Trinity and Creation: A Selection of Works of Hugh, Richard and Adam of St Victor (Victorine Texts in Translation)

Victorine Texts in Translation
Exegesis, Theology and Spirituality from the Abbey of St Victor
Grover Zinn, Editor-in-Chief; Hugh Feiss, O.S.B., Managing Editor

The Trinity and Creation are central themes in the theology of the Augustinian Canons of the Abbey of St. Victor during the twelfth century, when it flourished. In this volume, for the first time three of the most important Victorine theological works are introduced in complete English translations. On the Three Days, by Hugh of St. Victor (d. 1141), is a lyrical yet philosophical study of how the power, wisdom, and goodness of God can be known from the things God has made. Hugh's lecture notes, Sentences on Divinity, show how divine ideas ("primordial causes") serve God in creation. One of the enduring classics of Christian theology, On the Trinity, by Richard of St. Victor (d. 1173), analyzes the Trinity in terms of love. This volume also includes two of Adam of St. Victor's sequences in praise of the Trinity.

"The enormous productivity of the twelfth century canons of Paris's Abbey of Saint Victor had a tremendous influence on the great scholastic masters of the thirteenth century like Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure. Their contemplative spirituality, transmitted via the Low Countries, would also shape the Devotio Moderna and beyond. How fortunate, then, that New City Press will provide an English language series of translations of Victorine biblical exegesis, speculative theology, liturgical works, and mystical texts. Like the householder of the Gospel, the Victorines brought forth old things and new. We are the beneficiaries of those present day scholars who make these nova et vetera available to a wide audience in fresh reliable translation."

Lawrence S. Cunningham
John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology, The University of Notre Dame

"The several translators who have contributed to this volume are to be commended for their readable, elegant, and yet basically literal interpretations of the rather difficult Latin originals, and for their reliance on recent and standard critical editions of the texts. The introductions provided with each text include detailed thematic and historical information, and are meticulously documented. Similarly, each translation is supplied with notes indicating parallel material in the Victorine author's writings or in related patristic and twelfth-century works. Other aids to research include a ten-page table of abbreviations listing works by the Victorine authors, other twelfth-century authors, and key patristic sources, as well as a bibliography of primary and secondary works, and the three indexes of Scripture references, references to works by other Victorine writers, and subjects. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that the price of the New City Press publication puts a good trade paperback within reach of students, but the Brepols clothbound volume is recommended for purchase by academic libraries, where heavy use can be expected."

Wanda Zemler-Cizewski
Marquette University, Milwaukee
in Theological Studies

"Truly a proverbial 'idea whose time has come, ' this volume makes accessible texts teachers have long longed for students to master. The centerpiece is certainly Richard's On the Trinity, but surrounding it with related texts from Hugh and polishing the collection with Adam's creation-and-Trinity-celebrating sequences was a stroke of genius."

Dennis D. Martin
editor and translator of Carthusian Spirituality (Classics of Western Spirituality)

"Truly a proverbial 'idea whose time has come,' this volume makes accessible texts teachers have long longed for students to master. The centerpiece is certainly Richard's On the Trinity, but surrounding it with related texts from Hugh and polishing the collection with Adam's creation-and-Trinity-celebrating sequences was a stroke of genius." - Dennis D. Martin, editor and translator of Carthusian Spirituality (Classics of Western Spirituality)