Philotheus Boehner

Philotheus Boehner, born Heinrich Boehner (February 17, 1901 – 1955) was a member of the Franciscan order and a distinguished medieval scholar.

History

Boehner was born Heinrich Boehner on February 17, 1901, in Lichtenau, Westphalia. He entered the Franciscan Order in 1920, and was given the name Philotheus, the Latin form of the Greek Philotheos, ("friend of God"). In 1927 he was ordained as a priest, although he was so ill with tuberculosis he was not expected to live. While he was resting he began his work as a medieval scholar by translating Etienne Gilson's work on Saint Bonaventura. He became a close friend of Gilson in the 1930s.

In the summer of 1940 Boehner moved to Saint Bonaventure College (now a university) where he lectured on Franciscan philosophy, and it was here that he began to build the Franciscan Institute into a centre of international Franciscan scholarship.

Bibliography

• Boehner, Philotheus OFM, trans. Saint Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, introduced (New York: The Franciscan Institute Publications, 1 9 5 6 ) .
• (1947), 'The Metaphysics of William Ockham', The Review of Metaphysics. 1/4 (1947–1948), 59–86; reprinted in Boehner (1958), 373–399
• "Ockham's Tractatus de Praedestinatione et de Praescientia Dei et de Futuris Contingentibus and Its Main Problems", in: Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 16 (1941) 177-192; reprinted in Boehner (1958).
• The Text Tradition of Ockham's Ordinatio, in: The New Scholasticism 16 (1942) 203-241; The Spirit of Franciscan Philosophy, in: FrSt 2 (1942) 217-237;
• "The Notitia Intuitiva of Non-existents According to William Ockham. With a Critical Study on the Text of Ockham's Reportatio and a Revised Edition of Rep. II, q. 14-15", Traditio 1 (1943) 223-275;
• The Tractatus de successivis Attributed to William Ockham (ed.), St. Bonaventure 1944; Ockham's Political Ideas, in: The Review of Politics 5 (1943) 462-487;
• The Medieval Crisis of Logic and the Author of the Centiloquium Attributed to Ockham, in: FrSt 4 (1944) 151-170;
• Ockham's Theory of Truth, in: FrSt 5 (1945);
• The System of Metaphysics of Alexander of Hales, in: FrSt 5 (1945) 366-414;
• Tractatus de praedestinatione et de praescientia Dei et de futuris contingentibus of William Ockham (ed.), St. Bonaventure, 1945;
• Ockham's Theory of Signification, in: FrSt 6 (1946) 143-170;
• Ockham's Theory of Supposition and the Notion of Truth, in: FrSt 6 (1946) 261-292;
• The Realistic Conceptualism of William Ockham, in: Traditio 4 (1946) 307-335;
• Walter Burleigh, De puritate artis logicae (ed.), St. Bonaventure 1951;
• Eine Quaestio aus dem Sentenzenkommentar des Magisters Nikolaus Oresme, in: RThAM 14 (1947) 305-328;
• The Metaphysics of William Ockham, in: Review of Metaphysics 1 (1948) 59-86;
• Notitia Intuitiva of Non Existents According to Peter Aureoli, O.F.M., in: FrSt 8 (1948) 388-416;
• Zu Ockhams Beweis der Existenz Gottes. Texte und Erläuterungen, in: FS 32 (1950) 50-69;
• Three Sums of Logic Attributed to William Ockham, in: FrSt 11 (1951) 173-193;
• Does Ockham Know of Material Implication?, in: FrSt Commemorative Volume (1951) 203-230;
• William Ockham, Summa Logicae (ed.), 2 Bde., St. Bonaventure 1951-1954;
• Bemerkungen zur Geschichte der De Morganschen Gesetze in der Scholastik, AGPh 4 (1951) 113-146;
• Medieval Logic. An Outline of its Development from 1250 to c. 1400, Manchester-Chicago 1952;
• Examination of Conscience According to St. Bonaventure, St. Bonaventure 19582;
• Walter Burleigh, De puritate artis logicae tractatus longior (ed.), with a Revised Edition of the Tractatus brevior, St. Bonaventure 1955;
• William Ockham, Philosophical Writings (ed., Übers.), Edinburgh 1957, Indianapolis 19903;
• Collected Articles on Ockham, St. Bonaventure 1956;
• Saint Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God (Übers.), St. Bonaventure 1956, Indianapolis 19932;
• Conferences for Franciscan Religious, St. Bonaventure 1966.

Works

As a result of his work and influence, a large output of scholarly publications issued from the Franciscan Institute (More than thirty volumes form 1944-55, divided into five series - Philosophy, Theology, Texts, History, and Missiology.

Probably his most enduring work is the critical edition of William of Ockham's Opera omnia theologica et philosophica, together with Ernest Moody.