Song of Songs. In systematics, Fehlner analyzes the love song of the Son for his church in his definitive study of Bonaventure's understanding of charity and the divine missions in the church.

Review Quotes

"The third volume is appropriately a step back from the more general treatments of Mary in the Franciscan tradition in the prior two volumes to the founding Mariology of Francis and Clare. The essays in this volume are as concentrated as they are luminous. They can be read with profit not only by those interested in the history of Franciscan thought, but theologians of all stripes interested in the necessary renewal of Mariology in the post-Vatican II Catholic Church."
--Cyril O'Regan, professor of theology, University of Notre Dame

"In these superb and brilliant studies, Fr. Peter Fehlner proves himself to be the architect of a wholesale renewal of Christian theology through a renewal of Marian theology. The mystery of Mary, Mother of God, leads one to a metaphysics which, far from abstracting for the concrete specificity of incarnation and revelation, guarantees its primacy. We can almost see St. Francis, building the first creche scene, as the ultimate inspiration of this truly magnificent work."
--John C. Cavadini, professor of theology, University of Notre Dame

About the Author

Peter Damian Fehlner, OFM Conv (1931-2018), was a Franciscan priest and theologian. For nearly forty years he taught theology in Franciscan schools and seminaries in Italy and the United States. He is the author of several books and countless articles in theological and pastoral journals. His final work was published posthumously as The Theologian of Auschwitz: St. Maximilian Kolbe on the Immaculate Conception in the Life of the Church (2019).



J. Isaac Goff is an instructor of dogmatic theology at Saints Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary. He is coeditor of A Companion to Bonaventure (2014) and author of Caritas in Primo: A Study of Bonaventure's Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity (2015).