Pope Benedict XVI in English - Weekly General Audience
Dear Brothers and Sisters, In our catechesis on medieval Christian culture, we
now turn to the distinguished Franciscan theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus. A native
of Scotland, he taught at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. Duns Scotus
is best known today for his contribution to the development of Christian thought in
three areas. First, he held that the Incarnation was not directly the result of Adam’s
sin, but a part of God’s original plan of creation, in which every creature, in and
through Christ, is called to be perfected in grace and to glorify God for ever. In
this great Christocentric vision, the Incarnate Word appears as the centre of history
and the cosmos. Secondly, Scotus argued that our Lady’s preservation from original
sin was a privilege granted in view of her Son’s redemptive passion and death; this
theory was to prove decisive for the eventual definition of the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception. Finally, Duns Scotus paid great attention to the issue of human freedom,
although by situating it principally in the will, he sowed the seeds of a trend in
later theology that risked detaching freedom from its necessary relation to truth.
May the teaching and example of Blessed John Duns Scotus help us to understand that
we attain happiness, freedom and perfection by opening ourselves to God’s gracious
self-revelation in Christ Jesus.
* * *
I offer a warm welcome to the
members of the General Chapter of the Congregation of Holy Cross, together with my
prayerful good wishes for the spiritual fruitfulness of your deliberations. Upon
all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially the groups
from Wales, Ireland, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America, I invoke
God’s abundant blessings.