Readings: Sirach 6:18-21, 33-37 OR James 3:13-18; Ps 118 (119):9-14; Matthew 25:14-23
Albert the Great belongs to that band of university students and
teachers who joined the Dominicans and Franciscans in the early decades. Born
at Lauingen near Ulm he studied at Padua where he joined the Dominicans. He taught
at Dominican houses throughout Germany and was professor at Paris. Thomas
Aquinas was his student there and later his assistant in founding the Order’s
house of studies at Cologne.
Occupying himself with the full range of philosophical and
theological questions, Albert took particular delight in the empirical
observation of the natural world. ‘Experiment is the only safe guide in such
investigations’, he wrote. At the same time he says that ‘the whole world is
theology for us’. He stands alongside so many monks, nuns and
friars who not only contemplated the natural world as an expression of God’s
glory and wisdom but became vintners, bee-keepers, gardeners, farmers,
collectors, apothecaries and so on. His interest in natural science means
Albert was more like Aristotle than Thomas ever was. In fact it was Albert who
led Thomas and others in ‘making Aristotle intelligible to the Latins’.
Albert undertook administrative responsibilities as provincial of
Germany and as Bishop of Regensburg (1260-62). The Dominicans were generally
reluctant to become bishops - Dominic himself, and Thomas, had refused. Humbert
of Romans tried to dissuade Albert from accepting a bishopric fearing it would
make it impossible for him to preach from that base of poverty which for
Dominic was essential. ('I would prefer to see you dead in your coffin than a bishop', Humbert wrote to Albert.) A change of Pope made possible Albert’s early return to
preaching, teaching, and writing although he agreed to preach a crusade in
Germany at the request of the new Pope and attended the Council of Lyons in
1274.
Albert was drawn into many controversies, particularly those
concerned with the interpretation of Aristotelian philosophy and the bitter
disputes with secular clergy who felt threatened by the arrival of the friars.
In 1277 he defended Thomas’ teaching which had been declared suspect by the
Bishop of Paris.
Albert stands at the head of a German Dominican school which differs
in important ways from the Thomist school. Ulrich of Strasbourg, Dietrich of
Freiberg, and Berthold of Moosburg developed Albert’s work using newly available
neoplatonist sources while their interest in speculative mysticism led Meister
Eckhart, John Tauler, and Henry Suso to develop themes dear to Albert such as
the incomprehensibility of God and the importance of self-knowledge. Albert
wrote commentaries on some Biblical books as well as on the works of
Pseudo-Dionysius. The popular De adhaerendo
Deo and other works of spirituality and piety attributed to Albert are now
regarded as works of later authors.
Known as ‘the Great’ even before he died, Albert was canonised in 1931
and declared a Doctor of the Church. Patron of natural scientists, he continues
to inspire those fascinated by the natural world, whether for its own sake or
as a way of contemplating the Creator. One of the greatest of the early
scientists, Albert continues to be honoured as an exceptional genius. He has a typeface named after him and also, because of his love for the natural world, a plant species and an asteroid (as well as an award winning Kentucky stallion). In 1998 Deutsche
Bundesbahn named one of its most powerful locomotives
‘Albertus Magnus’.
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