Duns Scotus in Paris,
in Latin and English
Fr. Allan Wolter, O.F.M., and Dr. Oleg Bychkov published a volume that ranks among the finest contributions of the Franciscan Institute to medieval studies to date. They edited and translated a listener's report on Duns Scotus's Paris lectures on Peter Lombard's Sentences. The title is as weighty as the 1288-page volume: John Duns Scotus. The Examined Report of the Paris Lecture. Reportatio I-A. The book itself is the first of a two-volume work to be completed in 2006.
Fr. Allan Wolter first taught in the Franciscan Institute in the 1940s. He returned to The Institute, one last time, to take the Josepah A.Doino Visiting Professorship of Franciscan Studies in 1997. In 2002, in his eighty-ninth year, he retired to St. Louis. Dr. Oleg Bychkov, Associate Professor in the theology department of St. Bonaventure University, worked with Wolter on the edition, reviewing the Latin text as well as Wolter's English translation, espcially after Fr. Allan's retirement.
Scotus (1265-1308) is known as the inventive thinker who continued the Franciscan tradition that began in Paris in the late 1230s with Alexander of Hales and built upon the thought of Bonaventure. His influence has continued into modern times. After an eclipse of sorts as a consequence of the prominence of Neothomism in the Church, Scotus has slowly won again the great respect of thinkers, philosophical and theological, that he enjoyed in previous centuries. The present publication both justifies that respect and will certainly stimulate its development.
In such a way, the Franciscan Institute helps give past Franciscans a voice today. Wolter and Bychkov have not only enabled Scotus to speak again; they have given him an English tongue as well.
On-going Projects by Franciscan Institute Researchers
Robert J. Karris, O.F.M.
Robert J. Karris, O.F.M. is currently working on an annotated translation of St. Bonaventure's Commentary on Ecclesiastes and the Commentary on St. John's Gospel. He is also preparing a monograph on the way Franciscan exegetes and preachers have interpreted the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15: 11-32).
