Duns Scotus As a Basis for a Franciscan
Environmental Theology
Seamus Mulholland OFM
At first sight it may not seem as if a thirteenth century metaphysician has much to offer us in
relation to the formulation of a Franciscan approach to environmental...
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Duns Scotus As a Basis for a Franciscan
Environmental Theology
Seamus Mulholland OFM
At first sight it may not seem as if a thirteenth century metaphysician has much to offer us in
relation to the formulation of a Franciscan approach to environmental theology.
After all,
Scotus was a distinctly complex and complicated philosophical and theologian thinker – what
does Scotus say about care for the earth? Well, at the obvious level, nothing, but I believe
that the two tenets of Scotus’ thought which, while apparently different (one theological, the
other metaphysical) can assist the Franciscan movement in providing a solid theological and
philosophical base for its formulation of a distinctly Franciscan environmental theology.
These two tenets are the Primacy and Haeceittas (‘thisness’).
The Scotus doctrine of the Primacy situates Christ at the centre of creation predestined to
grace and glory before the Fall of Humankind is foreseen by God.
Scotus arrives at this
position through the
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