Peter Lombard is best known for his groundbreaking theological work, the Sentences. But the exclusive focus on this work has tended to divert attention away from other aspects of his life and work. This book therefore takes a broadly biographical approach to Peter Lombard, examining him in relation to his environment and milieu. The book is divided into two parts, corresponding to its title. The first details Peter's career. He came to Paris to study theology with the assistance of Bernard of Clairvaux and Uberto, bishop of Lucca, key players in the papal schism of the 1130s. After several years building a reputation in Paris, he gained entry to the canons of Notre Dame. Part one finishes with Peter's greatest achievements, the composition of the Sentences and his rise in the church of Paris to archdeacon and finally bishop. The second part, “The Master and His Students,” opens with a comprehensive treatment of Peter's sermons, his most neglected and in some ways most revealing works. They were preached to an audience that included his students. -- from the publisher.

Philipp W. Rosemann begins by demonstrating how the Book of Sentences grew out of a long tradition of Christian reflection rooted in Scripture, which by the 12th century had become ready to transform itself into a theological system. Turning to the Sentences , Rosemann then offers a brief exposition of the Lombard's life and work.

This volume makes available for the first time in English full translations of Book 2 of the Sentences. It consists of forty-four Distinctions and contains an introduction to Book 2, a list of the major chapter headings, and a bibliography.

Delves into the ancient debate regarding the nature and purpose of the seven sacraments What are the sacraments? For centuries, this question has elicited a lively discussion and among theologians, and a variety of answers that do anything but outline a unified belief concerning these fundamental ritual structures. In this extremely cohesive and well-crafted volume, a group of renowned scholars map the theologies of sacraments offered by key Christian figures from the Early Church through the twenty-first century. Together, they provide a guide to the variety of views about sacraments found throughout Christianity, showcasing the variety of approaches to understanding the sacraments across the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox faith traditions. Chapters explore the theologies of thinkers from Basil to Aquinas, Martin Luther to Gustavo Gutiérrez. Rather than attempting to distill their voices into a single view, the book addresses many of the questions that theologians have tackled over the two thousand year history of Christianity. In doing so, it paves the way for developing theologies of sacraments for present and future contexts. The text places each theology of the sacraments into its proper sociohistorical context, illuminating how the church has used the sacraments to define itself and its congregations over time. The definitive resource on theologies of the sacraments, this volume is a must-read for students, theologians, and spiritually interested readers alike.

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Peter Lombard, a twelfth-century theologian, authored one of the first Western textbooks of theology, the Book of Sentences. Here, Lombard logically arranged all of the major topics of the Christian faith. His Book of Sentences received the largest number of commentaries among all works of Christian literature except for Scripture itself. Now, notable Lombard scholar Philipp W. Rosemann examines this text as a guiding thread to studying Christian thought throughout the later Middle Ages and into early modern times. This is the second title in a series called Rethinking the Middle Ages, which is committed to re-examining the Middle Ages, its themes, institutions, people, and events with short studies that will provoke discussion among students and medievalists, and invite them to think about the middle ages in new and unusual ways. The series editor, Paul Edward Dutton, invites suggestions and submissions.

Continuing a project begun in 2002, with the publication of volume 1 of Mediaeval Commentaries on the “Sentences” of Peter Lombard, this volume fills some major lacunae in current research on the standard textbook of medieval theology. Twelve chapters study the tradition of the Sentences, from the first glosses of the twelfth century through Martin Luther’s marginal notes. The questions addressed in these chapters throw light on the history of the Sentences literature as a whole, focusing on changes in literary structure and methodology as much as on matters of textual transmission and doctrinal content. The conclusion synthesizes the individual contributions, succinctly presenting the current state of our knowledge of the main structures that characterize the tradition of the Sentences. Contributors: Magdalena Bieniak, John F. Boyle, Stephen F. Brown, Marcia L. Colish, William O. Duba, Michael Dunne, Russell L. Friedman, Olli Hallamaa, Pekka Kärkkäinen, Hans Kraml, Gerhard Leibold, Riccardo Quinto, Philipp W. Rosemann, Chris Schabel, and Hubert Philipp Weber.