1. Nominalism: The hinge between Scholasticism and the Reformation 1)Gods Power/Freedom 2)The nature of signs

2. 1) Gods Power/Freedom Portrait by Carlo Crivelli, ca. end of 16th c. Context: Crusades, Islam, and Averroes (1126-1198) Aquinass grand synthesis 1) Natural Reason 2) Revelation

3. Aristotle + Revelation = Theology as Science Summa Theologiae, Part One Q1: The Science of God: One, revealed, certain, founded on literal sense. Q2: The Existence of God: Evident in itself but not to us. Can be proved by/for natural reason.

4. Aristotelian science: a foundation for doctrine?

5. Erasmus, p. 90: The apostles baptized wherever they went, yet nowhere did they teach the formal, material, efficient, and final cause of baptism.

6. Implications of the synthesis between reason and revelation 1)Theology as science 2)Natural law 3)Goal of human = knowledge of God

7. Nominalism – a recovery of divine freedom Question of worlds order Potentia absoluta (absolute power) Potentia ordinata (ordained power) –Human freedom/merit –Anxiety William of Ockham, 1288-1349 Born in Ockham, England Franciscan friar

8. Nominalism – a recovery of human freedom * Ockhams defense of Gods foreknowledge Aquinas on Salvation Nominalists on Salvation 1)Infusion of divine Grace 2)Moral Cooperation 3)Reward of everlasting life 1)Prepare for Gods grace 2)Infusion 3)Moral Cooperation 4)Reward of everlasting life

9. Gabriel Biel 1425-1495, German scholastic Student of Ockham Nominalist + mystic Natural law as divine order Partial revelation Potentia abs/ord – salvation Deus absconditus AND Deus revelatus (Hidden God and Revealed God)

10. Luther: Deus Absconditus Disagreement with Scholastics - reason Philosophical categories => philosophical God Christs suffering –Heidelberg Disputation (1518), allusion to Exodus 33. No one can see the face of God and live.

11. NominalistsLuther Gods freedom Self-limitingTotal Gods powerabsolute / ordained Inscrutable Knowledge of God PartialRevealed in mysteries, cross HumanFreeIn bondage to sin

12. 2) The Nature of Signs Scholastic context: Aristotle on substance William of Ockhams reply: Substance is just a name

13. Transubstantiation Christs presence

14. Zwingli - sacrament as symbolic An Exposition of the Faith (1531) So then, when you come to the Lords Supper to feed spiritually upon Christ, and when you thank the Lord for his great favor… when you join with your brethren in partaking of the bread and wine which are the tokens of the body of Christ, then in the true inward sense of the word you eat him sacramentally. You do inwardly that which you represent outwardly, your soul being strengthened by the faith which you attest in the tokens. For it is only those who have been taught inwardly by the Spirit to know the mystery of the divine goodness who can know and believe that Christ suffered for us: it is they alone who receive Christ.

15. Summary: Scholasticism to Nominalism to Reformation 1)God = Absolutely powerful and free => Luther, Calvin, Zwingli 2)Signs are only Signs => Calvin, Zwingli