The Catholic Culture Podcast: 149 – Duns Scotus, Minstrel of the Incarnation

Dec 13, 2022

Blessed John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), the Franciscan friar known
as the “Subtle Doctor”, is one of the most important theologians
and philosophers of the Middle Ages, yet over the centuries he has
fallen into disrepute, or at least neglect, by comparison with the
“Angelic Doctor”, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Interest in Scotus has revived somewhat in part due to his
beatification by Pope St. John Paul II, who called him the
“defender of the Immaculate Conception” and “minstrel of the
Incarnation”.

Indeed, Scotus’s greatest legacy is his argument for Mary’s
having been conceived without original sin, a controversial
position at the time, yet vindicated centuries later when this was
proclaimed a dogma by Pope Bl. Pius IX. This is good enough reason
to get to know Scotus, even if he ultimately takes a back seat to
Aquinas.

Thomas Ward, author of Ordered by Love: An Introduction to
John Duns Scotus, joins the podcast to discuss aspects of
Scotus’s thought, and his context in the early history of the
Franciscan order.

Thomas Ward, Ordered by Love https://angelicopress.org/ordered-by-love-thomas-ward

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