St Albert the Great

[Porknpie]

With yesterday being the feast day fro St. Albert the Great, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture last night at Notre Dame :irish2: given by Thomas O’Meara OP on St. Albert the Great. Lot’s of fun hanging out with the theologians. Couple of things that I’ll remember from the lecture…

• St. Albert was called “great” while he was alive. O’Meara said he was the only “great” to have had this distinction.
• “St. Albert paid more attention to St. Aquinas’ ideas than Aquinas did of his writings” (St. Albert was Aquinas’ teacher)
• Believed that “God has not bound his grace to the sacraments”

I understand the basic theology here but, regarding the latter statement on grace, does anyone have more specific insight as to how St. Albert spoke of God not being bound by his grace to the sacraments?

Pork.

 

[MarcoPolo]

I’ve had trouble in the past finding St. Albert source material online. You might have better luck finding a printed book.

 

[robwar]

One thing I always admired about him is that he wrote the order rules for the Carmelites when asked. He was not a Carmelite but wrote the simple rules that define the order. I am attracted to the Carmelites order so I always wanted to know more about St. Albert the Great.

 

[Porknpie]

I’ve had trouble in the past finding St. Albert source material online. You might have better luck finding a printed book.

Marco -

I haven’t looked yet but O’Meara said that “there were essays by St. Albert available on-line for free that were extracted from several books”. I didn’t clarify the statement or look for them yet. Also interesting that St. Albert was not declared to be a doctor of the church until ~1923 (?)…humor: the Vatican wanted a park that the Dominicans owned (has orange trees) … finally got it from them but only after the Vatican honored St. Albert with the Doctor of the Church title. I’m sure its a bit more complex than that but that was the story he told. Sounds like the Dominicans are tough negotiators.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

Marco -

I haven’t looked yet but O’Meara said that “there were essays by St. Albert available on-line for free that were extracted from several books”. I didn’t clarify the statement or look for them yet. Also interesting that St. Albert was not declared to be a doctor of the church until ~1923 (?)…humor: the Vatican wanted a park that the Dominicans owned (has orange trees) … finally got it from them but only after the Vatican honored St. Albert with the Doctor of the Church title. I’m sure its a bit more complex than that but that was the story he told. Sounds like the Dominicans are tough negotiators.

I can just see it:

Whether we should give this park to the Vatican?

Obj. 1: It seems that we should, for the Vatican wants it.

On the contrary, we should not.

I answer that it is our park and we don’t want to.

Reply obj. 1: But the Vatican has yet to sufficiently honor St. Albert the Great, so they can just get over it.

 

[Porknpie]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I’m going to buy two books. I’ll look them over when they arrive and keep one for myself and give the other away as the present.

Marco, curious…do you take 3rd party book reports on your blog?

 

[Porknpie]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I’m going to buy two books. I’ll look them over when they arrive and keep one for myself and give the other away as the present.

Marco, curious…do you take 3rd party book reports on your blog?

Posted this on the wrong thread…should have been on the St Francis thread. :blushing: