Franciscan Institute Publications announces the release of "St. Bonaventure’s Commentary on John’s Gospel: Thirty Days of Reflection and Prayer" by Robert J. Karris, O.F.M.
In Karris’ selection of the Johannine passages for 30 days, he gives preferential treatment to those passages used in the liturgy during Cycle B and for Christmas, Sundays in Lent, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Sundays after Easter. Perhaps preachers may want to share with their congregations interpretations that are so old they are new, that sparkle because Bonaventure has singled out the very best from tradition, and that challenge our hackneyed ways of interpreting a favorite passage such as Jesus’ healing of a man who had been disabled for 38 years (John 5).
Each day is arranged in the following manner. At the beginning, Karris tells readers what passage from John’s Gospel to read and meditate upon. Then he provides Bonaventure’s commentary on one or two verses of the passage under consideration. His Reflection follows Bonaventure’s interpretation. In the Reflection, he relates Bonaventure’s commentary to the rest of the passage being interpreted, to contemporary exposition, and to themes in the rest of the Gospel. He concludes each day with a Prayer, which is meant to be a springboard for readers’ own prayers.
Review:
In the tradition of lectio divina, Bob Karris, O.F.M., offers us a way to prayerfully explore the Seraphic Doctor’s Commentary on the Gospel of John. Karris has insightfully selected 30 gospel texts with Bonaventure’s comments to help us deepen our Christian discipleship. This is Franciscan scholarship at its finest: to lead one to an encounter with the Living Lord!
- Michael Perry, O.F.M., Vicar General, Order of Friars Minor, Rome
About the author:
Robert J. Karris, O.F.M., Th.D., is a Franciscan priest of the Sacred Heart Province whose headquarters are in St. Louis. He earned an STL from Catholic University of America and a Th.D. from Harvard University in New Testament and Early Church History. Fr. Karris is a former professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a former Provincial Minister of Sacred Heart Province and General Councilor of the Order of Friars Minor. Currently, he is research professor at The Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University. He has been widely published and his most recent New Testament books are, St. Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke’s Gospel, and Works of St. Bonaventure: Commentary on the Gospel of John. He is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America and for the last seven and a half years he has preached in well over 100 churches in the United States on behalf of the poor served by Food for the Poor. He is general editor of the 15-volume Works of St. Bonaventure series published by Franciscan Institute Publications. Among other books with Franciscan Institute Publications, Fr. Karris has written The Admonitions of St. Francis: Sources and Meanings and has translated and edited several, including Defense of the Mendicants (translated by Karris and Jose de Vinck), Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection (translated by Karris and Thomas Reist, O.F.M.), Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (edited by Karris), Bonaventure’s Commentary on Ecclesiastes (edited by Karris and Campion Murray, O.F.M.), In the Name of St. Francis: A History of the Friars Minor and Franciscanism Until the Early Sixteenth Century (by Gordo Giovanni Merlo, translated by Karris and Raphael Bonnano, O.F.M.).