Virtus, Vita, Votum:: Early Minorite Conceptions of Obedience from Francis to Bonaventure

Obedience was invariably a primary type of rationality as well as relationality in medieval Christianity. The case of the early Minorites stands to reason. Spanning the life of Francis of Assisi (†1226) and the early movement up to that of Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (†1274), the project at hand proposes a diachronic approach to conceptions of obedience in early Minorite literature in pursuit of developments in the order’s collective identity and common theological strands (theologische Fäden) of their self-conception. The present study of conceptual history fosters a theoretical framework in which obedience, in addition to being an integral part of a proposal of religious life and a legal category, operates as a form of relationality insofar as it is a spiritually informed orientation toward self, God, and other. The hermeneutic perspective thus views obedience within a three-dimensional prism as an institutional mechanism, a principle of spiritual training and progress, and a relational construct. In short, it is at once virtue, life, and vow