Ch. 1: What Kolbe Wanted – KBGF 6
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This week Dr. J. Isaac Goff walks us through Chapter One of The Theologian of Auschwitz.
The book is available here: https://www.lectiopublishing.com/books.php?b=16
In this chapter, Father Peter Damian Fehlner point out that we must see someone's actions in the context of their final goal or intention. Therefore, he first lays out testimonies of St. Maximilian's intellectual capabilities and signs that he was working within a Bonaventurian methodology (intellectual theology leading from basic faith to wisdom) and a Scotistic finality (Absolute Primacy of Christ and the Immaculate Conception of Mary). These point to St Maximilian's final goals, and then Fr. Peter Fehlner lays out various pieces of evidence attesting to St. Maximilian having a well-thought out theology, but one that only too late started to be written down.
The three primacy concerns of St. Maximilian were the rereading of theology as framed by the Immaculate Conception, a deepening of Mariology, and the mission of Franciscans in the Church of today. We see how while he was doing this almost a hundred years ago, his work is still very relevant, perhaps even more so.
While St. Maximilian never gave us a full work, Fr. Peter claims he gave us enough (this present volume is merely supplying the background and connecting the dots). His defense of the primacy and the nature of charity or divine love as manifested in the Word Incarnate, Jesus, and the Immaculate Virgin-Mother, Mary, is squarely in line with Vatican II and the emphasis on the coming of the Son and the Spirit to the Church and pushing the Church to mission. Indeed, paying attention to how the Immaculate Conception, the synergy between the divine and the created person. radicalizes and integrates all of theology is sorely needed today.
Ave Maria!
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