Bishop Grosseteste University

About: Bishop Grosseteste University is a education organization based out in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Higher education & Teacher education. The organization has 148 authors who have published 269 publications receiving 2702 citations. The organization is also known as: Bishop Grosseteste College & Lincoln Diocesan Training School for Mistresses.

Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Learning in the Thirteenth Century

Abstract: The influence of Avicebron’s Fons vitae with its idea of Creation emanating from the deity has been recognized by many scholars as an important source for Robert Grosseteste’s De luce. It will be argued here that this treatise on light is an early work and it is crucial to see it as emerging from a Parisian milieu which was not only discovering the new Greek learning but also seeking rationalistic accounts for the origins of the cosmos: both features of De luce. It will also be argued that in common with these works De luce betrays pantheistic traits which Grosseteste later relinquishes in keeping with doctrinal and ecclesiastical developments in the West in the first half of the thirteenth century. The chapter will conclude by maintaining that Grosseteste, as a key figure in the reformation of the post-Lateran IV Church, learnt how to use the philosophers in a way that was acceptable to an authority which had grown intolerant of anything but the canons of Scripture and the Church Fathers. In doing so he made a highly significant contribution to a pursuit of knowledge which ultimately helped to render Greek learning palatable to the Latin ecclesiastical establishment.

Postcolonial Interpretation: The Bible in Rastafari

Abstract: This article discusses the development of a hermeneutical, phenomenological approach to Sacred Scriptures emerging from a “Third World” Liberation Theology. Referring to a study of Rastafari theolo...

Original sin in Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic works

Abstract: Scholars generally agree that Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) neglects the issue of original sin in his theological works and never mentions it in his Platonic writings. My work will show that not only does Ficino refer to the doctrine of original sin but also that some of his passages make more sense if one were to relate them to this doctrine. I will argue that although Ficino knows the ecclesiastical teachings on the subject, principally via Aquinas (II), he goes beyond his sources and strives to frame them within his own theology. More specifically, to reconstruct Ficino’s position, I will look for theological questions in his Platonic works along two perspectives: First, I will search for Biblical passages on original sin (III.1); and secondly, for references to baptism, that is the sacrament reputed to wash away original sin from the human soul (III.2). Next, I will study the role of original sin in Ficino’s philosophical anthropology. In particular, I will analyze the relationship Ficino establishes between the Fall of the first parents and the embodiment of the soul and show that the latter is a consequence of the former (IV). The aim of this article is to demonstrate that on the issue of original sin, Ficino was quite innovative and challenged the theology of his time.